 Panhaeun dda, paub. Llywodraeth fydd yn eistedd, ac mae'r bwysig yn gweithredu hynny – croesol mawr – yn unig o'r studenau sy'n mwynhau ar gael o'r busgau. Mae'n unig i'ch gweithio mewn ysgol oedd ysgol i'r busgau sydd wedi'u iawn. Mae'r bwysig yn unig o'r busgau sy'n unig o'r busgau sydd yng nghydfyrdd ar ddatblygu'r busgau sydd yn unig o'r brosidau sgol, ac mae'n gwybod bod ar gyfer ymddangos yma ar gyfer ysgol o'r busgau o'r busgau. ddiwethaf, gyda'r ddweud, ond mae'n rhai ddiwethaf a'r ddweud. Mae'n ddod i'r holl yn cael ei ddweud, a gwnaethef o'r ffordd yma i'n ddwy'r gwaith gyda'r ddweud, ond ei wneud hynny i ddod i'r holl yn cael ei ddweud. Ymgyrchai'n ddigon o'r unigol, ac oeddwn ni'n ddod i ffodol, ddod i'r holl yn cael ei ddweud, oysters to coronavirus tests, high quality blended learning, and ensuring access to items such as food, toiletries and mental health and well-being support if they are required to self-isolate. University staff have been incredibly flexible, changing their plans to ensure that any disruption to students are kept to a minimum and trying to make university life as close to as normal as can be under the circumstances. I believe that face-to-face tutorials remain a crucial part of any learning experience and universities are rightly maximising the space that they have across their estates to allow these activities to go ahead in a safe and COVID secure way. The £27 million extra that I have already announced to support higher education, investment and recovery will help maintain quality teaching and research throughout this academic year. We are working with universities to set up walking centres on campus or near to campuses, especially to support people who cannot drive to one of our coronavirus driving test centres. Many of our universities are in locations, of course, that are currently subject to our local restrictions. These restrictions will be temporary, but they are also crucial in keeping us all safe, in keeping Wales safe. This means, like everyone in those local areas, I'm appealing to students to follow those rules. You must not meet indoors with anyone outside of your immediate household and neither should you leave your local authority area without good reason. So please, remember, first and foremost, look after yourself and think carefully about the risks that you're taking when you undertake activities. If you have symptoms of coronavirus, you must self-isolate and get a test. Please don't go back home if you have symptoms. That potentially takes the virus with you, so staying at your university, that's the best way in which you can look after your family. Please also download the NHS COVID-19 app, which will help in the fight against the virus. And please look out for one another. This is undoubtedly a difficult time for everyone and more than ever, we all need to support one another. We all have a part to play to help contain coronavirus and by following public health guidance we can all look forward to getting back to doing things that we miss doing the most and I know that students on Welsh university campuses are committed to playing their part in doing the right thing. So thank you. Of course, there's the issue of Christmas. Now maybe three months away, but I know it's of concern to people and I want to be clear that ensuring students can return home over Christmas is a priority for me and for this government and we will be working with universities to ensure that that can happen. Many of you will want to cross counties and countries at that time and I have already discussed the issue with my counterparts in the United Kingdom to make sure that we can support you to do that when the time comes. Now if we move to the issue of schools, it's a month since schools came back and I would like to provide the latest data that we have on attendance and the number of cases reported. As you will see from our first slide it shows the latest attendance figures for schools and you will note that following the first fortnight of a phased return attendance has remained constant at around 80%. This takes into account pupils who have been asked to self-isolate. Moving to the second slide, this data comes from Public Health Wales and it shows the number of state schools which have reported cases of coronavirus. You will see that the vast majority of schools have no reported cases and where there has been a case most of them have been reported as a single case as you will see. This shows that the number of reported cases across our school system remains low at this time. Schools are using the testing system and are taking action so that any affected pupils or staff testing positive for coronavirus are self-isolating and minimising the impact on the rest of the school. As always the education family in Wales is working together incredibly hard to ensure that our young people can continue to learn in a safe and secure way and that we support each other without well-being and to ensure the very best outcomes for children, young people and students and as always I am grateful to the professionals who are out there day to day delivering these services, delivering for children. So thank you very much for being with us and I will now turn to questions from our colleagues in the media and today we're going to start with Bethan Lewis at BBC Wales and her splendid new surroundings. Good afternoon Bethan. Good afternoon Minister. The fact that telling students that they might not be able to go home over Christmas hasn't been ruled out has caused a lot of anxiety over the past few days and couple of weeks. Beyond saying it's a priority what are the specific measures you're discussing to make sure that any student that wants to go home on Christmas can do that? Well Bethan let's be absolutely clear we're not saying that students cannot return home for Christmas. As a mother who sent her own daughter to university for her first year on Sunday believe me there is nothing that I want more to ensure that students can be at home with their families for Christmas. There's nothing more that I want and therefore we are determined as a government to do what we can working alongside our universities here in Wales with Public Health Wales with our scientific advisers but also with other governments and jurisdictions in the United Kingdom to make that happen. So we are getting the latest advice from Public Health Wales discussing with the universities the practicalities of operationalising any such system that perhaps could require students to self-isolate before a return but also following the sage advice that made it very clear that governments across the United Kingdom need to work together on this. Students are travelling considerable distances in some cases across countries and country boundaries and we need to work together. I discussed this with Michelle Donald and the university's minister in the UK yesterday and I am scheduled to speak again with Gavin Williamson the minister in England on this very subject I believe tomorrow. You said face to face teaching is a crucial part of the learning experience already when Welsh University has suspended face to face teaching for the time being because of some positive cases. Was that the right thing to do and also should students who maybe have a course on the offer changes should they get refunds