Item 4 is next, a statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, exploring reform of the school day and year. And I call on the Minister, Jeremy Miles.

Dirprwy Lywydd, in our mission to ensure an education system that delivers high standards and aspirations for all our learners, every policy, every decision of this Government can help tackle the impact of poverty on our young people's ability and chances to learn and to grow. But we can only do this if we support and value the well-being of all our learners and staff. Therefore, now is the right time to ask ourselves whether the shape of the school year and the school day helps us achieve these essential and collective goals. Is the long summer break advantageous for the academic and personal development of our more disadvantaged learners? Is the uneven calendar, particularly with a long autumn term, positive for staff well-being and avoiding burnout? Could we do more with how we support schools to plan their days and weeks, so that learners have greater opportunities to build academic, cultural and social capabilities?

We have gone too long without having a proper discussion on this issue. In fact, we have a school calendar virtually unchanged for 150 years, when the expectation on young people to combine studying with working on farms, in factories or supporting at home was far different to what it is today. The experience of the last two years has required us to look afresh at how we do many things. That has, obviously, been a necessity, but it's also an opportunity. So, now is the right time for a national discussion about the school year and day. We must explore how school time and how we use it best supports learner and staff well-being, narrows educational inequalities, and can better align with modern living and working patterns.

We are currently gathering views, perspectives and experiences on how we structure the school year. This includes hearing from learners, from families and the education workforce, but also the wider public and private sector, such as childcare, health services, tourism and transport. We have commissioned Beaufort Research to support us in taking this forward, so that we develop an extensive Wales-specific evidence base, and this work will inform our next steps.

To be clear, Dirprwy Lywydd, we are not considering changing the total number of teaching days or the amount of holiday. But we are listening to views on how we could schedule the school calendar differently, to ensure that we continue to support learner progression, to enhance staff and learner well-being, and align with contemporary ways of living. My initial conversations, and early feedback from this work, suggest that there is a real appetite to look at changing the calendar, and I will continue to gather views to help shape our next steps, in further discussions both here in the Senedd and beyond.

Turning to the school day, Members will recall that, in early December, I announced plans for a small-scale trial guaranteeing an offer to learners of additional well-being and learning activities over a 10-week period. Dirprwy Lywydd, I am pleased to confirm that these trials are now under way. Thirteen schools and one college, from five local authorities, have volunteered to take part in the trial, and more than 1,800 learners will benefit from a further five hours a week of additional enrichment sessions around the school day, including sports and arts, social activities, well-being support and academic programmes. We know from research that there be can be gains in attainment, as well as improved attendance, confidence and well-being from this kind of approach, especially for our disadvantaged learners. Programmes such as these trials, which provide stimulating additional sessions and support learners to re-engage with learning, can have a greater impact on attainment than those that are solely academic in focus.

Schools, including learners, have designed these activities, and we have also worked closely with the WLGA to provide an on-the-ground adviser to support the schools involved, to provide expertise and to help lessen the workload. 

The last two years have shown how important the school environment is and continues to be, as the place where children and young people learn, grow and feel safe. The importance of the connection between the school and the wider community has also been highlighted. Through these trials, schools are able to expand their links with local and national partners, to create the space and opportunities for activities and experiences that are wide ranging and that are culturally accessible. As we move forward, it is these connections with the wider community, the even stronger engagement with families, and the co-location of key services that will support our mission to tackle the impact of poverty on educational attainment, and ensure that everyone has high aspirations.

But as well as supporting learners, this is also an opportunity to gather insight and gather evidence. So, we will be evaluating these trials, and we expect to have the initial findings in early summer. The aim is to further develop our thinking about how we use and structure time at school, and to consider how additional sessions might improve well-being and academic progression, and increase social and cultural capital. I have made up to £2 million available to support this enrichment activity, and I will update Members on the progress of this work in the coming months.

Decades have passed since we had a serious conversation in Wales about how we structure the school day and school year. That is far too long. We are, therefore, delivering on our manifesto, our programme for government and our commitment in the co-operation agreement to explore options for reform and to think anew, so that we can reduce educational inequalities, support the well-being of learners and staff, and create a system that better aligns with with contemporary patterns of family life and employment.

