Welcome back. The next item is a statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: children's oracy and reading, and I call on the Minister, Jeremy Miles.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Improving reading skills is essential if we are to make the progress that we all want to see in reducing the attainment gap between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. And a focus on ensuring that everyone has the reading skills that they need to reach their potential is a matter of social justice, and it's also integral if we are to ensure that every learner has the opportunity to access the full breadth of our new curriculum. And it was welcome that, in the last set of Programme for International Student Assessment results, Wales reached its highest score yet in reading and that we have caught up with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average. However, there is still a way to go.

Speaking, listening and reading skills are fundamental to just about every aspect of our lives, from home to school and to the world of work. Not only are they at the core of being able to access learning, they enable the development of relationships with parents, with peers and wider communities, and can open doors to talking about difficult subjects, which is beneficial to our mental health and well-being. This is why improving reading skills and helping to ignite a passion for reading in our schools is an absolute priority. And today I'm setting out a package of actions to support our children, their families and wider communities to come together to embrace oracy and reading.

Firstly, I am pleased to announce an additional £5 million in funding for reading programmes across Wales, which will provide a book for every learner alongside a targeted scheme of reading support, focusing on early years and disadvantaged learners. The programme will ensure that every single child and young person in Wales has a book of their own to keep. It will also include the provision of 72,000 additional books to reception children at schools across Wales, 3,600 letterbox club packs for looked-after children, books and training for practitioners to support learning, and a box of 50 books to every state school in Wales. This additional funding will help children, regardless of background, to develop those early speech, language and communication skills and demonstrate the life-changing impact that books and reading can have. The funding reflects the importance of Wales as a bilingual nation and supports learners to communicate in both languages in everyday life. 

We must also support our workforce. Initial teacher education and ongoing professional learning are critical to forming and continuing to improve all practitioners’ practice in this area. Working with teacher education providers and consortia over the coming months, we’ll instigate a review of current provision to ensure practitioners continue to get the high quality, easily accessible support that they need across Wales. Building on Estyn reports and research evidence, we'll work with our regional partners to maintain and improve attitudes to and engagement with reading. Estyn will continue to provide examples of effective practice in teaching reading at a whole-school level and developing a culture of reading. And we’ll look to the impact of our interventions so we can improve as a system and support children and young people’s engagement and attainment in reading and oracy.

The curriculum for Wales guidance is clear that the systematic and consistent teaching of phonics must be a key part of the toolkit in our schools, at a stage that is developmentally appropriate for the learner. We would encourage schools to adopt such an approach alongside vocabulary building and comprehension to ensure learners are able to understand and make sense of what they read and become fluent and effective readers. All teaching must be based on evidence of what we know works, and I therefore intend to clarify and strengthen our approach in this area. I recently established a national network, a practitioner-led body, open to all schools, which will support the implementation of the new curriculum. I can confirm that our national network will prioritise oracy and reading in the spring. We'll work with experts and practitioners to look at the role of phonics in the new curriculum so that we can provide the best support and guidance for the teaching of reading.

In 2016, the 'National Literacy and Numeracy Programme—a strategic action plan' set out the vision for literacy and numeracy as we moved towards the new curriculum. To build on this, through the national network, we’ll work with practitioners to understand what’s working, reflecting on pedagogy, examples of good practice and communications, as well as what we need to improve. We'll also look at the continued role of the literacy and numeracy framework in supporting the progression of these skills and the need for additional resources and materials. This will help provide the resources, support and expertise needed to facilitate high-quality teaching of oracy and reading. I'm interested in what more we can be doing to share good practice in our early years and foundation phase. With that in mind, it's our intention to work with practitioners and experts over the coming months to develop a toolkit that will help empower teachers to develop their classroom practice that meets the needs of their learners.

We know that, through shared reading experiences, we can encourage a love of books and stories from an early age. This is particularly critical for our youngest children, where the building blocks for early language development begin with developing their attention, listening and understanding skills. The work that is under way on our Talk with Me programme highlights the importance of early language development and the parental role in supporting this. We've recently commissioned a review of language screening tools, undertaken by Cardiff Metropolitan University and the Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit, and the review will consider how practitioners can be supported in identifying issues in terms of listening, understanding and speaking skills. I expect the report of the review to be shared with me in the coming weeks. But we can and must do more, and we are exploring what more we can do to provide further opportunities to support parents, so that their children can have regular opportunities to engage with rich reading materials and participate in stories, songs and rhymes.

Dirprwy Lywydd, every learner must have the chance to reach their potential, and today I've set out some of the measures we intend to take over coming months to support our learners. As the work escalates, I will endeavour to keep Members updated on the progress that we are making.

