7. Debate: The Estyn Annual Report 2017-18

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:33 pm on 19 February 2019.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 5:33, 19 February 2019

Can I begin, Deputy Presiding Officer, by thanking Members for their contribution this afternoon? If I could begin by addressing some of the comments made by Suzy Davies, I'm not the one who's claiming that the culture of co-operation and self-improvement is moving apace. That's what is reported back from the chief inspector himself, and it is that move towards teachers working with other teachers within their own school and schools working with other schools in that culture of collaboration and self-improvement that will really drive the results. It is not top-down intervention from the Government alone that can move the system and move the needle in the way that we have to do.

Now, the Member is right to say that we are providing a greater emphasis on self-evaluation, and in the past it has been noted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that this has not been a strength of our system. And that's why Estyn are working with the OECD to design a self-evaluation toolkit to ensure that there is a consistency in approach to self-evaluation across the Welsh education system and that consistency is also a robust approach to self-evaluation. And the purpose of a reformed inspectorate is for Estyn to be able to validate a school's self-improvement work. If Estyn are confident that that school is doing it well and that their self-evaluation is robust and driving change, then that school will have a greater sense of earned autonomy before Estyn will come back. If Estyn have concerns about that approach, then they will be back at the school more frequently, and that's how we will drive the system forward.