 Prif Weinidog, wrth gwrs. Yn y gweithio, y Prif Weinidog yn cyngor i'r Cyflawn Gweithio Ffairbryg yn yw'r Gweithio, ac yn ymlaen i'r gweithio ar y dyfodol, ac yn ymlaen i'r 9 November. Yn y cyflawn Gweithio'r Cyflawn Gweithio, yn hynny'n gweithio'r cyflawn Gweithio, ac mae'r bêl ychydig o'r cyflawn gwirio'r cyflawn gwyrdd yma, ac yn ymlaen i'r cyflawn gwyrdd yma'r cyflawn gwyrdd yma. Rwy'n credu bod y gwirio'r cyflawn gwyrdd yn cyflawn gwyrdd ymaau mural a rhwng gwaith arall. Rwy'n cael��rwy'n cyflawn gwirio ar y llys yn casgliad sy'n fen hoped a'i gymrydddsodog ar â firesidiaethau. Fyd Scotland Hymwrng Liberalemol cyrflawn, a'i continuedäch gyda'm gwirio yn gynghygoedd an daarbyg. Yn y sc Produkt, y Wahy Nugongen dynamics, Byste capitalism yn genant ein hyn yn yrwy Bu Гleid. Those sitting examinations that week will also be able to do so at their school or college. Pupils in other year groups and college students will continue their learning from home during the second week supported by their teachers and lecturers. So the fire break is being implemented in a way which minimizes the disruption to learners education. Scientific evidence suggests that though limiting attendance at school is likely to have a moderate impact on slowing community transmission, when combined with other restrictions this will make a significant contribution to reducing the rate of transmission. For learners in years 9 to 13 I appreciate that these are difficult times. However older children in secondary schools and colleges are more able to plan and engage in their own learning and it will be five days of learning from home. Those learners will continue to receive their education through remote learning supported in that second week by their teachers who will be in the classroom. Yesterday we published new learning guidance to help schools plan and manage for this short period. I would now like to share a couple of slides to illustrate the latest data we have around education. School attendance this term and to update on the number of cases that we have seen in education settings. As you can see from this slide which shows school attendance it is really pleasing to see that the levels of attendance have remained constant and stands at around 87% at present. We know that some pupils and staff will and have had to self-isolate but this daily tracker shows that attendance has consistently been at a relatively high level. This slide shows the up-to-date position over the last 21 days regarding confirmed COVID-19 cases in our schools. Over the last three weeks 1,152 of our schools have had no cases. That's 74% of our schools with no cases at all during October. Where there have been cases the vast majority of those have been a single case. We have around 10% of settings where there have been two or more cases. I would like to take a moment to thank the staff and pupils who have had to self-isolate. This must have been a very difficult time for you unable to go to school or college but you have unselfishly stayed at home to help stop the spread of the virus and help to protect others. I also wanted to talk about next year's exams as I know how important an issue this is for many learners and their families. I am currently waiting for important information and advice relating to qualifications including the recommendations of an independent review and advice from Qualifications Wales. It was vital that we heard from learners who sat exams due to sit exams this year and those due to sit exams next year to learn from their experiences before we reach a final decision. So the review's recent consultation which was open to learners themselves will be crucial and help inform the final decision on next year's exams. The two sets of recommendations are due to be published next week. Because of the fire break the return to school and college for those exam aged learners will be a week later than normal and therefore I will provide an update on next year's exams on Tuesday the 10th of November. Having received representations from school leaders I want to make this announcement when young people are in contact with and have support from their teachers. Once again I want to thank everybody in the education family and our nurseries, our schools, colleges and universities for their continuing efforts to keep Wales learning and to keep our community safe. Now we'll turn to questions from colleagues in the media. We begin this afternoon with Bethan Lewis at BBC Wales. Good afternoon Bethan. You've said that making sure that students can go home for Christmas is a priority and asking them possibly to self-isolate is part of the discussions being discussed at the moment. Can you explain how that might work and how likely is it that you will be asking students to isolate for 10 days or a fortnight before Christmas if they want to return home? Thank you Bethan. Arrangements for Christmas are a priority for us indeed. I have just within the last half an hour finished a meeting with colleagues across the United Kingdom discussing how we can ensure that students wherever they are studying in the UK will be able to return safely home for Christmas. Mindful of individual students health, mindful of the health of their parents and carers who they're going home to and of course the wider community. We are looking at a range of options to allow that to happen. Self-isolation is an active consideration. How we can limit the amount of time people will self-isolate and other approaches are being actively considered. And as I said we will meet again as for UK nations next week to discuss progress and how we can operationalise that safe return. Thank you. Often rates in some students areas and with hindsight. Was it the right decision to allow students to return to campus at the start of term. Not only in terms of the impact on the virus but also in terms of their experience and the potential