<p>Teachers’ Workloads</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 2:00 pm on 14 June 2017.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 2:00, 14 June 2017

As I said earlier in questions to Llyr, workload is a real issue for the teaching profession and is a real concern to me. We are using the data, as I said, from the workforce survey to try and refine our approaches in this area. We’re also, as I said earlier, having detailed discussions with the education workforce unions. Let me be clear on some of the things that I have done. We have established a headteachers’ advisory panel, comprising of 26 of the most highly performing heads in Wales, whom I and my officials consult on the development of new policies and implementation issues that may arise. We have established and commissioned work on specific issues, including looking at marking and assessment, which are often cited as areas that increase workload for teachers. We have commissioned specific research, such as a project being undertaken by Trinity Saint David university, which is observing and analysing school leaders’ time management, to look to see what school leaders are actually spending their time doing. Work with the consortia, local authorities and other stakeholders has been undertaken to identify and publicise best practice, for example Estyn’s myth-busting campaign. As I said, there is no single answer to this complex issue, but we are working across a number of work streams to address workload where we can.