 Rhaid i wneud. Mae'r ddafodol a'r ddadwch cyfnodol gweithio ar hyn yn ei ddweud ar gyfer ymddangos COVID-19, ac yn gweithio, rwy'n gwaith ymddechrau'n gwybod, Diolch O'r Gallun. Ond ydych chi'n gwneud o'r llwyddau ar y statorynau, mae'r ysgrifennu sy'n gwneud i gyfrofiwyr ac mae'r ysgrifennu mewn o'r ymdweud yn cael ei gwybwyr. Mae'n fwyaf i'n cael ei wneud yn gwneud hynny o'r ysgrifennu. We know that it will remain our biggest challenge for the foreseeable future. And we know that the classroom experience will be different for a long time to come. It is now 77 days since we took that decision and by anyone's estimation that is a long time out of the classroom. Today I can announce that almost all learners in Wales will have the opportunity to check in, catch up and prepare for summer in September in the next phase for education, which will begin on Monday June the 29th. We are proposing to extend the term by one week to end on the 27th of July with an extra week's break at the autumn half term. So, what does today's announcement mean in practice? In each school there will be a phased approach. Year groups will be split into cohorts with staggered starts, lessons and breaks, meaning at the most, the very most, a third of pupils will be present at any one time. We will see much smaller classes, providing secure, a dedicated time with teachers and classmates. And this time will also include online and personalised classroom experiences, which will prepare children and their teachers for a similar experience in September. Next week we will publish operational guidance to support schools and further on higher education. And this will include information on managing their facilities, including buildings, resources, cleaning and transport. Turning to colleges, they are ensuring that appropriate measures are being taken to reopen for face-to-face learning. They will prioritise those students requiring licence to practice assessments and venerable learners. We are also publishing a paper today from the Wales COVID-19 technical advisory group representing the latest understanding of the virus with respects to children and education. This is a summary of the latest available science and evidence. I'm giving schools three and a half weeks to continue to prepare for this next phase. Guidance for childcare providers will also be published next week, supporting them to increase numbers alongside schools. And we will use the last weeks of the summer term to make sure that pupils, staff and parents are prepared mentally, emotionally and practically for what the new normal will be like in September. When the next phase begins on June 29, there will have been one full month of test, trace and protect and that programme will continue to extend. I can also confirm today that teachers will be a priority group in our new antibody testing programme as we continue to keep Wales safe and this approach will be crucial. The latest scientific evidence suggests that warm weather and sunlight gives us the best opportunity to ensure more time in school. Waiting until September would mean almost half a year without schooling, which would be to the detriment to the wellbeing to learn a progress and the mental health of our children and young people. I'm convinced also that it is only returning to their own school will we then see increased attendance from our most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. Of course, saying all this, I also know that this has been and continues to be a really worrying period for us all. What we're doing is creating the opportunity for children to check in, catch up and prepare and we will make allowances for families' individual circumstances and we will respect their decisions whether they choose for their children to return between now and the end of July. The health and wellbeing of pupils and staff is and it always will be our primary concern. I know, I understand that many people will feel apprehensive. The three and a half week period before the next phase gives us time to watch developments elsewhere and provides further checking points to review the evidence and to ensure the continued success of the roll out of testing, tracing and protect. I know that by working together we can secure equity and excellence for pupils as they check in, catch up and prepare for summer in September. Once again, I want to say a massive thank you to our education family and to the parents of Wales who have done such an amazing job to date. Thank you. I'm now going to turn to questions from our colleagues in the media and today we're going to begin with Bethan Lewis at BBC Wales. Good afternoon Bethan. Good afternoon. The government has repeatedly said it's taking a cautious approach to relaxing lockdown. You also considered reopening schools in September waiting till then or limiting it to certain year groups. Instead you've gone for an option which sees children from all different year groups spend some time back in school. Is that a cautious approach? Yes, absolutely. As I outlined in my statement at Bethan, we will be moving very cautiously, limiting the number of children that can be in a classroom at any one time, limiting the number of children that can be in school at any one time, but at the same time ensuring that there is equity and that all children are given the opportunity to check in and catch up and prepare with their teachers ahead of the summer holiday. As I said, we'll be issuing guidance next week and I have already been hugely heartened by head teachers coming forward with very practical plans of how they can move to this next phase of supporting children and families in their learning. I want to make it absolutely clear what we're saying today is not a return to how schools operated on March 18th when we made the announcement to close for statutory purposes. Also by doing this before September it gives us a natural firebreak to reflect on those experiences before we go into the next summer term. I'm satisfied that we have the ability to have more children back in school at this time to take advantage of the summer months and to do that safely. Thank you. What would you say to parents who may be worried about sending