impact on their mental health. Bethan. There are no easy decisions to be made and I'm always, always very mindful of students mental health. I think stopping universities from operating this year would have too had a significant impact on the life chances, the aspirations and indeed the mental health and well-being of those students that would be potentially prevented from carrying on with their education. It is right that students have been allowed to return to university for a mixture of blended learning, face-to-face contact, and I'm very grateful of the efforts that Welsh universities are taking to maintain outbreaks within university settings and support students if there has been an outbreak. But we want to help universities do that job and that's why today we're announcing an additional 10 million pounds to support universities with mental health support for students that are on campus, additional resources for student hardship and working with the NUS Wales to be able to support student-led projects in universities to address the welfare of students who are at university at this moment. We're allowed to enter Nick Powell at ITV. Thank you Minister. How big a part did the wish to include the schools half-term in the lockdown period play in its timing? We now know to use a UK Government Minister's phrase that the Chancellor implored the First Minister to wait another week. Well, clearly a half-term break was an opportune time to institute a fire break here, thus limiting the impact on children's education. So clearly a half-term was a logical and important factor in making these decisions. Did you consider postponing a half-term by a weekend or that would have caused some problems, but perhaps not as many as it's causing businesses were complaining that even now they haven't had a Welsh Government guidance on which shops can remain open? Well Nick, timings around the academic year were well rehearsed prior to the summer recess and we had given clarity to schools and families that wanted to know when the half-term break would be. With regard to support for businesses doing the fire break, you will be aware that my colleague Ken Skates has announced a package of £300 million to support businesses through what undoubtedly will be a really difficult and challenging time. But we have to remember why this action has been taken. It has been taken to get control of the virus and to avoid a further longer period of national lockdown which would be even more damaging to those businesses that you're referring to. We'll now go to Dan Bevan at LBC. Good afternoon, Dan. Thank you, Minister. Good afternoon. I want to ask about this £10 million that you've announced for students for their mental health and wellbeing services as well as the ones who find themselves in difficult financial trouble. Of course one of the biggest stresses at the moment for students who live outside of Wales, especially in hotspot areas, is the potential that they won't be able to come home for some time. So what support is being made available for those students? Well, you're quite right, Dan. We have a responsibility to address the needs of students wherever they come from who are studying in Wales at the moment. But we are not oblivious to the needs of Welsh domicile students who will be studying in other parts of the United Kingdom. And that's why, as I said and answered to Bethan earlier, we're working on a UK-wide basis to ensure that students wherever they're studying get appropriate levels of support and appropriate planning is put in place to ensure their wellbeing at this time. That's why I keep in regular touch with my colleague Michelle Donnellan in the Westminster Government on these issues as well as John Swinney up in Scotland. From a Welsh perspective, I have weekly meetings with NUS Wales representatives to ensure that I am hearing directly from them about student experience here in Wales. And I'm very glad that they have welcomed the additional £10 million of resources that we have made available and announced today. But just to clarify, you won't be providing any direct support to students who are living outside of Wales potentially in COVID-19 hotspots. And going back to something I referenced in my first question, of course we know that students won't be able to come back because of the travel ban. I wondered if you could shed some light on when or if that travel ban will still be in place at the other end of this firebreaker. Well, Dan, as I said, I've just come from a very constructive meeting that included Michelle Donnellan, Gavin Williamson and Michael Goh who are very well aware of my concern over the welfare of Welsh students studying at English universities at the moment and my desire to work together with them to ensure that those students can come home for Christmas. If we are aware that if there are any problems that Welsh students are experiencing in English universities and we are aware of those, we relay those directly to the English University Minister for her to take up with those institutions that she has responsibility for. And sorry, on the travel ban as well. Well, as I said, as we go into the firebreaker, our expectations of students are exactly the same as expectations for the entirety of the population in Wales. We're asking students to stay at home during this period. They of course are allowed to travel for educational purposes but they should do what the rest of us are being asked to do and is to limit out as much as possible our contacts and to stay at home to help make this firebreaker the success we all needed to be. We'll now go to Abbey Whittock at Wales Online. Good afternoon, Abbey. Hello, Abbey. Hello, I have a problem with my sound bear. As you know, thousands of children have now missed school and some of those are in key exam years. Do we actually need better long term planning now rather than this sort