Jeremy Miles: Children may receive education through school settings or other means for example elective home education. Most learners receive their education in mainstream school. Local authorities are able to make arrangements for Education Other Than at School for learners who require tailored support away from mainstream settings.
Jeremy Miles: ...last 12 months, we've looked across the UK and internationally to inform policy, drawing on the expertise of organisations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Education Endowment Foundation. As I set out last year, we know from research and inspection evidence that schools that couple effective learning and teaching with a focus on family engagement are...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for her observations and the questions that she has asked. She makes an important point, I think, about the ability of schools on their own to address the full impact of poverty on educational attainment. Schools are in their communities, they're in their society, and there are things that schools can do, and there are things that schools can't do, in terms of addressing...
Jeremy Miles: School funding in Wales is provided through the revenue support grant. It is for local authorities to determine allocation. Further targeted funding is provided through additional Welsh Government grants. The majority of education funding is available to all schools, including rural schools. The small and rural schools grant of £2.5 million is available this financial year.
Jeremy Miles: I thank John Griffiths, and I know of his commitment to the principle of community-focused schools, not least because of the successes in his particular area of many schools in achieving that, and I think he just highlights two important themes in what he has just said. Firstly, that role of school staff connecting with families around a range of issues, which might not be directly around the...
Jeremy Miles: Schools undoubtedly have a key role in educating learners to use social media safely and responsibly. Through Hwb's 'Keeping safe online' area, schools have access to dedicated advice for learners on social media issues. Schools can also direct families to 'In the Know', to support them navigate social media safely.
Jeremy Miles: The duty to ensure that suitable educational provision is made available for children and young people rests with local authorities. This includes a duty to promote high standards of education, fair access to education and a general duty to ensure there are sufficient schools in their area.
Jeremy Miles: For 2022-23 we are providing £270,000 to the Supporting Service Children in Education Cymru programme. This funds a package of universal support, including resources for schools, local authorities and families; research, networks and events; and focused, targeted support to schools where most needed.
Jeremy Miles: Faith schools across Wales offer parents the opportunity for their children to be educated in accordance with their beliefs. Local authorities should therefore aim for a balance of provision between the types of schools that they maintain, whilst ensuring high-quality teaching and learning and curriculum coverage for all learners.
Jeremy Miles: Well, the Member made an important point about what are the biggest challenges, and I think possibly the biggest challenge that schools face is making sure that young people are in school. There are obviously very high levels of absence, which many, many schools are reporting. And the Member asked an important question about what the investment into community-focused schools and the family...
Jeremy Miles: Local authorities in north Wales, in partnership with the GwE consortium, are primarily responsible for ensuring the quality of school education in their localities. The Welsh Government supports those efforts by providing a framework for evaluation, improvement and accountability and the implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales.
Jeremy Miles: I thank Vikki Howells for those two questions. On the first question, one of the aspects of the job, which is a great pleasure actually, is being able to visit the initial teacher education partnerships across Wales, both remotely in the past, but now also in person, and talk to the cohort of students going through the postgraduate certificate in education about their experiences and...
Jeremy Miles: The Member makes a series of very important points. She talked about the importance of children's own experience of schools, and I think that listening and the hearing of the voices of young people in this is very, very important. The £40 million capital that I announced recently is intended to enable schools to make the kinds of adaptations that schools sometimes do—to fence off areas, to...
Jeremy Miles: Ukrainian children coming to Wales are entitled to a school place. The statutory school admissions code applies to Ukrainian children as it does to all children. Local authorities should help families arriving from Ukraine to apply for school places and let them know which schools have places.
Jeremy Miles: Local authorities are responsible for planning school places. When proposing significant changes to any school, local authorities and other proposers must comply with the statutory provisions of the school organisation code and must take into account a range of factors, with the prime consideration being the interests of learners.
Jeremy Miles: I have already committed to having discussions with all colleges regarding their vision for post-16 education in Wales. The FE sector has a huge contribution to make in realising our vision for post-compulsory education and training in line with the Tertiary Education and Research Bill.
Jeremy Miles: I wrote to all schools last Friday confirming we will no longer be recommending contact groups or bubbles from the start of the next school year. The intention is to ensure we minimise the number of learners self-isolating unnecessarily.
Jeremy Miles: Schools and settings in Islwyn, as elsewhere in Wales, continue to make meaningful progress on curriculum reform. I announced last week a package of measures to support, simplify and create space for schools to take forward the Curriculum for Wales from 2022.
Jeremy Miles: ...under the sustainable communities for learning programme are required to use their facilities effectively both for their pupils and their local communities. In the Islwyn area in particular, new school sport facilities at Rhiw Syr Dafydd, Blackwood and Islwyn High schools are available for community use.
Jeremy Miles: The health and well-being area of learning and experience places well-being at the heart of our new curriculum. It is supported by statutory guidance for schools on developing whole-school approaches to well-being, £9 million of investment in the current year, and a commitment to fund support in future years.