Conservative spokesperson, Laura Anne Jones. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and, thank you, for your statement, Minister. Here we are again talking about another seismic change in education, which will have huge ramifications for years to come, if change is deemed to be necessary. There should be very positive changes if all this does go ahead. The current form of the school day has been around for decades, as you say, Minister, and was designed at a time to suit the needs of those, like my own family members, who were then working on the farm. But things have changed, changed and changed again since then, and the modern world moves at a fast pace, as we all know, and I do believe that the way we educate and how it's structured needs to adapt with the changing needs and wants of families, teachers, children and, of course, society at large, because of the wider impact that this change would have on them.

I strongly believe that our education system needs to adapt to reflect the needs of future job markets, locally, nationally, and now, also, internationally of course, with the opportunities that will come because of Brexit and opening ourselves up to the rest of the world, perhaps using the extra time to bring in the learning of new languages, as well as the new modern languages, but also perhaps the likes of Mandarin. Do we use the time for a greater focus on coding? Do we use it to enhance the physical activity and sport offering, which obviously would have a knock-on effect on obesity and the mental health of students? I'm just wondering, Minister, how you see the time being best used.

I also see in your statement that you say that you've commissioned Beaufort Research to take this forward. Obviously for about a decade now, the UK Government has been talking about changes to the school day, so would have done a lot of research on this already, and I was just wondering how much of that will be looked at—obviously that will Wales specific—and included in that. So, rather than reinventing the wheel, we can start with the evidence we've got and build on it.

I also see that it says here that the extra five hours a week of additional enrichment sessions will be around the school day. So, just wondering, 'around the school day', do you see these extra five hours being a blended approach, sort of intermittent, in between lessons, or do you see it just coming at the end of the school day? I'm just wondering what your vision is at the moment, Minister, before we see the evidence of what's happening. Also on that, you say that the activities have been designed mainly by schools at the moment. Obviously, in the future, I hope there will be a national approach, because obviously we want the offering of education to be the same for everybody. I think there would cause further disparity if we did it school by school on such a basis. But it's still interesting to me that the schools are designing it so far. I'd be interested to see what they're doing. Are they doing the blended approach? Are they doing it at the end of school day? I'm just wondering if you could enlighten us on that.

Also, I just wanted to ask about the £2 million. Obviously, it will be interesting to know how exactly that's been spent, and I suppose in the summer we'll see whether it's been spent wisely or not. But after 150 years of having the same systems, Minister, I do look forward to seeing the findings of this report. Thank you.

Thank you, Laura Anne Jones, for your welcome for this set of trials. I think, as you say, when you talk about reinventing the wheel, we're trying to reinvent a system that has been in place in some ways for a very long time. But you are right to say that it's important to draw evidence from all sources, and there is a very rich seam of evidence both in other parts of the UK and internationally, as well as already in Wales in fact, about the benefits that can be derived from the sorts of approaches that are being trialled in this number of schools over the next 10 weeks. 

You asked me about the range of things that I was hoping to see being trialled in schools, and you asked a specific question about how that might relate, for example, to the world of work and the broader economy. There is a range of activities that are being trialled. Some of that is around arts and music and dance, some of it's around sport, from rugby to judo, some of it is around cooking and the importance of food, and we are working with the Urdd. There is a variety of activities being trialled. Some of them have the sort of connection that she was specifying in her question around business and enterprise, robotics and coding, science, green technology—so, a really wide range of activities. We've just listened in the earlier statement to the importance being outlined in the Chamber of trying new things and being candid when some of them succeed and some of them don't succeed. I think that's part of what we're trialling here to see what the best mix is.

In terms of the vision for the use of those five hours, actually, one of the flexibilities we've given to schools is to deploy those five hours in a way that works for them. Obviously, putting an extra hour on each day is one of those options. I myself don't actually have a clear view at this point, because we do need to see what happens on the ground. In a way, it's the evidence of what works that needs to guide us here, given our objective, which is to make sure that our learners re-engage with learning and boost their sense of confidence and well-being, which we know will have a positive effect on progression and attainment. 

You asked finally about a national approach, if you like. This is obviously a set of trials, isn't it, so there is guidance that has gone to schools about how best to design the activities, but the very heart of this is to see what can be designed locally. Some schools are working with local organisations, some with national organisations and so on, to get the best blend that works for their particular cohort of learners. But the opportunity here is to learn from what we discover over the next 10 weeks and find ways of extending that into the future.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Heledd Fychan.

