Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:06 pm on 6 October 2020.
Diolch, Llywydd. Thank you very much, Minister, for your statement as well. There's quite a lot in there, which I'm sure I won't be able to cover completely today. Can I congratulate you also on getting this statement onto the agenda within hours of the report being lifted from under embargo? I hope you will use your magic powers with other Ministers so that they can lay regulations for debate more swiftly as well, because if you can manage this, I'm sure they can manage that.
As you say, there are no big surprises in the report, and some of that is to be something to be grateful for, I think. There's a lot in here about progress, which is to be welcomed and which we value, and I also thank you particularly for the comments you made on teacher support towards the end of your statement there. But, ultimately, teachers want to know how to do this curriculum, and the report is very clear that there's still an awful lot to do about this and there are still worries expressed about coherence—I know you were saying that there was a big tick for coherence, but there's actually quite a lot of concern about it as well—certainly about consistency, about standards, about the understanding of how to conduct assessments. The quote here that worried me was that 'little evidence exists on the effect of big ideas on learners' outcomes'. And so, as I say, while there's much to be welcomed, I think there is some worrying evidence in this report in support of its recommendations on your next step.
The report, of course, doesn't say anything about COVID and I appreciate, Minister, that you said you're planning to move on—not rest on your laurels, I think you said—despite COVID, and I don't think we can just leave it as 'despite COVID'. It is the big elephant in the room in the delivery of this curriculum. As the head of Pencoed secondary school in my own region said when notice of this statement was being made, 'It's completely lost in the fog of COVID-19'.
So, how will all the relevant parties, the stakeholders, in this get to grips with the recommendations at the same time as coping with the pressures of COVID, and, of course, the uncertainty of whether we'll have exams or not? Because I think if you can't answer that question, then we're really going to have to start thinking about when implementation of this can realistically take place.
The report is crystal clear, as you say, on adopting the school perspective, and this is very much about how schools turn the curriculum as a great idea into something that is operational, because teachers don't want to deliver something that's not as good as it could be, and it's something we've been saying for some time. So, apart from that time constraint, what else do you think that teachers are nervous about? Is the steer in this report, the recommendations in this report, enough to allay worries that all these next steps can be achieved?
The report acknowledges that the revised structures for school improvement are in place. You did mention that in some detail, but it still emphasises the need, still, to prioritise school improvement. And I don't blame you for drawing attention to some of the successes of the last couple of years, but the picture isn't quite as rosy as you say, despite all that sterling effort from our educators, because we agree with the OECD this still needs to be a priority. Despite £100 million being spent on school improvement in the term of this Senedd, we're still talking about less than half of our secondary schools being good or better, and a quarter of them either being in direct statutory intervention or under review in case they're about to go into that situation. Our PISA results may be a little bit nearer the OECD average, but that's in no small part due to the fact that that average itself has fallen. The free school meals attainment gap with other UK countries has narrowed a little, but not as much as you had hoped—I think you would say that yourself there, Minister—and it continues to open up as pupils get older, as we know. We also know that the attainment gap with other UK countries for our non-free school meal pupils, of course, remains huge. So, with the curriculum being just one part of the education reform programme, what is there in this report that points to measures that will crack this issue of school improvement, which is eluding you at the moment, I think?
The report speaks a lot about coherence and consolidation in order to achieve consistent standards. You mentioned, as you say, that there's some evidence of that already, but there's still a long way to go. How big is the risk that all this multiparty collaboration will just end up being too complicated, especially as it absolutely should involve more teachers, parents and the community? And if we stick to this time frame, will we be in a position where Government will find itself, despite its wishes, having to be more prescriptive on how to achieve consistent standards, just to get the train moving down the tracks?
And then finally from me—the issue of how this curriculum will look for years 10 and 11 and even the following two years, where the curriculum needs to be more than just broad and balanced, it needs to be deep enough to demonstrate at least high levels of knowledge in subject areas and analytical skills, which is not work that, as I've really picked up from this report, has had much attention. Who is co-constructing that bit of the curriculum between the ages of 14 and 16, and maybe even 16 and 18? Where do the FE colleges come into this, for example, because they're having to deliver some of this curriculum? I think it was quite striking that the OECD didn't say anything, really, about educators outside the school system, despite the fact that the curriculum will reach beyond the boundaries of schools. Thanks. Or if they did, I missed it.