their children back to school and are wondering what is the point of sending them before the summer if they're only going to get a very limited amount of time in school with teachers? Is it a risk that's worth taking? Well, as I said last time I stood at this podium Bethan, I cannot create a risk-free environment. What we can do is mitigate and manage that risk and that's what we will do in the next phase. I think for many parents they will see the value of their children having the opportunity to have face-to-face teaching time in a very small dedicated group so that their children can see their teachers once again, they can reflect on their experience over the last number of weeks, that they can have some catch-up tuition in a very small group and that they can begin to prepare for things that they could be doing over the summer holidays and to prepare for September. We know, and I listened with interest as I drove in to work this morning, your colleagues on BBC Radio Wales that had clips from children, many of them want that opportunity to go back in to see their teachers, to be able to see some of their friends and I'm afraid it will only be some of their friends. We can't have entire year groups together, but I think there is real value. We know, the evidence tells us that online learning works best when it is supported by face-to-face contact and we need to begin to establish that face-to-face contact that will best support online learning. Next we're going to go to Megan Booth at ITV Wales. Good afternoon Megan. Good afternoon. You describe this as a check-in and as a catch-up opportunity but one union has said that those are not good enough reasons for what they say is risking lives. What do you say to that? As I said Megan, it is not helpful I think at this stage to have inflammatory language. I would do nothing and I have done nothing from this entire period when we closed schools for statutory purposes to do anything to risk anybody's life. I'm surprised that any teaching union would negate the benefits of children being in front of their members. As I said in answer to Bethan, we know that online learning works best when it is supplemented by face-to-face contact. We have to get ready for a new normal and we have to begin that process of moving to that new normal which will be limited contact, face-to-face in schools, more time at home learning in a distance fashion but it's surprising that any union would negate the ability of their members to use every opportunity to work with children. Thank you. Now I know we're going to get more details on exactly how this will happen next week as you said but realistically can children be expected to stay two metres apart and if they can't is it safe for them to be in school? Megan, for older children that's easier to do without a shadow of a doubt. For our smallest and our youngest learners that is of course incredibly difficult to achieve but we're not starting from scratch here. Over the last period of weeks we've had approximately a quarter of Welsh schools that have already been open for children of all ages and we have found ways of managing that risk and ensuring that those childcare hubs operate safely for our youngest and our older students. Undoubtedly it is a real challenge and it is unrealistic to expect our very youngest learners to be able to adhere to social distancing all the time. That's why we will need to keep children in very small groups so that they are not mixing. That's why we will need to keep them with a dedicated member of staff so we're not exposing staff to numerous cohorts of children and we need to manage that risk. But we have to acknowledge for our very youngest children that that is social distancing is a challenge but we have experience of dealing with this in the hubs that have been operating to date. We've learnt good practice, we know how to mitigate the risks and now we're able to use that experience to be able to expand the opportunity for some more of our children to go into school for these crucial check-ins and catch-up sessions with their teachers. I think now we're going to move to Andy Davis of Channel 4. Thank you. Could you explain how it will work in practice please to have everyone back at school but a third of pupils present at any one time. Given how much learning time has been lost have you considered extending the school day to make up for lost time and have you discussed that with the teacher union? Andy, you have to say that's one of the most interesting backdrops I've seen in any interviews during this process. You're clearly in your car. As I've said in my statement today we're proposing to extend the term by a week to create additional time to ensure that these sessions can take place. We've not had discussions about extending the school day but clearly the school day is going to operate differently. We will need to have staggered start times for children and potentially staggered finishing times for children. But we're going to work very closely with our local education authorities and our individual head teachers. I have to accept that here in the government we have to take account of local circumstances. Not every single school is built the same. Different schools have different sized cohorts. We have to trust in our head teachers and our governing bodies and local education authorities to be able to use the national guidance and the national expectation to ensure that that works for them in a local setting. My expectation would be that head teachers will be contacting parents to understand what works best for them in their own individual circumstances. We can set the national guidance and the expectation and we will work closely with our head teachers and our education authorities to ensure that that then works in a practical level in individual settings, recognising that there will be some variation. Thank you. Apologies for the backdrop but the best I could do. Schools in parts of Wales are already dealing with considerable budget deficits, staff facing redundancies and what they're hearing now makes them think that if anything they're going to need more staff and more funding to cope with what's about to come. So