, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, the plan is a matter of public record. So, the plan sets out a range of interventions, both in terms of recruitment, professional learning and others. So, I'm very happy to do anything I can to help the committee have any further information it would…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Exactly.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Exactly.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, I am confident that we are on the right trajectory, but that's the correct terminology to use, because it is challenging. There's no doubt about that. It is challenging to recruit teachers to teach Welsh or through the medium of Welsh. This has been a…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
I'm happy to answer any questions, of course.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, just to say those changes haven't taken effect as of yet, just to be clear. One of the things that's very encouraging about Seren, I think, is that there is this concept of a network of relationships that's developed. That is a means of keeping touch…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Can I just refer to another point that you made that I didn't respond to? We have been making adjustments to Seren almost every year, because we are learning from the performance of every year, and the focus over the previous year, or the last year, rather…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
No.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, to be entirely clear, it's not there to deliver for all pupils, it's there to deliver for the pupils who have the ability to perform at a high level in subjects and need the support to ensure that they're able to do that. So, the other reforms across…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
—that may be helpful.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
—the policy change is the reason for it. But we can provide more detail for you on that, and—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
The point I think you're asking about is in relation to GCSE outcomes over the period that spans before and after the pandemic. I think that's the point I was seeking to clarify. There is a changed pattern of early entry and a significant increase in the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Between which—?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Yes.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Yes. Well, I think their quote related—to be fair to the chief inspector, I think that quote related to particular responses of the Government to particular recommendations, rather than an overall level of disappointment, I hope. There were two, I think, in…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, attendance is a critical priority for us, as it is, I think, for most systems as a consequence of COVID in particular, but obviously that's not the entire picture; we all know that. And we need to make sure we are seeing increases in attendance in all…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
I don’t think I would recognise that picture, if I’m honest. I don’t think that is my experience. I think what we are discovering, partly because of the curriculum reforms, is that cluster working is essential for curriculum reform to succeed, let's be clear…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, just on that—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
—so that you can make sure that there's a consistent comparison. The point I made in the earlier question, I suppose, has a bearing on this as well, Laura, which is around making sure that we have a suite of policies that are designed to close the attainment…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
So, that data that you’re comparing aren’t comparing apples with apples because there was a change in entry patterns and in the take-up of certain GCSEs in some of those years. I’d be happy, Chair, if you’d find it helpful for us to write to you with…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
The attainment gap prior to the pandemic is a slightly more nuanced picture, I think, than the question assumes. So, at various points in the school journey, the attainment gap has been closing; at other points, it's been stubborn, if I can use that term. I…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Yes. I mean, I specifically haven't pointed the finger of blame at anybody. I've outlined the programme of reforms, Chair, that we have under way. One is around curriculum, one is around school improvement and one is a significant investment that we're making…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Since 2016, Chair, we've had the Seren programme. It's a fully funded programme that provides super-curricular support, if I can describe it in that way, for our highest performing learners. There are just over 23,000 learners between years 8 and 13 currently…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Chair, I was hoping not to dress things up, I was hoping to engage with the data in a way that I hope the committee and those watching would find useful. On the picture in relation to performance in Wales, it's worth painting that broader picture that the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Well, if you take into account the point I just made about the participation rates and the bias in the figures, I think that's part of the general picture. If you take that into account, our relative position in reading and maths has remained broadly stable…
