Item 5 on the agenda is a statement by the Minister for Education on the Estyn annual report of 2019-20, and I call on the Minister for Education to move the statement.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank Meilyr Rowlands, the chief inspector of education and training in Wales for his 2019-20 annual report, and for the work Estyn has been taking forward at this particularly challenging time. As you all know, in March, Estyn had to halt their normal inspection activity, as they rightly turned their attention to the COVID pandemic. The report provides an important initial account of the education and training sector's response up until August 2020. In doing so, it helps us to understand the initial impacts of coronavirus on education.

I'm pleased that the report recognises the tremendous efforts of all school staff, pupils and families in ensuring that learning has continued this year. This is testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment of everyone involved, and reflects the shared commitment to supporting learners across Wales.

It was heartening to read that, during the lockdown period, schools and other education and training providers prioritised the safety and well-being of learners, and particularly our most vulnerable learners. We took a cross-Government approach to ensuring children were safeguarded and that vulnerable children and young people had the support that they needed.

I have been immensely impressed with the response in Wales in helping to deliver IT equipment for pupils and schools. However, it is right for the report to highlight that a minority of our learners were disadvantaged during this period by the lack of access to suitable equipment. The Education Policy Institute in its comparison of UK nations was absolutely clear that Wales had led the way in providing IT equipment for learners. So far, we have provided 120,000 devices for schools with a further 35,000 devices being delivered in the coming weeks. However, we recognise that we must still go further and I will continue to work with the finance Minister to ensure that we provide funding when that funding is needed to ensure that every learner has the device that they need.

The annual report also highlights that there was variation in the knowledge and experience of individual schools and staff with digital technology before lockdown. However, it is positive how this prolonged period of using digital technology has meant that many learners and teachers have greatly improved their digital skills. I was particularly pleased that the report highlighted some of the advantages that we do have in Wales in dealing with the crisis thanks to our well-established national digital platform Hwb.

The report notes the complex challenges of the pandemic that have required leaders and staff across education and training to make decisions in difficult circumstances and to work in new ways. But they have risen to the challenge, and there has been an increased appreciation of their work and of the importance of pupils attending school. As the report highlights, it's not surprising that the additional challenges have placed pressure on head teachers and senior leaders to prioritise and make rapid decisions with limited time to consider options in depth, sometimes affecting their well-being. That is why we have grant funded Education Support, the UK school staff well-being charity, to undertake a bespoke package of support for the school workforce in Wales at this time.

I recognise, as does the report, that this has been an anxious time for older students, as they have faced uncertainty about examinations and completing their studies without the usual end-of-course assessments. We made an early decision to cancel the 2021 summer exams and put in place alternative assessment arrangements for this reason, to ensure fairness for learners and to maximise the teaching and learning time available to support progression. As the COVID-19 situation continues to unfold, our approach to qualifications and assessment will remain responsive and will prioritise supporting learner well-being and progression.

I want now to briefly turn to some of the findings from inspections mentioned in the report. This in effect reflects the baseline performance of our education system going into the pandemic. The evidence shows a similar pattern of improvement to recent years and I'm pleased that standards, provision and leadership are good across many post-16 providers too. And whilst it is pleasing that standards in primary schools remain high, we know that we have to continue to support our secondary schools in the drive for their improvement, and this will remain a priority as we move to the recover phase from the pandemic. 

Looking forward, it is no surprise that there are considerable challenges that remain for our education system. For example, initial evidence from the autumn term suggests that many pupils may have regressed in their literacy and numeracy skills. Alongside digital competence, literacy and numeracy are the skills that form the foundation of all learning and enable learners to access the breadth of the whole curriculum. I therefore agree wholeheartedly with the chief inspector’s comments that helping learners, particularly the vulnerable and disadvantaged, to catch up is a major task for the education system now and for the future.

During the crisis it has become clear that many learners have not progressed as much as they might have expected to. In response, the Welsh Government has provided a range of additional funding to boost support for learners at crucial stages in their education, including £29 million for schools to recruit, recover and raise standards. We set a goal of 900 extra full-time equivalent staff and we have surpassed that, and each is playing a crucial role in school operations this term.

