4. What assessment has the Minister made of the extent to which students may have fallen behind during the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56281

The disruption to schools has had a significant impact on learners’ progression, health and well-being and confidence. It has affected some more than others, particularly examination cohorts, early years, and our disadvantaged learners. We are working with partners to develop a sustainable and resilient approach to promoting learning in the coming years and addressing the interruptions.

Yes, thanks for that evaluation. It is a difficult situation. It seems to me that the experience of home learning has varied massively, which, I suppose, we should have expected. Before we can address how to catch up on the lost education of school-aged children as we come out of the COVID crisis, we will need somebody to assess authoritatively exactly where we are. Given that, do you foresee that Estyn will have a big role in assessing where we are, and what is your current thinking as regards the resumption of school inspections in Wales?

Well, I think it's important to recognise that all children will have had a COVID experience and their learning interrupted, and therefore, we will need an approach that supports all of our learners, but we also recognise that some parts of the cohort, as I said in my original answer, will have particular challenges, and indeed some individual children will have challenges that we will need to support.

In the first instance, we will work with local education authorities, regional school improvements, the professionals themselves, to develop a sustained intervention programme to support learners both in the short, medium and long term, and I would expect Estyn, as always, as part of the Welsh education family, to play a role. I hope inspections can move forward as planned, but clearly, we keep all of these issues under review as we deal with the consequences of the impact of the pandemic on education.

Minister, can you reassure us that the assessment of qualifications will take into account the different opportunities students have had to effectively learn from home?

Yes, indeed, David. Yesterday, the WJEC published further information as to how grades will be designated by schools and colleges. It is designed to be as flexible as possible, and to ensure that the different experiences that children will have can be adequately accounted for in that process. So, for instance, if I could give you an example: it does not designate, for instance, how many pieces of work are necessary to arrive at an assessment, recognising that each individual student will have had a very different experience.