Thank you, Deputy Llywydd, and thank you, Minister, for your statement. In my role as Plaid Cymru spokesperson on children and young people, I look forward to working with you on this policy as part of the co-operation agreement between my party and your Government. 

A great deal of international evidence on reform of the school day and year already exists. There are some successful examples and some less successful. It's no surprise that the impact of extending the school day depends on how that time is used. Evidence from the EPI shows us that extending the school day is most effective when we use current staff who are well trained, integrated into existing classes and activities. This is based on strong, empiric evidence, and is more effective, according to evidence, for maths. As long as this approach is taken, then additional funding to allow an extended school day is likely to lead to wins that are strong and consistent. Given that the evidence shows that extending the school day is most effective when we use current staff who are well trained, can the Minister outline how the £2 million for this pilot, as well as the broader funding for education recovery, will be used to ensure that well-trained staff are in place to ensure effective educational recovery and to take full advantage of the possible benefits of reforming the school day?

You will also be aware that many stakeholders, including unions and teachers, have raised concerns that this isn't the right time for any changes such as extending the school day. There was a mixed response from the teaching unions, with Neil Butler noting and warning that there were implications for teacher workload and indeed health and safety as schools continue to have difficulty in coping with COVID. Indeed, some schools have the highest ever levels of COVID at this particular time. Although they as unions are open to changes to the school day and the school year, UCAC said that they as a union wanted to ensure that there won't be any damage to teachers' pay and conditions. Therefore, there are clear concerns in terms of workload, pay and conditions for teachers, and health and safety in terms of extending the school day and the school year. So, can the Minister respond to the unions' concerns whilst providing some assurances to teachers that they won't face a heavier workload and damaging impacts to their terms and conditions?

Another issue I'd like to raise is—. Whilst I welcome the fact that the pilot is proceeding, may I raise an issue that's a cause of concern to me? What I read in the press was that you wanted 20 schools to be part of the pilot initially, but only 14 have signed up to participate. I understand that of the 14, according to an interview that you gave to Radio Cymru before Christmas, not one of these is a Welsh-medium school, and all of the schools are either in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Neath Port Talbot or Blaenau Gwent. One challenge we have in terms of rural schools and Welsh-medium schools, particularly, is that their catchments are larger, and, therefore, pupils have to rely on bus travel to school, missing an opportunity, very often, even now, to join in breakfast clubs and after-school clubs. So, if the pilot is going to be as useful and transparent as possible, as we look at changing something that's been in place for 150 years, wouldn't it be worthwhile for the Government to look at trying to get an additional six schools that are specifically in those areas not currently represented, and look at Welsh-medium primaries and secondaries, if we are truly to learn lessons from this pilot?

Related to this, the pandemic has had a very detrimental impact on the Welsh language, as we know, and has deprived many children from non-Welsh-speaking backgrounds of the opportunity to use the language regularly and naturally. Without doubt, this has had an impact on the development of learners on their way to becoming confident Welsh speakers, and it has certainly had an impact already on our efforts to reach a million Welsh speakers by 2050. Can the Minister therefore outline how he believes these plans to reform the school day and year will support the increasing use of the Welsh language? In addition to this, given the apparent shortage of Welsh-speaking teachers in Wales, can the Minister explain how you and the Welsh Government are aiming to ensure that the workforce is in place to provide the additional teaching time through the medium of Welsh? 

I thank the Member for the questions. In terms of the evidence, you are right to talk about the EPI evidence, which is one of the sources of evidence, as you acknowledged in your question. There is a variety of examples from other sources, including internationally, that show patterns that are important to us in terms of how to structure and how to test the different ways of extending the opportunities for learners. So, doing that with teaching staff is one of those versions, but it's possible to do with it with a variety of other things, so we're testing all of those options, if you like, in terms of external staff, assistants, and teachers as well. So, that's part of the value of the trials, seeing what the outcomes are in terms of every different mix.

Of course, we hear the argument that this is not the right time to trial this. Just to remind you, as your question acknowledged, these are small-scale trials. We have 13 schools and one college, and all of those have decided themselves that they want to take part in this trial. So, we were reliant on schools offering to volunteer for this, and they had flexibility in terms of when to start. Some have already started, the majority are starting this week, and some will start in the coming weeks. So, there is flexibility for the schools to provide within the period that suits their circumstances, and the provision is flexible in itself in terms of the design and provision. So, there is an element of flexibility in being able to respond to some of the challenges that you raised in your question.