Conservative spokesperson, Laura Anne Jones.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you for your statement, Minister. There is no doubt that through this pandemic, it is children and young people that have suffered the most. Schooling is so important, not just for learning and socialisation, but in terms of providing children with structure and routine. The three lockdowns were so harmful to our children's well-being and life chances and it may be some time before we're in a position to accurately assess the damage that this loss of learning time has inflicted.

As you say in your statement, Minister, speaking, reading and listening skills are absolutely fundamental to just about every aspect of our lives, and therefore, it is so vitally important that we get this aspect right through education in Wales. I'm concerned at the impact lockdown has had on children in this regard, but your proposed actions outlined in this statement today seem a bit wishy-washy at best, if I may say so: promising reviews, establishing work groups, with no real action to tackle the problems that we face with ensuring that every child is absolutely supported in every very best way possible through their educational journey to ensure they come out of their educational journey with the very best chances possible, regardless of their background.

I welcome the moneys that will be given to address this; I welcome the moneys for additional books, but will this be one single book, Minister, per learner, above reception age, for the entirety of their educational journey? Or will this be a rolling programme where we see pupils get a book given to them by this Government each year? And how exactly is the £5 million to be spent in terms of targeting the scheme of reading support to go alongside the book? Will this mean more money going directly to our schools from this Government to enable them to choose the books most suitable for their schools and age groups? Will this mean more money going directly to the schools for them to employ new staff to support more reading, or will the current workforce be expected to take on these new roles? Will this money just be for the early learners or disadvantaged learners, or will it be money to provide equity of opportunity for all when it comes to trying to better pupils' reading and oracy skills?

Whereas I warmly welcome any extra support for our teaching staff as you outlined, and I do welcome that, I see in the statement 'over the coming months' and 'next spring will look at', and a lot of words that don't inspire much confidence that you are tackling this problem head on, now. You say you will look at the impact of your interventions, so you can improve the system, but what sort of timescale are we talking about, Minister? Is this really your masterplan for Wales? Because surely, what we need in Wales is more teachers, more teachers per pupil, to get the children the results that they deserve. What urgent action are you taking now, Minister, to ensure that those children who have missed out on reading, learning and oracy skills during lockdowns—? What actually are you putting into place to ensure those children have real opportunities to make up for that lost learning during the last couple of years?

Older children will be more self-sufficient in terms of their own learning, but for younger pupils, time out of school will have resulted in a lot of lost reading time. In terms of children in foundation phase falling behind in their reading and speaking skills, I've heard a lot of anecdotal evidence from parents and teachers, but what work have your ministerial officials undertaken to quantify this fallback? It is really important that when we consider addressing the challenges of lost learning that we know what we're dealing with and the true scale of the problem. Only then will we be able to work out how to close that growing attainment gap. And can you also quantify, Minister, the fallback now compared to the start of the pandemic?

You are right that we need to share best practice; that is always the way forward, in my head, when it comes to tackling reading and oracy skills, but how will schools be working with consortia to share best practice? Because throughout the pandemic, this has not been happening as it did before. We need to get back to a situation where there is independent and robust oversight of school standards through the consortia and Estyn to provide reassurance to parents.

Early oracy and literacy are very important to the development of children, and I feel it has often been overlooked as one of the key foundations of a child's development, especially over the last 18 months. The 'Talk With Me: Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) Delivery Plan' is a useful tool for professionals and parents to support children's development, but not every parent will take on this role. I see first-hand the effects that reading to a child regularly has on my own children, 11 and two. My two-year-old's vocabulary is fantastic for his age because I've invested that time with him, but how, Minister, are we going to support parents who can't, won't or don't know how to support their children in that same way? There was a brilliant initiative from my local primary school where parents were able to come in, if they wanted to, and read with children, read out loud in classrooms during that time, helping to support teachers and other children as well as to learn how to read with a child themselves, to get the best possible results out of the children. This is perhaps something that could be looked into further.

Also, and finally, the Flying Start programme has gone some way to support children with their speech and language development prior to accessing formal education. The Welsh Conservatives have previously called for the Flying Start programme to be accessible to all children, because there is still a postcode lottery in this regard, and it excludes so many people and children that would benefit from this Flying Start support. The current situation we see is exclusionary at the moment and I want to ask you, Minister, whether you would consider extending this programme to reach all children in Wales.

I thank Laura Anne Jones for that range of questions. In relation to the points that she asked about the investment in resources, which is one part of the set of actions that I'm describing today, there will be a choice for learners themselves in relation to the books that they will receive. So, they'll have a choice between a range of books and they'll be able to select the one that they wish for themselves. In addition to that book per learner, there will be a set of resources available, a set of books available to each state school in Wales in addition to that.