what extra funding have you calculated that this will require for schools to operate in this way? As I said I think it's important to recognise that schools will be operating very differently. I don't want anybody to take away from this session this afternoon that we're going back to how things were in March. We will see for instance one classroom teacher have that cohort of children spread over maybe a day or a number of days. But we're confident that working with our local education authorities we can staff these proposals and we will always have, as we always do, a continued dialogue to ensure that resources, the necessary resources are available. We've stepped up to the plate already. We were the first government in the United Kingdom to commit to funding free school meals during the school holidays. We've invested heavily to ensure that our digitally excluded children can have devices and my file at home so that they can participate in our online learning and we will continue to work with our local education authorities and councils to ensure that we can operationalise this safely. Can I now turn to Abbie, our Abbie at Wales online. Just moving on a bit from what's happening right now. I wondered what the situation will be in September. How much will our children be in school in September? Do you predict now? Can you say this early? Will they be spending several hours each day, one day a week? Do we know what the situation will be like then? Abbie, I don't have a crystal ball and I simply do not know what the virus will be doing in September. But I have to be clear and honest with parents and professionals. Whilst the rules around social distancing remain with us, we cannot return to education as it was prior to the pandemic. And as I said in my statement, one of the reasons for going back before September is to begin to get used to what will be, I suspect, a new way of working in the new academic year. I hope, Abbie, I hope that the science can tell us in September that we can have schools back to normal. But there is nothing to indicate at this time that that will be the case. And we have to find a way of living alongside this virus and ensuring we mitigate against the risks of the virus and find a new way of providing education for our children. But at this stage, it is too early to predict. OK, so with that in mind, a lot of parents are at home trying to juggle working and teaching their children, maybe don't have all the skills and time to do that. Some independent schools have started providing online lessons. Is that something that the Welsh Government has been looking into? And is that a possibility for our children in maintained schools from September? Some of our schools are already providing online lessons and online sessions, Abbie, and the Welsh Government has provided guidance to professionals on how they can do that safely. What we've seen is incredible innovation at great speed in the Welsh education system. If you can imagine, schools had two days' notice before they closed for statutory purposes. And we're seeing new pedagogical approaches develop all the time. But what we do know from the evidence that online learning happens at its best when it is supported by some face-to-face teaching. And that's why we are beginning this blended learning approach now with our check-in sessions as we prepare for ongoing blended learning in the new academic year. Sorry, I kind of meant online live classes. Is that actually happening now? There are some schools that are providing online live classes currently at the moment. There are some schools providing live online check-ins and the Welsh Government has produced guidance on this and how professionals can do that safely and effectively. Abbie, I'm sorry, we need to move on. I'll try and come back to you this time at the end because I don't want to keep Dan Bevan at LBC waiting. Good afternoon, Dan. Thank you, Education Minister. Good afternoon. Can I start by asking about the four nations approach? On some aspects, the whole of the UK has been quite consistent. But it seems that on schools this is the most divided issue. Many people will quite understandably question how presumably all four nations can get the same advice and evidence yet all get four very different outcomes. How can it be safer to open schools in Wales than it is in Scotland but not in England? First of all, Dan, we have to recognise that in Scotland their academic year is different to ours. So actually the Scottish summer recess starts much earlier than it does in Wales. So they had less time for the infection rates to drop, the hospitalisation rates to drop than we have here. They have indicated in Scotland, of course, that teachers are in doing some preparation work now and their academic year will start as normal in August as is their traditional pattern. In England, colleagues have taken a different approach. It's interesting in reviewing the independent sage advice. The advice to England was that if they delayed more children going back to school to June 15 instead of the June 1 start date, that would half the risk of children contracting the virus. So it halved between June 1 and June 15 start. We're going even further than that by starting right at the end of June. I want to make it absolutely clear once again that we will use the next three and a half weeks to carefully monitor all of the science, to carefully monitor the progress of the disease and the efficiency of our test, trace and protect scheme. And if we do not feel that any of those things are correct or are causing us concern, we will make different judgments. Thank you. And you've already pledged that parents won't be fine if they don't send their children back to school before the summer holidays, but with a vaccine potentially not being available until next year and with many children living with vulnerable adults or children being vulnerable themselves, will you make the same guarantee for parents and pupils who might not feel that it's safe to return to school in September? I will respect the decision of any parent at this time and no parent will be fined for making decisions that they feel are best for them or best for their family. And