I am encouraged by the chief inspector’s comments that a greater focus on learners' wellbeing, resilience and independence, more experience of digital learning, and closer communications with families can put schools in a better place to prepare for the Curriculum for Wales, and also that many schools have begun to try to adapt their approaches to teaching and learning to reflect the new curriculum.

Members, this is the last annual report by Meilyr Rowlands as chief inspector. Meilyr joined Estyn at the start of Wales having our own democracy, and he has been a key figure in shaping our education system over the last 20 years. Personally, I have appreciated his thoughtful counsel and his commitment to the place and role of schools within communities, and to raising standards for all, which are again evident in this report. I'm sure that other Members will have their own tributes. Diolch, Meilyr. Diolch o galon.

In conclusion, for all the challenges and issues that the Welsh education system has inevitably faced throughout this pandemic, and which Estyn's report rightly describes, we can also take pride in some of the positive ways our education system has responded. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Can I just begin as well by thanking Meilyr for the sterling work that he's done as the chief inspector, and say thank you for being so easy to work with and so upfront when asked questions? It certainly makes a difference in helping us to scrutinise the work of Estyn. I'd like to thank Estyn generally for its continued work in helping our schools and colleges and other education settings in their journey to improved standards.

But having said that, I think I would like to ask you some questions, Minister, about the six months before the March lockdown, because while there's been, as you say, a modest improvement in terms of consolidation in perhaps a few small areas, actually we're not seeing a huge amount of improvement. In fairness to the nursery or the pre-school settings and the primary schools, the results are better there, but I'm wondering if you can tell me why you think there's been no improvement, or marked improvement anyway, in the secondary sector. Because this is not a new challenge that we've been facing, and while Estyn obviously inspects different schools from those that have gone previously, those schools have had access to all the reports, all the support from consortia, all the claims of better exam results and, to be fair, more money in this last year before COVID in order to improve their school standards.

Is there something about the way that we inspect secondary schools that has a built-in bias against them in some way? Or are they generally fit for purpose, the tools that are used to disclose whether there are problems here? Because while you painted it in a very good light, I think we have to accept that just under half of our secondary schools require further monitoring. Of the 25 secondary schools inspected this year, 11 of them—that's nearly half—require monitoring, and four of them have joined last year's remaining 18 secondary schools in a statutory category a year later. Can you tell us what you think is the problem here? What's not working in the standards improvement system to help these schools come along, despite the assistance that I mentioned earlier? One of the things that has really got to me, actually, about this particular report is that of the 48 per cent of secondary schools that needed either improvement or urgent improvement—that's almost half the cohort—this, and I'm quoting from the report,

'this is often the result of low expectations and poor planning.'

Why on earth are we still reading about low expectations in reports like this? Why are we still seeing them? School leadership and quality of teaching come up in these Estyn reports year on year, so I'd like to know why you think we're still reading that.

And then, finally, because I think this is an important question, the £29 million that you've referred to—and I think they're going to get £12 million more—to help schools recover their standards, what level of standards are you expecting them to recover to? Because reading these reports, if we're just trying to get to the stage we're in now—and I appreciate that might be a temptation, because COVID has been very damaging—it's not a particularly ambitious use of that money, is it? We should be trying to raise standards despite the difficult predicament we are in. 

And if you'll allow me one more, Dirprwy Lywydd, what are your views on the curriculum roll-out now? You're quite right to point to the fact that Estyn said that digital use has improved and use of the tools to improve well-being, that's improved, but there's a lot more in the new curriculum than that. I'm not convinced that secondary schools, in particular, are going to be anywhere near ready for this in the way that I suspect you hope they will be. Thank you.

Thank you, Suzy, and thank you very much for taking the trouble to recognise the contribution of our chief inspector to the education system. I think it's absolutely fair to say that his relationship either with the Minister or with education spokespersons has been one of absolute transparency, and he has wanted to share his knowledge and views on Welsh education in a completely impartial way as his role dictates. So, thank you for your comments; it's much appreciated. 

With regard to standards in secondary schools, clearly, we need to make more progress. It's important for local authorities and regional consortia, I believe, to identify as soon as possible those schools that are at risk of under-performing or causing concern. In some ways, by the time Estyn makes a formal judgment in that case, things have gone on for too long. So, there's a real challenge there for both the regional consortia and the local authorities to be in close contact, and to identify and provide support earlier.

