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Question
1 – What are
your views on whether Welsh in Education Strategic Plans are
contributing to the outcomes and targets set out in the Welsh
Government’s overarching Welsh Medium Education Strategic
Plan?
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As the plan is
statutory, it provides more impetus in terms of its status and
level of importance attached to the strategic priorities within the
plan. A separate plan also ensures that priorities in this
area are not lost within other plans.
The necessity of a
Welsh in Education Forum, which meets at least termly and includes
representation from all relevant major stakeholders, ensures that
the Forum effectively contributes to the outcomes and targets set
out in Wrexham’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan and the
Welsh Government’s overarching Welsh Medium Education
Strategic Plan.
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If you believe that WESPs are not contributing
sufficiently, how do you think this could be resolved?
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There is some disconnect in relation to the
planning of Welsh medium provision and continuity. These
points are explained more fully in responses to Q2 and
Q4.
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Question 2
– What are your
views on whether WESPs are (or have the potential) to deliver the
required change at a local authority level (for example delivering
provision to meet any increased demand for Welsh medium
education)?
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If the authority demonstrates that there is a
need for provision, the question is how do we fund it?
Juggling demand requires careful management by the local
authority, particularly when there are pockets of demand across
Wrexham County Borough. Whilst some funding is available via
the 21st Century Schools programme, the programme does not
always marry with the need for provision identified as a result of
the WESP.
In addition,
managing demand, parental and Member expectations can be a complex
process. Parental assumptions and meeting parental preference
owing to proximity of location (distance to nearest Welsh medium
school) can cause issues, e.g. the assumption by parents that if
their child has been in receipt of Welsh medium education in a
pre-school setting or nursery, they will automatically be allocated
a place in Reception at their local / the same Welsh medium school
where their child attended nursery.
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If you believe that WESPs are not, or
don’t have the potential, to deliver change, how do you think
this could be resolved?
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In order to meet the priorities contained within
the WESP, there is a need to safeguard funding to ensure that the
authority is able to realistically meet expected outcomes and
targets.
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Question 3
– What are your
views on the arrangements for target setting; monitoring;
reviewing; reporting; approving; and ensuring compliance with
delivering the requirements for WESPs (and the role of the local
authority and the Welsh Government in this regard)?
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The Wrexham WESP
includes a number of measurable indicators and targets (set out at
the beginning of each outcome) which are monitored and reviewed by
the Forum at least three times a year.
Annual progress
reports are also submitted to the Lifelong Leaning Scrutiny
Committee.
We are in the
process of developing annual Report Cards (one for Welsh first
language and one Welsh second language) based on the Results Based
Accountability (RBA) approach as a way of monitoring performance
against high level strategic priorities contained within the
plan.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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We would question why the target under Outcome 1
relates to seven year old children and not five year old children
(i.e. More seven-year-old children being taught through the medium
of Welsh).
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Question 4
– What are your
views on whether WESPs evidence the effective interaction between
the Welsh Government’s Welsh-medium education strategy and
other relevant policies and legislation*?
(*for example school transport policy; 21st Century Schools
programme; A living language: a language for living – Moving
forward policy statement; Flying Start; planning policy)
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More work is
needed to ensure effective interaction between the Welsh
Government’s Welsh-medium education strategy and the
21st Century Schools programme.
Changes to Banding
in the 21st Century Schools Programme has created
increased challenges, particularly given that the Banding timeline
does not align with the WESP timeline. We have submitted a revised
21st Century Schools SOP to address some of the
challenges arising from local demand for Welsh-medium education,
however the disconnect in timescales needs to be addressed at a
strategic level within Welsh Government, to assist local
authorities in the planning of school places in the Welsh-medium
sector.
Welsh-medium
nursery transport needs to have a ring-fenced budget due to the
geographical location of some Welsh-medium schools that are spread
out across the county. This would assist parents who have to
travel long distances in order for their children to receive
nursery education through the medium of Welsh.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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21st Century funding needs to be
ring-fenced nationally, in order to address the rising demand for
school places, particularly in the Welsh-medium sector. A
portion of funding needs to be ring-fenced nationally to address
specific demand in local authorities such as Wrexham (as
demonstrated by Welsh Government surveys).
There is a need for national alignment of the
WESP and 21st Century Schools Programme at a strategic
level by Welsh Government.
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Question 5
– What are your
views on whether the outcomes of WESPs deliver equal outcomes for
all pupils, including for example, primary/secondary pupils or
children from low income households.
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We need to be
asking for harder outcomes. The outcomes on page 24 of our
WESP are our own thoughts of what success looks like. We have
included literacy and numeracy measures in our plan (e.g. reading
test data and targets) as additional measures of
success.
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If you believe that the outcome of WESPs do not
deliver equal outcomes, how do you think this could be
resolved?
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There has been no reference to children from low
income households previously from Welsh Government in relation to
the WESP, therefore our plan does not explicitly refer to
this.
Welsh Government needs to recognise literacy and
numeracy in their WESP guidance and plans.
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Question
6 - If you had to
make one recommendation to the Welsh Government from all the points
you have made, what would that recommendation be?
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Ensure that there is national alignment of the
WESP and the 21st Century Schools Programme so that
funding for this priority is ring-fenced and protected as much as
possible (whilst recognising the pressures that Welsh Government
and local authorities are facing to make further
savings).
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Question
7 - Do you have any
other comments or issues you wish to raise that have not been
covered by the specific questions?
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Already covered in responses to the
questions.
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