When I was a young student myself, my love of reading was developed very early on, and I think having access to that rich range of reading materials is an important part of igniting passion for reading, and this will be a contribution to that. But there is also a set of interventions that support the work that the Books Council of Wales do. They will work with us in relation to this, and also the work of BookTrust Cymru, as she will know, in relation to the Bookstart scheme and the Pori Drwy Stori schemes, and so on. So, all of those will be getting additional support as a consequence of the funding that I'm announcing today, which will help learners on their reading journey and support schools and parents in reading with our children and young people. So, there's a set of targeted interventions, if you like, and a more universal offer in the funding that I'm announcing today.

She makes an important point about timing, and when best to take some steps on this path. What I'm announcing today is, if you like, a campaign across Wales over the course of the next months, leading up to the commencement of the roll-out of the new curriculum, and there are important milestones along the way, as she acknowledged in her question. We'll be working with the consortia—we already are—and with Estyn to support our schools and practitioners, both in terms of auditing best practice and sharing some of that, and in providing additional support in terms of professional learning resources, which will be easily found, easily navigable, for our practitioners to make them the most useful they possibly can be. The national network, I think, has an important role to play in this. That is Welsh Government-initiated but practitioner-led, as she will know, and my intention is that that will explore oracy and reading in the spring. It has a programme of work and it's important that we roll that out in a way that practitioners can benefit from and engage with amongst the range of other pressures that they face at the moment. So, the intention is for that to happen in the spring.

She made a series of very important points in relation to the impact that the last 12 to 18 months has had on in particular, perhaps, our youngest learners, and their early developmental stages. She will know that the support that we've provided to date to schools around the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards funding and the renew and reform plan has been weighted, in particular, towards early years. So, we've committed funding to our non-maintained childcare settings until April of next year, and a significant pot of funding to support foundation phase pedagogy as well. That idea of learning through play, which we know so well, is fundamental to being able to help engage some of our youngest learners with their oracy and with their educational needs. So, that has already been part of the work that we do.

There is evidence in relation to the loss of learning. It's a complex picture. It does show that over the course of the last 12 to 18 months, there has been a loss in terms of capacity for reading, but that has been made up in some periods over the last year. So, it is a complex picture over the last 18 months, but it is absolutely the case that we know that learners at all age ranges need further support. That has been the underpinning principle of the investment that we've made so far to give schools that extra capacity to support learners in the way that she asked in her question. 

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian. 

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to hear that the programme announced today will ensure that every child and young person in Wales will have a book to keep. I was reminded recently of the pleasure I got from reading a book called Luned Bengoch as a child—a book that has just been re-issued and is now available once again in the shops. I had huge pleasure in re-reading that book just last week, before a meeting of a local book club that I’m a member of. It’s clear that the reading habits you pick up when you’re very young do remain with you. Establishing strong early language skills is a crucial part of literacy and a child’s ability to realise his or her educational potential and life chances, whilst also crucial to the ability to create social relationships with family, friends and peers.

There is research by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists that shows that the COVID period has exacerbated the delay in acquiring speech and language skills among young children, but I’m pleased to hear you mention that there are signs of that improving. There is also research undertaken way before the pandemic. There is evidence available that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to be behind their peers in terms of the acquisition of speech and language skills by the time they start in primary school. Research from Save the Children shows that around eight in 10 reception teachers in Wales see clearly that children coming to their schools have difficulty in speaking in full sentences, and that children who have difficulties with speech and language during their early years are often still behind their peers in terms of key literacy skills at the age of 11.

So, there are numerous challenges facing Welsh Government, and I’m very pleased that you have recognised that, and that the plans that you’ve announced today go at least some of the way to addressing some of these major problems that we have. Bearing in mind just how crucial early years education is in developing reading and oracy skills, I’d like to hear more about the toolkit that you mentioned, which is going to be put in place for the early years. What exactly will this entail, how will it look and what will be new about it? Can you also outline what steps will be taken to respond to that attainment gap that I mentioned, bearing in mind that children from a disadvantaged background are more likely to fall behind their peers in their development of oracy and reading skills? You mentioned phonics. Why did you emphasise that particular method? Is that going to help specifically with closing that attainment gap? Are there specific advantages in terms of that aspect that need to be addressed?

And finally, in order to deliver the objectives of 'Cymraeg 2050' and improve the oracy and reading skills of children through the medium of Welsh, it’s clear that we need to train enough teachers to be able to teach through the medium of Welsh. I’m not going to apologise for asking once again about your plans to increase and strengthen the Welsh-medium education workforce specifically. I note that in your statement today you have emphasised the importance of bilingualism and creating materials in both languages, which is to be welcomed, of course, but we do need to see a plan in place that will move us forward in increasing the workforce too that can assist children in improving their oracy and reading skills. Thank you.

