The Cabinet Secretary for Education has today (November 5th)
outlined the key improvement priorities for school in Wales as
well as more funding for initiatives to improve attainment in
literacy, maths and science.
The additional £1.1 million will boost existing and successful
literacy and numeracy programmes and provide enhanced support to
teachers and learners by
- Expanding professional learning to help children develop a
love for reading
- Providing targeted support for younger learners struggling to
read by expanding the RILL project delivered by Bangor
University, which has seen children gain between 6 and 12 months
learning in their reading.
- Widening the provision available through the Maths Support
Programme Wales including masterclasses for secondary school age
learners.
- Increasing support for science programmes – including
translation of free resources for science teaching and expanding
girls in STEM initiatives
- Improving parental engagement with speech and language
through the Talk with Me project; and
- Producing more materials and tools to support professionals
in their work.
From next year Welsh Government grants to support the curriculum
will be realigned to target funding more closely towards
literacy, numeracy, and curriculum design, progression and
assessment.
Attendance figures show signs of improvement and average
attendance for this academic year is 92% up from 91.4%. The
Attendance Taskforce has been working to understand the
challenges experienced by schools, children and young people and
their families which influence school attendance. The Cabinet
Secretary for Education will make a further statement on how
attendance will be returned to pre-pandemic levels later this
year.
Underpinning improvements to school standards will be a new
culture for school improvement-with school to school
collaborative working at its heart. A National Coherence
Group, , will be established to review local authority school
improvement models alongside the establishment of a new national
body responsible for delivering professional learning and
leadership. Additionally a Ministerial Advisory Group made up of
independent experts will be established to advise the Cabinet
Secretary on all areas of education.
A consultation on a new set of indicators for 14-16 learning will
take place later this Senedd term and work to explore the
feasibility of linking clearer age-related expectations in the
refreshed literacy and numeracy framework with personalised
assessment data will begin.
The Education Secretary also confirmed today [5 November 2024]
teachers will receive their 5.5% pay increase which will be
backdated to September and funding will also be provided to Medr
to ensure teaching staff in further education and sixth-forms
maintain pay parity with schoolteachers.
Investment in the education estate will continue to be a key part
of school improvements. Building on the £2 billion already
invested through the Sustainable Communities for Learning
Programme, new 9-year investment plans submitted by local
authorities which will see a further £4.5 billion invested in new
and refurbished schools across Wales.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education, said:
“Attendance, literacy and numeracy will be my absolute focus.
These are non-negotiable— they will underpin everything we
do. Despite a relentless focus on reforming our education
system with a new curriculum and a new ALN system there is still
more that we can do to improve education.
“Education begins by attending school and engaging with learning
but the experience of education has changed - for our young
people, their teachers and parents and carers. We now need to
drive improvement across schools. I will be writing to all
schools in Wales to share my priorities with them and I look
forward to discussing these priorities and other issues including
behaviour at the Headteacher conference later this week.
“Raising education standards is a collective responsibility.
Working together with the sector we can deliver the very best for
our learners and shape a brighter, stronger future for them."