I can also reassure teachers and head teachers that their schools will not be held accountable for the number of children who choose to attend or choose not to attend. Let me make this very clear. We believe that those children who are in receipt of a shielding letter themselves and there are approximately 4,000 children in Wales under the age of 16, not all of whom are of school age, who are in receipt of a shielding letter, they should not return to school or use the opportunity of these check-in sessions and they will continue to be supported by their schools in different ways. There are 14,000 children in Wales whose parents are in receipt of a shielding letter and there is no expectation that those children should participate in the check-in and catch-up and prepare sessions and again our expectation is that schools will support those children and they should not be disadvantaged because either they or their parents are in receipt of a shielding letter. Teachers in receipt of a shielding letter, there is no expectation that those teachers will return to work at this time. Olygu's Minister, but is that a commitment that in September parents won't be fined for not sending their children to school? Well, I have no plans at this stage. As we move forward in this pandemic and as we establish a new normal for education in Wales, we will constantly review guidance but at this stage we have no plans to find parents for not sending their children into school. We will respect parents' decisions and I know that they will do what is right for them and their children. What we are offering today is the opportunity for children to check-in, catch-up and prepare if that's what a parent feels is right for them and their child. If we now move on to Tom Magner. Tom. Thank you very much indeed Minister. You've given quite a detailed answer to Dan in that previous question about fines. Can I make this a little more practical? I know you're going to publish guidance, you said that earlier. But when schools reopen, what in more practical detail do you say to parents and carers of children with special needs if they go back? Like, for example, on protective distancing. Well, thank you very much for that Tom. You're quite right. We will be producing operational guidance next week for schools. And again, we will respect the needs of the wishes of parents who feel perhaps their child should not return at this stage and they will not be penalised for that. But what we do know for many parents whose children have some form of special educational need, they have not been able to avail themselves of the services of the hub. So even those children have an entitlement to attend a hub, often because that is a school environment which that child is not familiar with, often because the staff in those hubs by the very nature of them rotate all the time and therefore there is a lack of continuity of staffing. Many parents have felt that their children can't cope in the hub scenario even though they're entitled to take up a place. In this scenario, children will be returning to their own school, a building that they are familiar with, staffed by people that they are familiar with. And I think and I'm convinced that many parents of some of our most vulnerable children will only decide to send their children back when it's to their own school and we are availing them of an opportunity to do that now. And secondly, if I may minister, on the issue of protective distancing, viewers are telling us and indeed I've checked this out myself that at least one brand of supermarket and one brand of chemist don't seem to be able to measure and mark out two metres. This strict rule seems to vary between 1.4 metres and 1.8. When I've challenged them on it, they say, well, we're doing our best with our space. So how can our audience, particularly the vulnerable men, be sure that each and every school knows how to measure out two metres, for example? Well, you're absolutely right. We will need to make sure that children are socially distanced and schools are prepared for that different way in which their buildings will be used. That's why we're giving schools three and a half weeks to prepare so that we can get those buildings in an appropriate way ready for more children to be attending. And I have every confidence in Welsh teachers to be able to accurately measure two metres. Indeed, that's a good learning opportunity. The children can check perhaps when they get there. It's a good number of the opportunity. Now we'll turn to Andrew Nettol up the leader, Andrew. Thank you. So we've had several concerns raised by parents up there in North Wales, of any sort of potential return to school locally, even with these sort of new guidelines. They've seen restrictions eased across Wales in various other ways, despite our health board here Betsi Cadwaladr reporting one of the highest numbers of deaths to date. The latest record that we've had shows that sadly 270 people here have died because of the virus, and we've had dozens of new infections confirmed here daily. I think my latest sort of number crunching shows that in the last month in May we've had just shy of 1,500 confirmed infections, obviously because we're having a bit of a later peak here in North Wales. So what concerns can you, or what can you say to parents that would help ease these concerns that are having? Firstly can I say Andrew, I would wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere condolences for those families that have lost a loved one in North Wales during this crisis. There isn't a part of Wales that hasn't been affected. What I would say to those parents is, first of all, we are taking a further three and a half weeks before offering this opportunity for check-ins, so that's further time to analyse what the data is telling us, what the infection rates are doing, what hospitalisation rates are doing. And as I said earlier, if we have any concerns that any of those indicators are not satisfactory, then we will not be proceeding with this plan. But all the indicators tell us at this stage that we can expect an improving situation. We need to take advantage of the summer months because we know that that's