Regarding the concern about pressure on the workforce, I just want to be clear: changing terms and conditions for teachers is not what this is all about. It's our priority to provide activities that are of value to our learners and we're not looking at terms at all. We're grateful to the unions. Some of them have helped with some of the guidance that we've provided to schools. We can't do anything in this area other than in partnership with the workforce and with local authorities, so we're working in the spirit of constructive partnership. 

I had a range of schools that would have been ideal to take part in this trial, between 10 and 20, so I thought that 14 struck the right balance in that sense. You're right to say that in terms of geographical distribution around Wales it doesn't mean that there are schools in all parts of Wales. I would have liked to have seen that, and I would have certainly liked to have seen a Welsh-medium school volunteering to be part of it. But, given that the schools were volunteering, I couldn't force any schools to take part. I should also say that the guidance does ask schools to provide an element of extra-curricular activity through the medium of Welsh, and the majority of schools have done that as part of this. But this is not the end of the journey in terms of testing these different ways. We will have data, information and evidence from this period, and then that will allow us to trial further measures, as you suggested in such a constructive way in your question.

In terms of how this relates to the broader aim of ensuring Welsh-medium education on a more equitable basis, you're right to say that the COVID experience, in some examples, though it's not the full picture, has had a detrimental impact on the progress of some who are from non Welsh-speaking households. I have provided a budget for reimmersion for some of the students who are in that position and to support parents in their decisions in terms of choosing Welsh-medium education for their children. We have an opportunity here to ensure extra-curricular activities through the medium of Welsh, which is also a part, as you will remember, of categorisation of schools. That extra-curricular element is very important in terms of that. So, those two policies are aligned in that sense. 

The final challenge that you mentioned, to ensure that we have the staff to provide activities and teach through the medium of Welsh, is a considerable challenge. As we've discussed previously, I do expect in the spring to publish a draft plan that we've been working on with stakeholders on recruitment generally for the Welsh-medium education workforce. But I'll be happy to have a further discussion with the Member on that.

Finally, Darren Millar.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, thank you very much for your statement. I do welcome the fact that you're looking at the school year and the school day, and I think, obviously, with any system that's lasted for 150-odd years, there's sometimes a very good reason for keeping it, and sometimes there may be a good reason for ditching it. 

I notice that you've got a 10-week trial that's going to take place and that there will be an outcome from that trial in terms of feedback, but obviously 10 weeks is only a very small fraction of the whole school year, and in an area like mine, where the rhythm of the year is dictated largely by the tourism industry, there are many people who are concerned, particularly about changing the school year significantly and the impact that might have on their workforce, if they are tourism operators. I can see that you've made a clear commitment to engage with the private sector, including the tourism industry. Can you tell us what form of engagement that might be, just so that we can encourage tourism operators to take part in it?

Well, on the—. The Member's question is focused largely on the school year. I think, just to be clear, at this point we're at the stage of gathering the range of voices, if you like; the next step will be to see what the conclusion is of that process, and there will be an ongoing opportunity, if you like, for discussion and consultation with all affected sectors and parties. But in this early stage of those discussions there are round-tables happening with a range of sectors to test approaches, to test initial reactions to different shapes of the school year. So, at this point the sorts of things that are being tested, if you like, are whether a shorter summer holiday would make sense, whether a longer winter holiday might make sense, whether a more consistent approach to the spring, Easter, break makes sense, whether there's a case for better regularity between term times and holiday times. So, that's the sort of range of things that are being tested for people's reactions, really, at this point. But just to reassure you, I think I'm right in saying—I need to check, but I think—actually even this week there are round-tables happening with representatives of different sectors. But there'll be an ongoing dialogue in relation to what we hear from them. 

I thank the Minister. We'll now suspend proceedings to allow changeovers in the Chamber. If you are leaving the Chamber, please do so promptly. The bell will be rung two minutes before proceedings restart. Any Members who are arriving after the changeover should wait until then before entering the Chamber. 

Plenary was suspended at 16:02.

The Senedd reconvened at 16:11, with the Deputy Presiding Officer in the Chair.