I'm aware that Estyn has continued to engage closely with schools in a statutory category during the pandemic, so it's not as if these issues have been swept under the carpet or ignored because we're in the middle of a pandemic. Estyn have adopted a sensitive, flexible approach with these schools, and have assigned a pastoral HMI to each of them to see how they are dealing with the pandemic, to check on well-being and to offer continued support, as have local authorities and regional consortia. But there's no getting away from it, and I recognise that too many of our secondary schools are not improving sufficiently or fast enough, and that is why we trialled a multi-agency approach for secondary schools in need of the highest level of support, both for schools that are already causing concerns or those schools that were at risk of doing so.

I note the chief inspector's comments about the trial and that new approach. We worked closely with stakeholders across the middle tier to develop it, and it has evolved from the work of the four regional consortia that have been most effective at improving our most challenging schools. So, it builds upon good practice of what worked in previous circumstances. We started testing the multi-agency approach with a small number of secondary schools across Wales—two from each region, actually—but, unfortunately, the trial of this new approach was paused in March as schools and local authorities needed to focus on the response to the pandemic. 

Both Estyn and the Welsh Government have carried out an informal survey of schools, local authorities and regions that had participated in that trial, and we have recognised some of the points of strength of that approach. Clearly, we will now plan to roll out that approach to all secondary schools that are in a category as soon as we are able to do so. But I think the way in which we identify schools earlier before they reach that categorisation, and then how we actually have a multi-agency approach, so it's not just the job of the school, and Estyn comes along a number of weeks or months later to make a judgement again, but actually it's part of the school improvement journey—that new approach, we believe, will pay dividends. 

With regard to the £29 million and what standards are we building back to, Suzy, you will be aware of what the inspector says about regression in literacy and numeracy. This is particularly challenging for our youngest children, and our most deprived children. What we need to do is to, in the first instance, address that learning loss and get children back up to a level that could be reasonably expected of them—so, where they would have expected their progression to have got to if the pandemic hadn't hit us. We need to get those children back to that point in the first instance, and then look to improve from that. But you'll be aware the inspector does say that early reports from September show that a number of children have gone backwards, so we need to get them back to what an expected standard would have been, or the expectations a teacher would have had for those children, whatever stage of education they're in, before the pandemic hit.

With regard to the curriculum, can I politely say that you have taken selections of what the inspector has said about the curriculum? You're right; he does report positively on improved digital competence, he does talk about well-being, but he actually does say that both primary and secondary schools are already—that despite the challenge they face in this most difficult of times, actually, the level of disruption has been so great they've used this opportunity to move away from how things used to be to begin to change their approaches in anticipation of the curriculum. So, that's good to see—that even in this most difficult of times, when sometimes just getting the door open in the morning has been a triumph, especially in parts of Wales where the public health situation has been most serious, both primaries and secondaries are beginning to do the thinking and the practice ready for the new curriculum.

Clearly, we have two processes here. We have the legislative process, which you and I are both very much actively engaged in, and then we have the implementation process, and we will continue to work, as we have done throughout this curriculum planning period, with the sector to address readiness issues and to keep under review whether the time is sufficient and whether the level of disruption has caused too much difficulty for schools. But as I said, I am encouraged. It would have been, perhaps, intuitive to believe that no schools were beginning to think about the curriculum at this moment, and the inspector says something very different. Thank you.

I would like to wish Meilyr Rowlands well on his retirement and thank him for all his assistance over recent years. Meilyr has been a strong voice for community schools, and that vision has an important role as we reflect on what needs to change in coming years.

From the inspections that Estyn managed to undertake—around 60 per cent of what was planned—we do see a picture that is similar to previous years. Standards are either excellent or good in around 80 per cent of primary schools, but only in around 50 per cent of secondary schools. To look at that at the other end of the telescope, there is scope to be concerned about 20 per cent of our primary schools and half of our secondary schools, and I think Suzy Davies was right to highlight this ongoing problem, which goes beyond COVID.

The chief inspector is of the view that the lessons learnt in dealing with the pandemic could help to strengthen education in Wales in the long term. Well, time will tell, of course. It does depend on the level of investment. The inspector is concerned that the core skills of pupils in literacy and numeracy have declined generally because of the interruption on education, and he mentions that helping learners, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged learners, to catch up will be a major task that will need to be undertaken in future.

