6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the categorisation of schools? OAQ53376

I thank Suzy Davies for that. Categorisation is not a mark of success or failure but a means of identifying the level of support a school needs. Last week’s figures showed that an increasing proportion of schools are becoming self-sustaining and requiring less external support. That is an upward trend from the year 2015 onwards.

Yes, and I hope we would all like to join in congratulating those schools who find that they are no longer in need of support; as you say, the purpose of categorisation is to identify whether schools need extra support. In view of some of the GCSE and A-level results we saw this year, though, and the revised figures on the attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals and their peers, were you surprised that fewer schools are now seen as needing some support? And I'd also be keen to know whether you think the system serves well those schools who are good but could be excellent, because good shouldn't be enough for our most able, talented staff and students? 

I think there's a danger that the Member may be confusing two different issues—the performance in relation to exam results, which are very important, and the need for a school to have support. Because the important point she made is this—that there may be a school that appears to have very good exam results, but where those results should be better still, given the nature of the intake it has. And that school may need support. It may need support in order to make sure that it delivers the added value that a school ought to provide, depending upon the nature of its catchment. So, in that sense, I'm not surprised at the figures we see here, because I don't think the two things are quite as directly correlated as the supplementary question suggested. 

Of course, I am pleased to see that more schools need fewer days of support, because I think that is a marker of improvement in the system. And where that isn't happening, and where we have a very small, but concerning, number of schools that are stuck in the red category, I know that my colleague Kirsty Williams is requiring local authorities to provide her with an account, at school level, of the plans that are there to make sure that those schools get the support they need to make sure that they are part of this improving picture as well.