5. Statement by the Minister for Education and Welsh Language: Our National Mission

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:57 pm on 21 March 2023.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:57, 21 March 2023

I thank the Member for her questions. I didn't quite catch the entirety of the last question, but I think I had the thrust of it, so I will do my best to respond to it. Thank you, firstly, for inviting me to attend, with her, Perthcelyn school. I found it an incredibly inspiring visit, and meeting the head and the pupils and some of the staff there, I saw a school that was committed to giving each individual learner the best possible start in life, and that is what we want for all our children in Wales.

She's right, of course, to say that the school has benefited from capital investment to what is already a very beautifully designed school, if I may say, and with a focus on sustainability. When I was at the school, I was able to announce a package of £60 million—£50 million for schools, £10 million for colleges—to improve sustainability, energy efficiency and their contribution to the net-zero ambitions that we have. They are fundamental to our national mission.

She will know that all new school investments funded through the sustainable communities for learning programme from 2022 onwards will be a net-zero school, which is very important. I hope to be saying in the next few days something more about our sustainable schools challenge, which she will remember was the opportunity for authorities to bid for funding for schools to be designed and constructed using natural materials, and designed—importantly, from the point of view of her question—with learners at the heart, and that the learners' role in helping to design the school is a curriculum opportunity. So, there's a holistic way in which commitment to sustainability can be at the heart of our curriculum, and any of us who visit schools in our constituencies will know just how passionate young people are about issues around sustainability, addressing climate change, and that manifests itself in a range of ways.

She asked about the commitment to equality of outcome, and I just want to emphasise how important it is that we redouble our efforts, right across our education system, to make sure that every learner's journey is one of equity as well as excellence. I recently appointed, as I think she will know, a group of attainment champions who've been working with schools across Wales to share best practice and to learn from one another around strategies to effectively tackle the impact of poverty on attainment, and I’m very excited about the potential of this to help us spread best practice throughout our education system. There isn’t a head in Wales who isn’t committed to giving every single learner in their charge the best possible start in life, but some find that harder than others for different reasons, and they’re often very understandable reasons. Our responsibility is to make sure that we support them to have the best access to the resources and the guidance that they need to deliver that for their young people.

I think her last question was in relation to investment in Welsh-medium education, and she will know that, as part of our capital funds, we’ve obviously invested very significantly in the fabric of our Welsh-medium estate, but there is an opportunity, I think, partly through the Bill that we hope to introduce, working together with Plaid Cymru, to make sure that every single young person’s experience of education in Wales, whether they choose a Welsh-medium school, a bilingual school, or an English-medium school, is one that, over time, we can be confident gives each young person a level of confidence in speaking Welsh, so that our system, whichever medium school, is united around that goal of equipping our young people with a skill in one of our national languages.