what the virus likes the least. We can have more of our children outside. We can have the windows open. We can have greater ventilation. And we need to grasp the opportunity that the summer months offer us because that's the safest time to have children in school. And, of course, a big concern for me is to ensure that we've had a period of time where testing, tracing and protecting has been up and running. So not getting children back to school as that system is starting, but allowing for an entire month of that system to prove itself before we're allowing parents and children to avail themselves of this opportunity. Follow-up, Andrew. Thank you. So we've had one of our reporters speaking with Wrexham Council here with other North Wales who have said that getting children to school in these ways once things return to a new normal could prove to be difficult logistically, keeping social distance and measures. Some of these councillors have said that they will potentially have to double the number of courses that they need. And I assume things like taxi services and other methods of transport will also be needed. Is there anything that local authorities will get to assist them to put these new measures in place to make sure that children can get to school safely as well as be safe in the school? Well, first of all, can I say I'm very grateful to local authority colleagues at the length and breadth of Wales for working closely with us, especially the leadership of the Welsh Local Government Association. Transport is one of those wicked problems that isn't going to go away while social distancing rules are with us, whether that be now or whether that be in September. So we need to begin to grapple with those situations now and not just leave it until September. As I said earlier, there will be guidance issued next week and that will specifically have a section on transport and we're working with local government colleagues who commission and buy that service for their students so that we can make that as safe as we possibly can. Although I would say to parents, those of whom perhaps who have the opportunity to walk, scoot or cycle safely to their local school, then obviously those active travel measures is the perfect way to travel to school. But recognising that for many families, school is a considerable distance away and they are reliant on council transport or public transport. But guidance next week. I think we'll now turn to Jordan Howell at Atrium News. Good afternoon Jordan. Thank you Minister, good afternoon. Universities are concerned about the prospect of lost income due to coronavirus. The number of international students coming to Wales is likely to decrease significantly. Last week you expressed your own concerns about the UK government's proposal to cap the number of English students coming here. Since this plan came to light, have any further conversations taken place with the UK government and have the Welsh government been able to put forward alternative suggestions to help mitigate any losses? Well thank you Jordan. Can I say, it is a source of disappointment to me that the English Minister has decided to impose student number controls on institutions that lie outside of her jurisdiction. There had been agreement that each system would bring in student number controls. It is an unusual and an unprecedented step within the sector, but it is a necessary step to provide stability of what is a very challenging time for higher education. We had given a commitment that we would do that on a nation by nation basis. It is a great concern to me that the Minister has decided to not just have student number controls for our own institutions within England, that that has now seeped over into Welsh institutions, Scottish and Northern Irish ones. The devolved administrations have collectively voiced our concerns. I spoke to the Minister on Monday about this and fortunately the Westminster government have ignored those concerns. We are consulting with our Higher Education Funding Council about how student number controls will work here in Welsh institutions. That finished on June 1 and we will be making an announcement shortly of how we intend to proceed in this regard. I have no issue with the principle of student number controls, but each nation needs to trust each other to get those right and we do not need to be encroaching on to other people's institutions. Thank you. On returning university students across Wales many are currently in limbo with some debating a deferral over a significant period of remote learning. What would you say to reassure them that remote learning will not give them a disadvantage over the normal teaching methods they may receive, especially for practical courses, and would you urge all Welsh universities to confirm their plan for teaching as soon as possible? Well, as I said in my statement earlier, we will be publishing guidance for both, not just schools next week, but also for FE and HE. And I know institutions here in Wales are working very, very hard to establish what operations will look like in the start of the new academic year. I think it is inevitable and we have already seen some announcements from some other institutions that there will be a blended learning approach, perhaps with larger lectures being held online and therefore limiting the number of people that gather in spaces within the university campus. Focusing on small group face-to-face teaching, it is very clear that whichever part of the education sector we are looking at, there has to be new ways of working, but the education sector can be really innovative. We have seen that already during this crisis and I expect that that innovation will continue, whether that be in schools, colleges or in universities. But I think it is right, it is only fair for students or prospective students to know what their experience is going to look like and I know universities are very keen to be explicit as quickly as possible so that students know what the new academic year will look like for them. That brings our questions to a close this afternoon. Can I thank you once again for taking the time on trouble to be with us this afternoon? Good afternoon.