I've been calling on you and your Government to publish a post-COVID recovery plan for education, and to make every attempt to secure substantial funding to support such a programme. I think you're duty bound to create an ambitious plan and then to make the case for the level of investment required to deliver that. As I said, it'll be a major task, as the inspector says, and every major task needs investment. The £29 million has been allocated by your Government, and everyone's very pleased about that, but over and above that funding, what is your investment plan in order to restore education in the longer term? And specifically, what are your intentions in terms of investing to help those vulnerable learners and learners from disadvantaged backgrounds?

With most pupils learning from home, digital learning, of course, is a key factor. Estyn does highlight the fact that pupil engagement with distanced learning is varied from around 95 per cent of engagement in the best-case scenario to as little as 20 per cent among certain providers who face the greatest challenges. So, I would like to know how your Government is going to support schools and colleges that have faced the greatest challenges—those in the 20 per cent category that I mentioned. How are you going to assist those to move forward in terms of the lack of engagement that has been a problem with some pupils?

The final point I'd like to make is that Estyn has found that almost every school has provided support to staff and that leaders are greatly concerned about the well-being of staff in terms of the sustainability of current arrangements and the longer term impact. There are a number of factors that have detrimentally affected the well-being of headteachers and senior leaders, as well as the other school staff, including in response to changing guidance, concern about the well-being of colleagues and pupils, and the additional workload brought about on operational issues, very often. So, what is your plan for dealing with the significant pressures facing staff in our schools? You've mentioned providing a grant to Education Support, which is a charity operating across the UK, I believe, and they are working on a support package for the school workforce in Wales. What scale of grant has been provided to this charity, and could we see exactly what kind of support we should be expecting to see from them?

And finally, can you provide some clarity on what will happen with Estyn inspections post September? They were supposed to recommence in September after a break in terms of making provision for the curriculum. Would it be fair to expect schools to cope with inspections once again after the summer, given all of the challenges that they face, and also your desire to drive forward the implementation of the new curriculum—work that has possibly fallen behind?

Can I thank Siân Gwenllian, Deputy Presiding Officer, again for her kind comments about Meilyr Rowlands? She highlighted one of his particular passions, which is a community-focused education, which has been a real driver behind Meilyr's work. When Meilyr talks about a community-focused school, he is not talking about a school that leases out its school hall; he is talking about a school that is deeply embedded, is deeply understanding of the community it serves and looks outward, beyond the circumference of its school playing fields or yard and actively engages all members of the community in the life of the school, and in doing so, greatly enriches the educational opportunities afforded to the children within the school. He has been always very keen to champion that aspect of Welsh education.

The Member talks about many of the issues that Suzy Davies also raised, so I won't repeat the answers to that. All I would say is that, when the Member talks about a post-COVID recovery plan, my goodness me, we're still very much in the middle of COVID, and a plan that would've been written just a couple of weeks ago would not have anticipated the wholescale closure that we're facing at the moment. What is really important is that that £29 million has been deployed. I know that regional consortia are now working with their schools to understand how the original plans for that money can be adapted to support the current situation that we find ourselves in, but I and the finance Minister, whom I see is listening intently to the statement this afternoon, are well aware of the challenges that are facing our education system. That's why we have identified funds within the education budget itself to continue to assist schools, and why the Government as a whole has prioritised local authority funding.

In many ways, it is that baseline of funding that our schools receive via the local education authorities that, by working together, we will need to support them, going forward, because the learning loss that was identified by the inspector in September is being compounded, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, by this prolonged period of schools not being open for face-to-face teaching for the majority of pupils. We will continue to work right the way across the education field to understand what is the most effective way of supporting children. We believe that that is by supporting individual headteachers to make plans for their school. They know their cohort of children best, they and their governing bodies know what their children need, and it is our job to provide them with the funds necessary to adapt to the circumstances that they find themselves in.

