2. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of education in North Wales? OQ56780

In 2021-22, schools in north Wales will have received a total allocation of over £12 million through the local authority education grant for additional learning needs, minority ethnic and Gypsy, Roma, Travellers, elective home education, well-being, recruit, recover and raise standards and non-maintained settings.

Thank you, Minister, for your response, and as you will be aware, Minister, an important part of education provision is outdoor learning, which can be fantastic for learners of all abilities and ages, and which can benefit them in so many different ways and indeed of course, north Wales has some of the best outdoor education centres in the country. However, throughout COVID-19, the access to those centres and that activity hasn't been possible in the usual way, and has unfortunately hampered the education of some learners as a result. I do welcome your recent announcement around overnight stays at residential outdoor centres, that they're allowed for primary school children, and there's some funding made available too. But Minister, I'd like to ask what else will you be looking to do to accelerate the use of outdoor education centres and outdoor learning as a whole as we move out of the pandemic?

I thank Sam Rowlands for that very important question. I certainly do acknowledge the important role that outdoor learning plays in providing our learners with a wide range of experiences, and that will become even more important in the context of the new curriculum that we are introducing. I'm also conscious that outdoor education providers—and a number of Members have written to me specifically in relation to this, so I'd like to acknowledge that—have been impacted very significantly by the restrictions, as he acknowledges. The residential outdoor education fund is intended to be a contribution to some of those costs that centres will have incurred as a consequence—it's a £2 million fund to seek to address that. As he rightly says, changes have been made to facilitate trips by primary school children, and the First Minister has announced today we'll be saying more about this in the Chamber later, with further relaxations allowing up to 30 children from organisations to attend residential centres over the summer holidays. So, what we see there is a progressive relaxation, which I hope will be welcomed by the sector.

Diolch, Gweinidog. The Organisaston for Economic Co-operation and Development has said 

'Providing access to quality education in rural areas is crucial to meet the needs of rural youth, and also to attract young families to settle in these regions.'

I was proud that, under Kirsty Williams's leadership, Wales introduced its first ever rural schools strategy and action plan, setting out how we can support our small and rural schools to deliver excellence for our children and young people within the context, of course, of the new Curriculum for Wales. Minister, I'm concerned that Powys County Council have brought forward plans to close 11 rural schools on the basis of both financial constraints and capacity to deliver the new Curriculum for Wales. Could you clarify two things for me, please, Minister? Firstly, where responsibility lies for proposing school closures, and whether small, rural schools can deliver the new Curriculum for Wales. Diolch yn fawr iawn, thank you. 

I thank Jane Dodds for that very important question. As she said, my predecessor published the first ever rural education action plan in 2018, bringing together all the interventions and initiatives in relation to small and rural schools from across the 'Our national mission' strategy into one coherent action plan focused particularly on the circumstances that rural schools face.

In relation to reorganisation that involves rural schools, we also in the same year strengthened the school organisation code, so that when local authorities, who are the drivers of the decisions in this context, consider bringing forward proposals involving the closure of a rural school, they first need to check whether that school is on a list, and if it is, there are further procedural requirements that apply in that context. There'll be a presumption against the closure of a school. That doesn't mean, of course, that the school cannot, as it were, be closed, but it will involve establishing that the case for closure must be very strong, and not taken until viable alternatives have been explored.

I certainly believe that rural schools are able to deliver the curriculum, and I want to be in a position over the course of the next year to ensure that rural schools, like all other schools in Wales, are able to take advantage, for example, of the national network, which will enable schools to work together to develop resources in order to ensure the successful implementation of the curriculum in all parts of Wales.