Written Statement: Professional Learning and School Improvement Update

I am providing an update on the work to take forward the Strategic Review of Education Partners which puts schools and teachers’ knowledge and expertise at the centre of our approach to school improvement in Wales. 

The move from existing school improvement arrangements is underway and there is a great deal of complex and interdependent work going on in all parts of the system to transition to the new arrangements by this autumn. Our new Education Improvement Team has visited local authorities and their headteacher groups and recognises the strong commitment and progress in working with schools to build a collaborative improvement system and particularly to support literacy.   Significant work has been undertaken by all our partners in local authorities and schools, and I am publishing a letter I have received from Professor Dylan Jones and Simon Day, ISOS Partnership, as they complete the work they have undertaken to support the roll out of the Review.  I am very grateful for their contribution and support. 

The National Coherence Group continues to provide me with advice on whether the totality of change for the Welsh Government, Estyn, local authorities and other partners is coherent and robust at a whole system level. The most recent meeting of this Group was on 2 April and I am today publishing a letter from the Chair, Kirsty Williams CBE. 

In March, I hosted two primary headteacher conferences which focused on literacy and numeracy and collaborative school improvement.  These highlighted to me the importance of a single shared focus of effort to drive improvement, and the benefits of working across schools, local authorities and the country to realise good practice.  I hope that my new Ministerial Headteacher Advisory Group will meet for the first time during the summer term so I can hear directly from school leaders in schools across Wales.  I will be publishing the membership of the Group soon. 

Significant progress has been made to establish the new national professional learning and leadership body.  This will lead the delivery of professional learning to support practitioners, including teaching assistants, teachers, senior leaders and headteachers in maintained schools in Wales along their career pathways. It will also provide professional learning to school improvement advisors.

The national body will lead on the delivery of professional learning in response to my national priorities. This will include professional learning for improving literacy, numeracy and wellbeing, alongside long-term change programmes including support for additional learning needs and improving the teaching of Welsh in our English-medium schools in line with the ambitions of the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Bill.  It will provide a high quality and nationally consistent approach for all maintained schools in Wales. It will also support the delivery of statutory requirements: the National Professional Qualification for Headship and induction for Newly Qualified Teachers.  The funding which previously went to the regional consortia will now go to the national body for national programmes and to local authorities where there is local flexibility and capacity needed. 

I am pleased to share that the recruitment process for the Chief Executive starts today. The Chief Executive will lead the new body in close partnership with the Welsh Government, which retains policy responsibility, and with local authorities and schools.  I am grateful to the National Academy for Educational Leadership Board for their commitment to this transition to the new body.  As the Chief Executive takes up post over the coming months, the new body will be recruiting staff as well as transferring staff from existing organisations as appropriate.  Whilst the national body will begin to operate formally from September, I expect a range of new responsibilities, including literacy and numeracy and wellbeing programmes to transfer in over the coming year.   

Alongside the appointment of the Chief Executive, another priority for Welsh Government will be to appoint the Board of the new body this autumn as some of the current members of the board of the national academy come to the end of their terms.  Across the senior leadership, I expect to see strong education sector experience, Welsh language proficiency, experience of programme management and delivery as well as strong collaboration and co-construction skills. 

Over the coming months, we will be working with our partners to build a shared vision for how the new professional learning and leadership body will work with Welsh Government, local authorities, schools and partners including Estyn and Adnodd, to ensure an aligned, streamlined and collaborative approach across Wales.  I will provide an update to Senedd members on the professional learning and leadership body when the new Chief Executive is in post.