Agenda item

Cabinet Member – Councillor Beca Brown

To consider a report on the above.

To accept the report and to note the observations.

The progress report of the Cabinet Member for Education was submitted at the request of this Committee, on the preparations of Gwynedd schools for Curriculum for Wales work.

Representatives from GwE were welcomed to the meeting.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. 

Individual members submitted the following observations:

·         That it was encouraging to see that all Gwynedd schools ensured that the promotion of the Welsh language and the culture and heritage of Wales was clearly woven into the design of the curriculum.

·         That it was essential that we did not lose sight of the importance of the traditional academic disciplines, which were essential in order to ensure fairness in society.

·         That it was essential to ensure consistency in standards from school to school in order to ensure fairness, not only between communities, but also at the level of the individual pupil.

·         That one page of the report, in particular, was full of references to 'a few', 'many' or 'some' schools, which was completely meaningless without the table, and that the relevant percentages should be included in each case.

·         That the new curriculum was welcomed, but that the shortage of staff, especially assistants, was a huge problem.

In response to the observations and questions from members, it was noted:

·         That in terms of the training arrangements, a programme was being created, cross-regionally and across Wales, in order to set the framework in terms of curriculum design, taking into account the vision, values and type of local behaviour a school or a local community aspires to, around the four purposes.  GwE had been working closely with Professor Graham Donaldson and had created a regional network and local and specific networks in Gwynedd looking at areas of learning and experience individually, and then age-appropriately in relation to the areas of learning and experience.  Then, a series of clusters had been created and a series of leagues, and the training permeated down to the level of the clusters.  It was also important to note, as the menu progressed, that schools learned from each other and shared experiences.

·         That assessment and progression were the greatest challenges for the profession.  There was now a much more holistic picture of the child, as well as the academic aspect.  Models and systems were created to share with the schools, especially in terms of formative assessment, and work was also underway in terms of the primary/secondary transition in the context of the local curriculum.  It was further noted that one of our most important weapons in the wake of the development of the new curriculum would be the clear focus on a local/area curriculum, and it was believed that this was a means of strengthening the transition in a way that was relevant to a curriculum that truly reflected local requirements.  It was also believed that it could help remove the perception by some that a period of education ended at the end of year 6, and another period started in year 7.

·         That in relation to promoting Welsh culture across the schools, the Curriculum for Wales was a Welsh curriculum, and a curriculum that increasingly upheld and developed the Welsh language.  Therefore, those elements were included in the training offer in different ways, and it was noted that GwE would be happy to report back on that to the committee.

·         Regarding the intention of most schools to assess and track children's well-being as well as their attitude towards their work, and the fact that there was no single approach/resource available for that, and also the need to further develop the whole school well-being priority, including the development and evaluation of the health and well-being area of learning and experience, it was noted that we were in an unprecedented period for several reasons.  Significant changes had been witnessed in the field of education, and it was believed that no one fully realised the impact of the last two years, not only on the children and young people, but also on the adults who teach in the schools.  The pupil's voice was important in the midst of all this, but the profession and those supporting the profession had a role to play to mature and gather information as to what exactly was meant by well-being, and making things too generic could mean that it was possible to miss the focus and heart of well-being in a school.  It was noted that the attitude of children and young people towards education and schools, especially in the more deprived areas, had become more challenging and needy in nature in the last two years.  GwE was working and receiving advice from university leaders on determining exactly what the needs were locally, and how to meet those needs.  We didn't have the answers at the moment, but it was believed that we would have to look back on this period in due course in order to be able to see exactly what the impact had been on children and young people.

·         Although there was one brief reference in the report to numeracy and literacy, that the basic skills - literacy, numeracy and digital competence, as well as the well-being of children and young people, were at the core of the curriculum from primary age to 16 years of age.  It was noted that GwE would be happy to report back in full to the committee on the provision and support that schools receive in these fields.

·         That the classroom assistants had not been included in the areas that needed further development, but it was emphasised that they were key people in our schools who supported front-line teaching in the classrooms.  They also had to understand the framework, content and purpose of the curriculum, and be part of any professional development in their local school and local cluster.

·         In terms of fairness for individual pupils with regard to academic attainment, especially those from less privileged backgrounds who were less likely to have private lessons, etc., it was noted that there had been an attempt for several years now to move away from categorising and labelling schools.  Schools used to be measured very crudely according to the percentage of pupils who gained grades A* to C in their GCSEs, but a large percentage of the children did not reach this threshold.  It was suggested that some schools had narrowed their curriculum far too early, in order to reach the threshold, at the expense of wider experience for the range of children, and it was believed that maintaining the breadth of the curriculum would be a challenge in the secondary sector.  As it was not yet clear what the qualifications would look like by 2025, when the new curriculum would reach Year 10, this hampered the schools' plans a little, but it was possible to be quite clear that the GCSE brand and subject disciplines would remain.  

