Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 6 October 2021.
Could I encourage the Member, perhaps to reflect on the terminology 'catch-up'? I'm not sure that's the best way of motivating our learners in the context of the year/18 months that most of them have had. I know that other parts of the UK have chosen that, but I think providing our learners with a more supportive way of describing the way we're trying to help them is probably ultimately going to be more effective.
On the specific point that he makes, though, about progress against the renew and reform plan, I'll refer him, I think, to the update that I published in September around the implementation of renew and reform, which involves the commitment of additional resources in the space of Welsh language immersion, support for newly qualified teachers and support for learning recovery. So, that, I think, gives him the most recent position in terms of how the funding is being deployed in schools. I know that he will welcome the fact that the underpinning principle for this programme is to ensure that schools themselves make the best possible judgments to support the learners. They are best placed to understand the needs of their particular cohorts, and so that's the underpinning principle, if you like, of this funding stream. But I will also be evaluating—in fact, it's already under way—the impact of the scheme, and I'll be happy, of course, to share the output of that with Members in due course.