I'm glad that Siân Gwenllian has raised the question of pressure on the workforce. The inspector rightly points out the highly pressurised situation that school leaders and senior management teams have found themselves working in. We have, indeed, provided grant funding to Education Support to undertake a bespoke package of support for the whole of the workforce in Wales during this academic year. Support that is available includes well-being events, peer-to-peer support for headteachers and the appointment of a well-being adviser to provide additional advice and guidance to staff. Additional funding has now been agreed to provide an expanded project. This will allow additional strands of support for headteachers especially to be included, in recognition of the significant pressures that they are under. 

I know that regional consortia have also been hosting a number of support events, often with anonymity, so that headteachers could come forward without fear of stigma, or without fear of being identified, so that they could get support. I know that, for instance, having conversations with Central South Consortium this morning, many headteachers have subsequently, as a result of the support of that programme, identified themselves as being participants and have said that it has greatly helped them in their ability to manage in this unprecedented situation.

We've also considered, and have taken action to alleviate, pressure points where we can. For instance, we've tried, wherever possible, to reduce data requests or the removal of requirements that really don't add value at this moment. Sometimes that can be a challenge; people in this Chamber demand data all of the time. But, of course, that data has to be sourced from somewhere, and that usually falls upon an individual school. So, it is about getting that balance between making sure we know what's going on, while at the same time stripping away demands on the workforce at this moment that really aren't adding value. We will continue to work with the National Academy for Educational Leadership, which, via its associate programme, has also been providing support to school leaders at this particular time. I know that many of them have found that particularly helpful in addressing the stresses and strains.

With regard to the future of inspections, clearly we have to be mindful of the public health scenario that we face at the moment. We don't want any more people going into schools than absolutely necessarily have to be there, and we have to reflect on the pressures that the school system is facing at the moment. Estyn have proven themselves to be particularly adept at transforming the way that they have worked, supporting those schools that are in a categorisation, working with local education authorities to understand and to develop best practice, and we would expect that to continue. But, clearly, any move to formal inspections again will have to be taken at the appropriate time. Clearly, at this point, unless there is a substantial change in the way in which the schools are operating, then it would not be appropriate to return to the formal model of inspection at this particular moment.

I too would like to pay tribute to Meilyr Rowlands who I have known for over a decade since I was a humble lay inspector, and Meilyr was always there for all of us, and he's particularly always been there for the children of Wales to focus on the quality of the pedagogy required to ensure that all our learners achieve to the best of their ability. But also that commitment to the well-being of all our children. So, I think he's been fantastic, and I think some of the things that he says in his foreword are particularly pertinent to the challenges we face at the moment. He mentions the importance of Hwb, which is the envy of colleagues across the border, and also the importance of the framework of the new curriculum, where I think he talks about the importance of thinking from first principles about what learners really need, and how we have to think afresh about how pupils learn and how these can be best provided, taking into account their home contexts.

The early years chapter is a very poignant report because it reminds us of what wonderful experiences children have had in early years and which is very, very difficult to replicate at home. However committed you are as a parent, it just isn't the same as enabling children to learn through play with each other, ably supported by their pedagogues. But I really do think that, as Meilyr says, this has forced teachers to have a much closer relationship with parents because they have to. So, hopefully, that will strengthen the way we take forward the curriculum to ensure that it really does work for everybody.

I just want to ask, Minister, how you think the inspection regime is keeping pace with the challenges, which are so much greater in schools that have high levels of disadvantage as opposed to some schools, which are in leafy suburbs and can easily achieve high grades of GSCEs and A-levels, because they've always got the extra resources that many families are able to give their children, but some simply aren't able to. So, how do you think we can move towards a much greater focus on the value added by individual schools, bearing in mind the baseline from which children arrived at that school, so that we can really see the—

Can you wind up, please?

—contribution that children make? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Jenny. You're right—Meilyr has had a relentless focus on children throughout his career, and in the inspectorate, and he is very much child-focused in his critique and in his analysis of the education system.

I think one of silver linings—and my goodness me, they are few and far between, but we need to look for them in the middle of this terrible situation we find ourselves in—is the improved level of communication between schools and parents, which the report points to. It's been a necessary feature of remote learning and remote education, and I hope that that change in culture and those expectations about regular communication will be a culture change that we will keep. Quite often, all of us want to return to normal, but we have to recognise sometimes the old normal wasn't good enough, and this is an example of where a new normal can drive real improvements, and that communication with parents is absolutely key. A school cannot educate children alone; it has to be a partnership between the professionals in the school and the family, and our very best schools develop that very, very strong relationship, and that delivers real benefits for children.

