Questions now from the party spokespeople. Conservative spokesperson, Suzy Davies.

Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you, Minister.

Can I just add my voice to those who have congratulated schools and the teachers, the staff, as well as parents and families, and indeed some council officials as well, who contributed to being able to open schools in these last couple of weeks, and particularly those who are determined to go for that fourth week?

I'd like to begin today, though, with the questions that have been raised by the Children's Commissioner for Wales regarding a child's right to education, generally, and perhaps you can tell us whether your policies and regulations have been subject to child rights impact assessments. But I particularly wanted to focus on her urging you to be clear about your plans for September. I've heard what you've said to others in the Chamber today, but Welsh schools and councils have seen that the other three nations of the UK have already published their guidance for next term. Yesterday, in the Children, Young People and Education Committee, you told us that you were waiting for the latest science on transmission of COVID-19 before you published your guidance, although I do believe that a draft was being considered by stakeholders before that. Did you request the report on that science or was it due anyway, and did you anticipate it making a material difference to the guidance you'd already prepared and circulated in draft? If yes, why was the middle tier still looking over a draft on Monday, and if no, why not publish that guidance earlier, duly caveated for some minor changes, so that schools and councils could get on with at least some preparation, knowing that their time to act is now so short?

Firstly, my understanding is that despite the fact that there has been an announcement in Scotland of all children returning to school with no social distancing in August, no guidance has actually been produced by the Scottish Government to support that decision. That reflects the very complex issues that myself and Ministers across the United Kingdom are grappling with, especially as the science and the understanding of how the disease behaves continue to evolve.

We had some notice that new scientific papers were being made available to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies at the end of this week. We requested that those papers be sent to Welsh Government as early as possible, so that they could be figured into our planning. I did not want to make a statement and then to have that overtaken by events should then further science become available. I think it's really important that we build confidence amongst staff and, crucially, parents that we are acting on the very latest scientific advice.

Throughout this process we have said that our aim would be to maximise face-to-face contact for our children and to minimise disruption, and I know that schools have prepared operational guidance for a range of scenarios, and those plans will have to be kept under review regardless of what statement I am able to make by the end of this week, because how the disease behaves in our community is key to unlocking educational opportunities for children. I can assure the Member that decisions taken within the department are subject to an integrated rights assessment.

Okay, that's an interesting comment, that last one, because certainly my understanding is that various regulations that have come through a different committee haven't necessarily had those rights assessments.

I wonder if you can help us on a similar issue, which is to do with blended learning, because there's some confusion about whether September will be a blended learning environment or not. My understanding is that you have brought some clarity to this by saying that face-to-face teaching, when children return in September, is what you're aiming for, and I'm hoping that that will reassure some worried parents. You're looking at it perhaps more as an additional tool, with it maybe in some individual cases meeting a child's needs better than school attendance alone.

Your officials told us yesterday that teachers are unfamiliar with this way of teaching, but have benefited very recently from advice based on information gathered by the consortia, which is some encouragement here I think, but my understanding is that that data gathering on what schools were doing since March was only really begun at the tail end of May, when consortia were prompted to do that work with their reports then being sent to you by 19 June, over two weeks ago. This has been quite a long period of time now, so I think you should be in a position to tell us today what those reports have told you not just about the quantity, but the quality of the offer being made by individual schools, the feedback from schools to pupils in terms of their learning as well as their well-being, and the speed at which schools have been able to identify and then address gaps in what they were doing as best they possibly could in their current circumstances.

Thank you for that, Suzy. I believe that blended learning will continue to play a part in Welsh education in a number of ways, but clearly, as you have quite rightly stated, my aim is to maximise face-to-face contact with children in their schools with their teachers, but we must capture the positives of the crisis that we have found ourselves in, and for some staff, and indeed for some children, the blended learning approach or distance learning approach actually has been beneficial to them. It builds, of course, on the important work that we have in the e-school project, something that the Presiding Officer will be very familiar with. That blended learning approach helps us overcome some of the logistical disadvantages children, especially in rural areas, may face because they find themselves in small classes. So, we need to capture the good that has come out of this crisis and which will help us inform policy as we go forward, and for some children, especially for those children perhaps who find school difficult or challenging, actually supporting their learning in a variety of ways is really important as we go forward.