·         In relation to consistency of standards between schools, it was noted that collaboration between the schools was encouraged, as this was a means of eliminating the competitive element, as well as sharing workload and expertise.  In the new Accountability Framework, each school had a responsibility to report to its governors and parents annually on the effectiveness of the curriculum, and how good it was for the experiences of individual pupils.  As part of that process, there would be peer moderation on the type of report as envisaged in the proposed document and the guidance that would be in place.  It was noted that Professor Donaldson had stated at a recent conference that a child who was happy and learning was a good indicator of the success of the curriculum, but it was probably necessary then to consider what contributed to this happiness and learning, how to capture those two things and how the schools contributed to whatever were the corporate aims, which were much more holistic in nature.  This was probably a discussion for the Cabinet Member for Education and the Head of Education, in terms of what constituted a successful education system in Gwynedd.

·         With regard to the local aspects of the curriculum, it was explained that there was no complete flexibility in relation to this, and that there were clear mandatory elements in the curriculum.  It was also suggested that it might be beneficial to hold a workshop with a few schools in order to show how they implemented the proposed curriculum, thereby alleviating some of the concerns that some schools were disregarding the core elements by focusing on everything else.

·         In terms of equality for all and access to the same experiences, it was noted that the curriculum was being presented during an unprecedented period in terms of the current cost of living crisis, etc., and that poverty and equality were never as simple as looking at financial poverty.  There was also rural poverty and poverty in the experiences that children and young people received, and it was noted that the Cabinet Member for Education was keen to lead on work with the schools in terms of defining education and well-being and balanced experiences, so that children and young people and families were not excluded on the basis of poverty or any other social aspect.  The Cabinet Member corroborated this comment by stating that extensive discussions had been held within the Department regarding the true cost of sending children to school, not just the financial cost, but also the cost in terms of well-being, both emotionally and psychologically.  She explained that children would not leave school with the desired outcomes without being happy in their own skin and having attended school on the same terms as everyone else.

·         That there was some concern that the vocational element was not a full part of the Qualifications Wales consultation on new qualifications.  That element lay excessively with external bodies outside Wales, and it was believed that political pressure would need to be applied if we wanted to see a menu that gave everyone Welsh-based qualifications.  Otherwise, there was a risk of creating a two-tier system once again, and the career element should be part of the full experience so that the young person could have an uninterrupted path to the world of work or to further education.

·         That there were two sides to the debate in terms of combining literature and language as one subject in Welsh and in English.  When analysing GCSE results, it could be argued in some places that there was too much teaching of literature, and not enough teaching of the specific linguistic skills.  The other side of the debate was that literature enriches the individual, not only in terms of language skills, but also as a person.  Getting that balance in specification was going to be interesting, and it was believed that this should form part of the Qualifications Wales consultation.  It was suggested that there had been a misconception regarding the changes or new trends in the curriculum, with some believing that placing more focus on skills had been at the expense of knowledge.  However, skills and knowledge were combined in the new curriculum, with one enriching the other, and it was believed that this was also relevant in the context of literature and language.

·         That it was intended to contribute to the Qualifications Wales consultation, either as a local authority, or jointly across the six regional authorities.

·         That recruitment difficulties were a national problem, and not confined to the education field alone.  In terms of the shortage of assistants, the schools were often fishing in the same pond for the same people with the same skills set as the children and adults sector and the care sector.  It was necessary to consider what could be done to attract more people into the profession, and to retain them once they had been brought in.  From talking to people, it seemed that the pay rate was not always responsible for that, but rather the number of hours offered, and the Council needed to be more proactive in this area, thinking outside the box, and perhaps combining jobs across sectors that would create a full-time job worth having that was attractive to people, and a means of keeping them in the profession.  It was further noted that it was not believed that we fully realised the impact of the last two years on the profession, and that the pressure due to Covid had been more harrowing than we had realised.  A lot of staff turnover was also seen, with 13 out of the 54 secondary schools across the region welcoming a new headteacher in September of this year, and the consequences of that trickling down through the system.  It was noted that there were additional challenges in the Welsh-medium sector and that it was important to be able to attract people who were proficiently bilingual and were able to support pupils in both languages.  Also, in terms of the special needs sector, we were very pleased in Gwynedd to be able to declare a situation where our special education provision was available to all our children across the continuum through the medium of Welsh, and therefore it was even more important that we were able to attract people who were natural Welsh speakers to support all the sectors.

·         That some of the secondary schools that decided to postpone the introduction of the new curriculum until next year would have been in a position to introduce it this September, but they made a strategic and prudent decision to use the extra year to learn more about the curriculum.

RESOLVED to accept the report and to note the observations.