And I do believe, Jenny, that the inspection regime is good at capturing value added. Now, clearly, the inspectorate themselves are going through a reform programme. It's only right, when we look at reforming our part of the education system, that they too have looked to themselves so that they can reform their processes and outlooks, so that they can play their part in improving education. But I have to say, one of the highlights of my year as education Minister is the annual Estyn evening, where those that have been rated as 'excellent' in any category, whether that be the nursery sector right the way through to our FE colleges and everything in between, where that excellence is recognised. And I have to say, in those evenings, I have indeed shook the hands of the headteachers of some of our schools in our leafier suburbs, but I have also shaken the hands of the headteachers of schools that are serving some of our most deprived communities, and dealing with children that have got lots and lots of pressures, families that have got lots and lots of pressures, and I think that that is recognised in how Estyn does its work. Can we go further in improving our own accountability system to reflect that? Yes, we can, and we're in the process of doing that, and I know that Estyn want to make sure that they are recognising the impact that good pedagogy and good schools bring to children.

Thank you for your statement, Minister, and I would like to place on record my thanks to the chief inspector and his team and wish him well in the future. Also, a huge 'thank you' to all the teachers and staff who have done all they can to limit the impact the pandemic has had on young people's education during the past 12 months.

The chief inspector highlighted, in his report, how digital learning could complement traditional teaching and learning in future. So, what plans do you have to enable and encourage improvements to digital learning going forward? How do you see remote learning developing in the short-to-medium term, and how will the Welsh Government drive innovation in this space? Will the Welsh Government be investing in open-source learning platforms and ensuring that all public investments in technology will not lead to the development of proprietary tools and platforms?

And finally, Minister, the COVID pandemic has highlighted just how wide the digital divide really is. So, what discussions have you had with colleagues about ways to close the divide and be prepared for future pandemics? Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you, Caroline, for that, and I'm sure your good wishes will be much appreciated by the inspector.

With regard to digital competence, well, digital competence is the first part of our new curriculum that was published and is a platform for driving the development of skills in this area for our young people. They are, if not already—and this pandemic has proven it—as important as literacy and numeracy skills. With regard to how we will take it forward, we continue to review guidance and support with regard to what constitutes a good distance-learning model. There is emerging research all of the time, as a result of this pandemic, as to what makes a good learning mix, and schools are being disseminated with that information. And what's also really important is many schools are actually listening to learners and families about what is working for them and what they need to improve on, and that needs to be reflected in the offers that schools are bringing forward.

Can I say, in terms of what we're able to support schools and families with, we are unique in that we have an amazing opportunity, working with some of the biggest software companies in the world? And there's nobody bigger than Microsoft. Every single child in Wales and every single teacher in Wales is able to have free Microsoft software on up to five devices, because the Welsh Government has invested and has provided that for them. We are the first nation in the world, I believe, to have free access to Adobe software for staff and for children, and that is an amazing platform on which to build. But we will need to build on that, and, again, as I said earlier, we're looking for silver linings.

There are new pedagogical approaches that we have learnt through this pandemic. Teachers skills in this area have grown immensely. And potentially, remote learning has real opportunities to support children for whom being in a traditional school setting is challenging and difficult for them, and therefore helping them, keeping learning remotely, is something that we can learn from, as well as addressing, on a wider scale, the lessons we've already learnt from our school project. My daughter is able to undertake an A-level that would not be available to her in a school, because it is delivered remotely from a teacher in another school. She would have had to compromise on her choices if it wasn't for the skill of that individual teacher to teach not only the children that are in front of him in his classroom, but also a classroom in a school some 15 miles away. So, I think there are definitely opportunities there to be able to enhance educational opportunities. And at the moment, Welsh schoolchildren are having lectures and lessons delivered to them by Massachusetts Institute of Technology—the best university in the world. Their students and their staff are delivering lectures to Welsh students now from Massachusetts, and that just shows you how we can use this technology to break down barriers and give our children access to the very best, wherever that may be, to expand their opportunities, to expand their horizons and to support them to reach their full potential.

Thank you very much, Minister.