I am very keen to understand what has been happening in individual schools. I have been very blunt about this: there has been a mixed performance. Some schools have been able to grasp this challenge better than others, and indeed some families have been able to interact with their schools better than others. As we discussed in the committee yesterday, we have tried to take very positive steps, successful steps, with regard to digital disadvantage, and good practice on behalf of teaching has been supported by guidance around continuity of learning from the Government, and that good practice that has been gleaned by both Estyn and the regional consortia is now being used to inform best practice across schools. We have also been able to provide, via the regional consortia, training for staff to get to grips with and to be able to use our digital learning platform Hwb to its greatest degree. Because of the situation that Anglesey found itself in, for instance, I was able to meet recently with the headteacher representatives of Ynys Môn, and they said that they had benefited hugely from the webinars and professional training that Welsh Government and the GwE consortium had made available to their staff to be able to support blended learning and distance learning to best effect.

Thank you for that answer. I think there'll probably be some supply teachers in Ynys Môn who would like to speak to you as well. I think there's no doubt, is there, that teachers and school staff, and parents and pupils, have really risen to this challenge over the last few months, but everybody's now pretty much at the limits of their patience, as we've already heard. What I would say is that I don't think that teachers, schools and school staff in particular should have been alone in this. The consortia's role to support school improvement hasn't gone away during this period, and however off-curriculum we've been and however different the experience of having parents play this much greater role in providing education has been, there's no reason to abandon completely all attention to standards. I've been just a little bit concerned about the lateness to the game of consortia and local authority officers who have a role in school improvement here. Can you tell me exactly what they've been doing proactively during this period, not just in the last couple of weeks, to support schools to be the best they can during the turbulence of this period?

Well, I've just given you an example in the GwE constituency, where they have been providing online professional learning opportunities to staff across the north Wales area so that they can use Hwb, our digital learning platform, to best effect. In my own local area, if we turn to the role of a local authority, Powys County Council took the Welsh Government's continuity of learning plan, adapted that for the context of Powys, and have been supporting schools in the delivery of that plan. Other regional consortia, again, have been proactive in supporting schools, gathering information and providing professional learning opportunities. And should I also say that I am aware of consortia staff, with the appropriate clearance and experience, who have actually been working in our childcare hubs, too. So they have been playing their part in supporting education at this time. 

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you, Llywydd, and I thank the education Minister for being willing to meet virtually on a weekly basis during this time of crisis. It's been most beneficial that we've been able to have those meetings and to have that discussion.

Forgive me, but I am going to return to the issue of schools in September, because this is something that is very much alive in the minds of headteachers, parents and children and young people, too, in terms of what exactly will be happening in September. If it's safe, of course, I'm sure we're all agreed that the best thing for our children and young people is that the schools should reopen fully. I think if we have learned anything during this period, we have learned that the relationship between pupil and child in the classroom is so, so very valuable, and that all the efforts to create online education cannot replace that crucial relationship, although it does have a central role, of course.

In committee yesterday, you said that there will be an announcement this week as to what arrangements you expect to be in place in September, but you also said that you'd held back from making any announcement because the science is evolving. And yes, it is evolving, of course, but it is evolving in Scotland and Northern Ireland too, and they have been able to make announcements. Contrary to what you said in response to Suzy Davies, Scotland has published guidance. On 21 May, they stated that their schools would reopen on 11 August, and then they published guidance on 28 May. And Northern Ireland, on 18 June, stated that their schools would reopen gradually from 24 August onwards, and guidance was published on 19 June. Now, I accept that we don't want to follow other countries' leads and that we can make our own decisions here, but what's different in terms of the evolving science here and the nature of the spread of the virus here as compared with those other nations?

Well, first of all, Siân, can I say I'm grateful to you and Suzy Davies for the opportunity, as you said, usually on a weekly basis, to be able to touch base and for your continuing to hold my feet to the fire?

I'm not aware of the scientific papers that have been perused by my colleagues in Northern Ireland, Scotland or England that led them to make those statements. Throughout this period, we have been guided by the science. It's really important that we do that to build confidence amongst staff and parents. It's that science that has led us in Wales to be able to do something completely different to what's happened in Northern Ireland or Scotland, recognising that their term dates are different and therefore it's been more challenging for them, and different from what they've done in England. Alongside the science, we've also been able to reflect on the practice over the now week and a half of operations of schools to help us inform decision making going forward. 

