5. Will the Minister make a statement on school standards in Wales? OAQ55257

Our national mission in Wales is to raise standards for all of our children. I was pleased to read in Estyn's 2018-19 annual report that standards are good or better in the majority of Welsh schools. However, it is very clear to me that improvements need to be made, especially in our secondary sector.

When I tabled the question last week, my intention was to celebrate those improvements in standards, particularly in Hendre Infants School, Trinity Fields School, Nant Y Parc Primary School, St Cenydd Community School, and, most recently, Cylch Meithrin Tonyfelin. These improvements are very welcome, but things are changing with schools as we've seen with the discussion we've had today and the announcement you've made. Therefore, can I ask how will the Welsh Government consider the impact on the Welsh Government's own school categorisation system, and in future inspections, of what has happened in the last few weeks, particularly with parents who've kept their children out of school, although they've not been advised to do so, and teachers who may have been self-isolating and unable to attend? How can we be sure that that won't have a long-term effect on the school categorisation and the standards in schools across Wales? 

Well, first of all, I'd like to join you in celebrating the successes of the schools that you've mentioned. As you know, I have a particular soft spot for Trinity Fields especially, which is one of our outstanding special schools, not just in your area, but actually across Wales.

I want to make it absolutely clear to our teaching professionals that we're not operating in normal times. You will be aware, after discussions over the weekend with Estyn, that all inspections have been suspended. We have also stood down all our challenge adviser work from the regional consortia at the beginning of this week to take that pressure off schools. I want to make it absolutely clear, whilst we have been continuing to record attendance data, we have done that to ensure that we have live information about what is actually happening on the ground, and that data will not be used for any kind of performance or accountability measures. We are not operating in normal times, and it would not be fair to our schools if we were to continue to operate our usual accountability regimes at this moment. I want to reassure the profession that I understand that, Estyn understands that, and the regional consortia and the local education authorities understand that. All rules are off. Should we be able to be in a position of bringing schools back, for instance, we would not expect schools to undertake testing—the assessments that are still done on paper, for instance. But I think that is probably a moot point now. But I want to reassure schools that we will not be using our usual methods at this time, because we are in extraordinary circumstances.