Lynne Neagle MS, Cabinet Secretary for Education
It is a year since the School Improvement Partnership Programme was established and I wanted to take this opportunity to recognise the progress we have made in developing a new approach to school improvement for Wales.
Our aim is to empower school leaders and school staff so that they have agency over their own development and work in partnership with other colleagues, schools and the local authority, to improve the learning and educational outcomes of our young people.
Together with local authorities, unions, Estyn, schools and partners from across the sector, we are building a new culture for school improvement, with school-to-school collaborative working at its heart.
In November, every local authority in Wales submitted plans to the Welsh Government outlining their approach to delivering local school improvement arrangements. We are working closely with local authorities to support these changes at a local level.
I am also committed to providing strong national leadership by setting out a small number of clearly defined and focused national improvement priorities. I have confirmed these as attendance, literacy and numeracy, supported by improved wellbeing.
By 1 April 2025, a new National Professional Learning and Leadership Support body will be established, to be operationally ready from the 2025/26 academic year. Focussed on delivering a small and prioritised range of national professional learning, this will create a simplified and coherent professional learning landscape.
A number of national support programmes are being developed to provide intensive, support for the critical cross-curricular skills of literacy and numeracy, along with curriculum design, progression and assessment. This support is being designed with local authorities, practitioners and other partners.
A newly established Education Improvement Team within Welsh Government will facilitate regular dialogue with local authorities and schools - connecting national priorities with local delivery.
I am aware that there is significant change in the system, and I want to ensure the totality of change is coherent and robust– this is the role of the National Coherence Group
Kirsty Williams CBE, Chair of the National Coherence Group (NCG), wrote to me in December with their reflections on the proposed model for school improvement. I am attaching a copy of that letter. I welcome their observations and the conclusions they have reached at this point in the Programme’s journey.
As we move forward into the transition phase, the NCG will continue its role in reviewing the coherence of the new school arrangements. I will also be establishing a new Ministerial Headteacher Advisory Group to provide valuable insight and support for the model going forward and will update on that shortly.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners, members of the NCG and the wider sector for their commitment to working with us. There is still a lot of work to be done as we transition to the new arrangements during 2025, but the shared commitment from all partner organisations to the success of the Programme is recognised and appreciated.