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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The Welsh
Government’s overarching WMES was published in 2010 and
states that it will set the national strategic direction and
establish and maintain the supporting structures of Welsh medium
education and training. Are the supporting structures
sufficient and do they provide local authorities with the
resources, support or clarity needed to fulfil their role? By
now some of the vocabulary is out of date and inconsistent with
current educational terminology. Whilst the accountability
for school improvement for all learners remains with the local
authority, the work to support and challenge schools is
commissioned through the Consortia. Funding via the EIG (WEG
element) is allocated on a consortium basis with an increasing
focus on school to school working) but there is no recognition
within the WMES of these major changes. Categorisation of
schools drives the level of support and challenge provided to
schools but the fundamental contributors to school improvement
and standards of learner achievement, in any language, is
dependent on effective leadership and management of schools and
high quality teaching and learning in the classroom. There is
a shortage of excellent leaders, teachers and support staff in the
Welsh sector which can impact on the standards achieved in both
first language and second language Welsh.
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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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Little account appears to be taken in WMES of
the different context of LAs across Wales.
Whilst I can comment from an RCT perspective it
would be useful if WG could produce a position paper on every
LA’s performance over the 5 year life span of the
WMES
Are there areas of good practice we could learn
from? Does DFES have a clear overview of what is happening
across Wales to avoid officers in each LA working in
silos?
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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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The strategic
planning of all provision in English and Welsh medium is dependent
on forecasted pupil numbers and surplus places identified in
schools via WG formula. In our experience forecasting demand for
future provision based purely on parental questionnaires is not a
reliable enough source of robust information because of poor
response rates and the gap is too wide when compared to actual take
up. More accurate forecasting is achieved when coupled with
trends.
In the current
financial climate expanding existing schools or planning new builds
is not a realistic option unless the evidence for demand is
documented and robust. Several partners outside the LA may disagree
with this.
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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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Too early to predict because the statutory
status of the WESP is relatively new.
The WESP as a document is unwieldy and may have
more impact if split to consider different elements in different
ways with different timescales.
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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 WESP involves
gathering information from a wide range of service areas, aspects
of which (School Improvement) are commissioned on a regional
basis.
Time scales to
update every year are too tight.
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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
appreciate that the accountability for improving standards remains
within the Local Authority however, the reviewing and monitoring of
target setting and standards in relation to educational outcomes
could be undertaken by the CSC on a regional basis.
There are other service areas and partners who
contribute to the WESP, e.g. workforce development, colleges,
school organisation, etc. who do not currently operate on a
regional basis, therefore the WESP template could be modified to
reflect the two areas?
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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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Including partners
and officers from the above service areas in the WESP Strategic
Planning Group at a local level is critical to ensure that other
policies and legislation are taken into account when the WESP is
compiled and updated. Attendance to the Planning Group is
good and consultation takes place when changes/modifications are
made. Responses to consultation on the WESP from others
outside the immediate group is however poor.
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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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Unclear whether joint working across departments
in WG are as robust as they could be. A variety of WG
departments have a role to play in influencing developments, e.g.
WG officers should question the access to, and quality of Welsh
Medium delivery in Flying Start, Communities First, etc. If
WG funds a programme then there is a responsibility to monitor and
QA for adherence to all WG priorities. Other WG policies and
legislation need to give a clear steer on matters relating to Welsh
medium provision and be more prescriptive.
Time scales are extremely tight, especially when
feedback from WG is delayed to allow modifications, translation,
local scrutiny, etc. to take place before publishing.
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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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Welsh medium
schools have comparatively low FSM percentages.
The
WESP in itself would deliver on such a wide agenda. The WESP
in conjunction with other strategic, local and school plans are
better placed to evidence such progress in standards.
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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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WESP does not require reporting on FSM
gap. Should it?
Better quality of leaders, managers and
workforce to teach/support in the Welsh medium sector and Welsh
second language in English medium schools.
The same issues arise in the FE and HE sectors
as well as community tutors who can deliver to a high standard
through the medium of Welsh. This can’t just be
addressed by LAs, it requires wider government input.
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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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Appreciation of the diversity of the reporting
requirements of the WESP across regional, local services and
partners.
The strategic group who meet and are committees
has to be large to encompass all views but as a result may not have
the desired impact. The sheer number of contributions needed
from a variety of stakeholders, all with their own agenda to
populate the WESP is a challenge.
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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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May consider changing the format of
the plan and using other mechanisms to report on standards achieved
by learners using data captured elsewhere. Data on pupil progress
is reported to WG elsewhere part of the template could be
pre-populated.
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