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
- 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 to 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, Lynne Neagle 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.