As I said, I'm not sure what other individual Ministers have read before they've made the announcement that they have, but I was absolutely determined that we would make a decision based on the very latest scientific advice and on the experience of this period of education where we have more children in our schools. Clearly, as you say, I will make a statement later this week. That statement will have to be kept under review and we will have to have regular check-in points, because, as we have seen here in Wales, the disease can pop up and interrupt plans that have been carefully laid and prepared for, as in the case, for instance, in Ynys Môn. But the statement will be made later this week. 

Headteachers will be pleased to hear that there is information on its way, but it's very late in the day; the schools only have a week left to prepare. Looking forward to September, what will your plans be in order to ensure that the attainment gap doesn't widen as a result of this crisis? Will the funding announced by the UK Government Prime Minister be spent on a mitigation programme? Plaid Cymru published a plan some weeks ago that would include employing more teachers and attracting recently retired teachers back into schools. So, what will your aim be for children and young people who haven't been supported during the pandemic, namely those who are most disadvantaged and therefore face the greatest challenge? What exactly are your plans for that cohort of children? 

You're correct to say that the Westminster Government have announced a £1 billion catch-up programme. I need to make sure that Members are aware that not all of that is new money, and we have been advised as a Welsh Government that, in this financial year, we could expect a consequential up to and no more, at best, than £30 million. The rest of the money that was announced is for the new financial year and is not available to the Welsh Government at this time. So, I just want to be clear about the parameters in which we are working. 

As I think I said earlier, I hope to be in a position—again, by the end of this week—to outline a distinctly Welsh approach to mitigating the impact that the disease has had on our children's education. There are specific parts of the cohort that we know that this period of disruption has been particularly challenging for. We talked about children with additional learning need earlier. Obviously, those children from a disadvantaged economic background, we're always worried about the attainment gap for those particular children. So, we're looking to make it a school-based programme, which is very different from the approach taken in England where there is an emphasis on employing private tutors. I think any particular programme to support children's learning needs to be on the basis of those professionals that work with them day in, day out, know them best and can deal with the circumstances that those children find themselves in. 

What's crucial about the time that children are spending in school at the moment is that that work is already beginning to be done to identify what the impact of this period of disruption has been on children, and for teachers to begin to plan for what they need to do next to move children along. For some children, it will be content that will be the main priority; for other children, it will be addressing their emotional health and well-being. This has been a deeply troubling time for all of us. Some of us will have lost friends or relatives, and will have known people who've been really, really unwell, and if that's true of us, then, of course, it will be true of our children. And making sure that our children are in a position to learn and to re-engage with their education is really, really important. That's why it's important that we took the step to give every child—not specific year groups, but every child—the chance to go back to school before September. 

Thank you. Thirty million isn't going to go particularly far, despite some major announcements made by the Tories in England recently. Now, the digital divide is another issue that has emerged during the pandemic—the digital disadvantage that certain students and pupils have faced in terms of devices and connectivity. One survey that I’ve seen recently from the Llandrillo Menai Group demonstrates that 30 per cent of students felt that they were disadvantaged—that they weren’t able to have adequate access to distance learning in order to complete their studies, as the equipment or the broadband, or both, wasn’t available to them. Now, 30 per cent of young people means a high number of young people if you were to apply that across Wales. And I wonder whether a similar survey among higher education students would show the same types of theme, or does this highlight the cinderella status of further education in Wales? So, I would like to know what your plans are to bridge that digital divide in the FE sector particularly.

Well, you're right—it is one of the barriers to learning during this period that has been for those children who are digitally excluded, who don't either have a device, a suitable device, or, indeed, connectivity at home. That's why we've spent £3 million on trying to address that situation. I'm very grateful to colleagues in local government who have worked in partnership with us to give out over 10,000 pieces of equipment, and over 10,000 MiFi devices. Again, this is a record I think we can be proud of in Wales, compared to the ability to get kit out of the door in other nations, where they have struggled to do so. We have lent kit that's already in schools rather than going to the market to buy new, because we knew everybody else was going to the market to buy new, and that would lead to significant delays in getting the children what they needed. We will now replace that kit that has been lent to children—given to children—with new kit for their schools.

We are currently discussing plans with the FE sector to see whether a similar situation and a similar level of support can be put in place for FE. But, again, I would commend the work of ColegauCymru's members, who have done exceptional work in making sure that those students in FE in danger of being digitally excluded have been able to receive support. And whilst, quite understandably, we talk a lot about schools going back, FE colleges are also back working, and they have a particular emphasis on connecting with our most vulnerable students—those are exactly the students that you've talked about, Siân, for whom perhaps distance learning has been a particular challenge—and that is going, I understand, very well.