Thank you to Siân Gwenllian for those further questions. I share with her the memory of reading a book that I had when I was at school, and I remember developing a delight for learning in the classroom of Miss Annie Derrick in Pontarddulais school when I was a young boy. So, these things stay long in the mind. But, of course, as the Member says, this isn’t an experience that everyone shares, because it’s something that should be encouraged at home, and not everyone has the same access to the same resources and support. This is a contribution in that direction. The plan tries to get to grips with some of the issues that you talked about—the attainment gap and the emphasis on supporting those who need the most support in order to make progress.

In terms of the specific questions, in terms of the toolkit, this is one of the range of elements of support in terms of professional development that we have been working on with Estyn and the internal team within the Welsh Government. We’ve been working with the consortia too to ensure that the good practice that is already available is being shared in a more widespread way in terms of the resources available to our teachers. So, the toolkit is an element of that and will support teachers to develop their teaching skills in this specific area.

In terms of emphasising and encouraging people to read more at home, in the past 18 months of course the relationship between the schools and parents and carers has changed, and in several ways, it has strengthened as schools have responded to the COVID challenges. There will be a significant public campaign taking place at the end of this year to encourage parents, carers and guardians to speak to their children, to read to their children. We’ll outline the benefits of that and we’ll try to ensure that the messages that are part of that national publicity campaign will outline the advantages of doing just that and will encourage parents of all backgrounds to spend that time with their children.

The Member asked an important question in terms of phonics. Phonics is one element of a suite of options available to teachers. It is an important part of that other toolkit in terms of the steps that we can take, but we must also ensure that learning vocabulary and comprehension happen at the same time. But I want to ensure that we look at the evidence in this regard, that we set out that context too, for our teachers, so that they have that context in order to make the choices that they need to make. That’s why I mentioned in the statement that we intend to look at the evidence from that way of teaching oracy and we will ensure that we implement the best practice in our new curriculum.

Other parts of the United Kingdom, England specifically, hold an annual test for phonics for students; I don’t think that’s the right way ahead. We are trying to move in our curriculum away from that kind of test that demonstrates a snapshot, if you will. We, of course, have personalised assessments, online assessments, for reading already. Those are available already in ways that are flexible for teachers to be able to hold those assessments during the year, and that demonstrates to the pupil, to the teachers, to the parents and to the guardians the development of the learners in terms of reading and comprehension. That is part of the ethos of the new curriculum to provide an opportunity—that assessments are part of the learning process. So, that's a different aspect of the way that we look at things here in Wales.

The final question that the Member asked was with regard to growing the education workforce. And this, of course, is a priority for us, as we have discussed jointly here in the Siambr already, in terms of teachers, of course, but also in terms of classroom assistants, to ensure that we have a workforce that speaks Welsh in all parts of the workforce. That's important, too. We are working on a draft plan at the moment; we are preparing that to share with stakeholders. We have had discussions with various stakeholders already, including the Education Workforce Council and others, but we need to have further discussions with other stakeholders, which includes the commissioner and a range of other stakeholders. This is something that we have to make urgent progress on, but we can only do that through collaboration with the other partners that we have in the education system. 

Thank you very much, Minister, for your statement this afternoon. Whilst I welcome actions taken to improve oracy rates across the board, I do have concerns about those in the care system as well as those providing care. Minister, we know that educational attainment amongst young people in care is well below that of their peers. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of oracy rates for those in the care system? Has the pandemic had any impact on oracy rates amongst young people in care? Finally, Minister, I had the pleasure of meeting Wrexham, Conwy and Denbighshire Young Carers last week. They offer fantastic support to young carers in the Vale of Clwyd, but young carers also need that support in the classroom. So, Minister, how will you ensure that young carers do not fall behind their peers when it comes to reading and oracy? Thank you very much.

I think the Member makes a very important point. A number of the interventions that I've described today, in particular the book scheme, will have a dimension that makes sure that books are received by young people in care specifically. There are some particular interventions for some of our most vulnerable disadvantaged families around the early years, and some of the books that I've been referring to are rhyming books for children who need additional support and additional support to be able to learn at home. Another part of the book programme is the letterbox club—books that benefit in particular looked-after children. So, that is absolutely a lens through which we've seen the proposals that I'm making today. He will know that there's already a piece of work that I'm working on, together with the Deputy Minister with responsibility for care, in relation to what more we can do to support looked-after children in their educational attainment generally. But I do share his concern that the experience of the last 18 months will have had a detrimental effect in terms of oracy, in particular, perhaps, for those in the early years, for whom we know there is a particular set of challenges.

Thank you, Minister.