of firefighting? Obviously we need to keep people safe. But obviously some children are being asked to self-isolate just because there is a case in their year. They might not have been in close contact with them. What reassurance is can you give parents that you're actually longer term planning as well and that schools won't shut again for extra periods at Christmas and next half term and so on throughout the rest of the academic year. Is there any long term planning to keep children in school more? Thank you, Abbey. You'll be aware that we published additional organisational guidance just last week learning on the experiences that we've had in the first half of this new academic year to limit the number of students that are being asked to self-isolate if there is a case of COVID in their class so that I share your concerns that sometimes we've seen significant numbers of children being asked to stay at home and we want to minimise disruption to education and therefore that guidance was published last week with a view to supporting head teachers alongside our TTP teams to be very clear in only sending those pupils home that have been close contacts. We continue to look at other ways in which we can minimise disruption to education looking at the latest scientific advice and also other methods that we can use and incorporate into our school regime to limit that disruption so that the number of students that are asked to stay at home from school is kept as low as possible. Thank you. The graph that you just showed us showed that 74% of schools haven't had a case in the last three weeks. Is that right? I think there are now fears that the younger generation is suffering quite a lot and some people have used the word collateral damage in the fight against the virus. It's not going away and we've shielded the old. We have protected the NHS. Is it time now perhaps to focus more on the young people and what representations and what action are you taking as education minister to get that moving? Well, Abbey, we have to balance the needs across the different pressures that the government is under. We have taken steps during this firebreak to minimise disruption to education. So if we look at the situation that we had when we were operating under the highest levels of restrictions earlier, schools closed in their entirety. Every single primary school will open up as normal after the half-term holiday. All of our special schools will open up after the half-term holiday. Specialist units will be open. Our pupil referral units will be open. Our EOTUS provision will be made available. I recognise that for those in years nine to 13, there will be a period of disruption. But as I said in my opening statements, we have worked with schools to issue guidance last night around our expectations of how those learners will be supported. We've been in close touch with the sector to ensure that they have plans in place for that week. In the wider children's agenda, we are taking steps all the time to ensure that their needs are very much at the forefront of our decision-making processes, and we will continue to prioritise education on children as much as we possibly can, whilst recognising, and I've always been very honest about this, Abby, the best way to minimise disruption to children's education is to have low levels of community transition and low levels of R. Where we have seen disruption in our schools in your paper, reports on a regular basis, that's because community transition levels have risen, and we've seen the biggest disruption to education where we've seen the highest levels of community transmission. This firebreak is designed to bring that community transmission level down, which will mean that there will be less teachers and less students that are in danger of contracting the virus and then having that impact on schools and colleges as we go forward. Low community transmission is the best defence against future disruption to education. That's why we have to do this firebreak. We're now moving on to Steve Bagnell at the Daily Post. Good afternoon, Steve. Good afternoon, thank you Minister. What has the data told the Welsh Government about the effect of schools, colleges and universities returning and what sort of factor has it been in the recent rise of coronavirus cases? Well, Steve, we have to be absolutely clear and we always have been as a Government every time we allow interaction of any kind in our community. That has an impact on our and the possibility of transmission. This virus loves people being together and therefore when we open up whether that's schools, colleges, universities, whether it's the retail sector, whether it's the hospitality sector, inevitably that has an impact on community transmission rates. That's why in previous decisions we've always had to create that headroom to allow for education to operate. So it's been a factor. I think it's really important to stress though that our environments are as COVID secure as they possibly can be. The advice that we're having is that transmission of the virus within educational settings itself, i.e. tutorials and lessons is very limited, but pupils and teachers and lecturers live in a wider community and they live their lives in a wider community and that has had an impact. So that's why, as I said in answer to Abbey, the best way which we can protect education is keeping community levels low so that when people are living their lives they're not in danger of contracting the virus and then that have a disruption on education going forward. Thank you Minister. Can you give any more details today about what the new national rules could be after the firebreak lockdown? How similar they could be to the two-week firebreak rules? Are they going to be detailed tomorrow? Cabinet Collies will continue to discuss what happens after the firebreak. What's really important is that we