Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education — Postponed from 8 November – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 15 November 2017.
Thank you, Andrew, for what I think is a very fair point. We have resources allocated to continuous professional learning of our teaching and non-teaching staff. We are developing a national approach, so regardless of where you find yourself employed in Wales, you will have access to moderated and robust training programmes. It is right to identify the challenge of creating the space for teachers and support staff to do that. There are a number of ways in which we are looking at supporting: there are traditional in-service training days that are available to schools, but I believe the best professional learning often happens when children are in the classroom themselves; there are a number of schools, for instance, that are looking at an asymmetric week, which actually allows teachers some time at the end of the school working week to be able to work together to address continual professional learning needs; and we continue to look to work with schools to ensure that the resources are there, the courses are there and we create the time to allow professionals to undertake that. It is also about setting the expectation of school leaders that they will release their staff for training, and that's an important part of our new professional standards that set the expectation that teachers will be continuous learners throughout their professional career and that they can demand that of their school leadership.