all play our part in making the firebreak successful and driving down community transmission, but the First Minister will make an announcement at the appropriate time. Andrew Nettol, now please at the leader. Thank you Minister. You've identified that high areas of community transmission are going to be sort of where you want to target combating the virus. But what support can be available for local authorities in that area where you've identified these high levels of transmission in terms of education? Well I meet on a regular basis with representatives of the WLGA who have particular responsibility for education and recently met with all the portfolios for education to understand what more we can do as a Welsh Government to support them. We have some feedback around making sure that for instance we had consistent levels of advice for TTP teams and how they were interacting with schools and that's why we've updated our guidance last week to schools and local education authorities for the safe operation of schools. We're constantly in touch reflecting on their experiences and taking action where we need to do so. Thank you and ahead of the half term break I know you've said in the past there's no crystal ball, you can't predict what's going to happen now at Christmas time but what about the upcoming half term and autumn breaks for students? Are they like you said they're staying in these campus areas and if they do go home what sort of capacity is available for testing? Will students need to be tested before and after they arrive from these other locations? What sort of plan is in place in this situation? Andrew, if you're talking about the fire break our advice to university students is very clear please stay in your university accommodation whether that's accommodation that is on a campus or whether you are living in a community. The best way you can help Wales, protect yourself your friends, your family and your community is to stay put and to follow the rules. With regards to Christmas you'll be aware that I am very anxious that we create the scenario that allows students to go home for the longer Christmas break so that they can spend Christmas with their family if that is what they want to do but clearly given the fact that that involves a mass migration of people across the United Kingdom we need to do that on a four nations basis and as I said that's why I've just come from a meeting where we are planning to enable that to happen. Wales needs to make its own plans but we need to do that in conjunction with other parts of the United Kingdom recognising that we have Northern Irish, Scottish and English students studying in Wales and we have lots of Welsh students who are studying in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland we all want to achieve the same thing which is getting our young people home for Christmas if that is where they want to be and last but not least we will go to Nathan Shusmith to speak Hello Nathan Thank you minister Now it's £27 million to support mental health services student hardship funds and students self-isolating thousands of students are still self-isolating due to outbreaks on the university campuses How long do you expect there to be before students can sort of see the benefit of this new funding and the funding that's already been announced? Yes well Nathan there's two we've made additional allocations to universities in two ways first of all £27 million which was announced earlier in the summer to support the university sector through this time and we are announcing an additional £10 million today so that's an investment of £37 million in our universities to help them cope with Covid with regards to the £10 million we're announcing today that will be distributed to our universities by our Higher Education Funding Council The priority for those resources are firstly to support university to deliver mental health support to students at this time to ensure that students were enduring financial hardship we know that for many students many students would usually look to supplement their income by working and we know that can be really really challenging at the moment we also want to support student led activities led by unions that have been working hard on our university campuses to ensure that the needs of their fellow students are met with practical things around the cost of food and all those impacts that a student could feel if they are either of Covid positive themselves or they are identified as a close contact we need to get that money out to those universities as quickly as possible and I know that the funding council is committed to doing just that Thank you You discussed that you have been in a meeting looking at how students can return to their homes at Christmas if they'd like to Can you confirm if any discussions are taking place regarding their return to campuses after Christmas or is it likely that students will be learning online from home next turn given the significant outbreaks in the university this term? Well no in fact the circumstances that will allow us to get students home for Christmas are exactly the kind of interventions that we will probably need to ensure that they can return safely in January so I can assure you that while the focus is obviously on Christmas in the first instance then we're also discussing those plans for January also in the meetings that we've had today You're very welcome Well ladies and gentlemen that brings us to the end of this afternoon's press conference can I thank you once again the Welsh Government appreciates that these are really challenging and uncertain times but the fire breaker I would stress is the best chance that we have once again to get a better control of this virus and to avoid a long term damaging lockdown but we really in advance of the fire break tomorrow we want to thank you for your efforts Diolch yn fawr