partially or totally of their course fees? You're correct Bethan. Aberystwyth took the decision on Sunday evening to suspend face to face teaching on a temporary basis. That decision will be reviewed on Friday. They did that following discussions with their local authority but I do believe that face to face contact is important for two reasons. As I said it's an important part of the learning process and you only have to look at social media to see very successful examples right the way across Wales where universities are delivering a face to face contact whether that be in environmental dynamics in Swansea University or whether you're looking at our engineering students that are doing face to face work in Trinity St David's or an area that is a particular interest to me of course is the education minister our initial teacher education students at Cardiff Met that are outside learning about outdoor education at this particular time. It's an also important part of the welfare of checking in with students to make sure that they're okay. So I know for instance in discussion with vice chancellers they want to provide that opportunities for students not just from a learning perspective because it gives them an opportunity to check in with those young people to check on their welfare and to make sure not only their learning is okay but other aspects of university life are going well. So Aberystwyth will review that decision at the end of this week following advice from their local incident team but as I said across Wales students are successfully engaging in face to face learning as well as online learning. We now move to Adrian Masters at ITV Wales. Thank you minister. In Scotland students are being banned from bars restaurants and parties. Is that something you're considering here in Wales particularly given the reports of a an outbreak in Swansea which stem from a single house party? Well regardless of whether you're a student or whether you're a resident of Wales then house parties are a breach of our regulations and shouldn't be happening. It's important that we treat students in exactly the same way as we're treating the rest of the population in Wales and I know that the vast majority of students just like the vast majority of the Welsh population they want to abide by they want to abide by the rules. They appreciate being given the opportunity to be back on campus they want to make that successful and they want to play their part in keeping not only themselves safe but their communities safe. So what we're asking for students is please follow the rules just as any ordinary citizen of Wales you are now a citizen of Wales in that sense you're living here a resident of Wales please follow the rules that are related to the area of Wales where you are currently residing but we're not considering additional measures for students I don't believe that would be fair. Thank you very much and looking at the situation in schools GCSE exams didn't take place this year. Plaid Cymru says that the use of teacher assessment in grading those shows that that situation could become permanent in other words get rid of GCSEs altogether as part of a move to the new curriculum. Is that something that you would consider? Well interestingly enough Plaid Cymru seem to be a slightly behind the curve in this regard. Qualifications Wales are already carrying out the consultation on the future of qualifications at 16 as a direct result of curriculum reform. What's really important Adrian is that we don't let assessment dictate the nature of learning. What we're doing is ensuring that our curriculum reforms drive reform to the assessment measures. Qualifications Wales have already completed their first part of their consultation on the future of qualifications in Wales. A second stage of that consultation is planned so we're already engaged in that debate. Clearly qualifications will need to change as a result of our curriculum reform. We're now moving to Dewey Morris at Guy Rhryth. Dewey. Thank you Minister. Is it likely that university students as a cohort will be asked to self-isolate if there is an outbreak at a Welsh university in the same way as students from Manchester, Metropolitan University and Scottish universities at all ask account? Well Dewey, if we have an individual who contracts COVID whether they are living in a hall of residence really important to remember that many many more students are not living in halls of residence but actually living in communities they will they and their contacts will be asked to self-isolate in the normal way that we would see in any other outbreak. Advice has been given to universities where individual students and households you know create those bubbles and we would want to keep contacts to a minimum but clearly we have to treat each case as it comes and is on the basis of the established TTP protocols where close contacts of a positive case would be asked to self-isolate. And can university students in Wales expect some sort of partial refund to tuition fees this year considering the shift to blended learning and fully online learning in Aberystwyth University? Well Dewey you'll be aware that the decision in Aberystwyth as I said earlier is a temporary decision it will be reviewed on this Friday and many students across Wales are engaged in very meaningful and positive blended learning experiences. Some of the large traditional lectures being delivered online but that crucial face-to-face contact with tutors in smaller groups. Of course remembering for some courses whether that be science-based courses or performing arts you know that ability to be working in groups in face-to-face ways an important part of the delivery of that course and that's why I'm delighted to see on social media our medics in Cardiff University already back to doing that face-to-face contact. I don't believe at this stage there is a case to be made for for refunds. What's important to me though is that that experience is a quality experience and that's why I have received assurances from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales that they will be monitoring the quality of that blended learning experience to ensure that it is what we would expect a student to deliver. Thank you for joining us today. I look forward to catching up with colleagues at Guy of Reed later on today for a bigger interview. Nice to see you, Dewey. We'll now move to Mike Hughes at LBC. Minister thank you very much indeed. A few moments ago you said that today that you're not saying that students won't be able to return home this Christmas but you are not saying that they will be able to return home this Christmas either. Parents and students alike will want to know why you're not able to give that guarantee today considering we are six months into this pandemic and significant planning has gone into the return of students to universities. You've also appealed to students today to follow the rules but information put out by Cardiff Council over the weekend has cited a number of mass gatherings including in student areas. One of them was a gathering of more than 100 people outside a student complex. Isn't it true that given that it's quite clear that your message is not cutting through at the moment? First of all I want to say I think it's really unfair to look to blame students or to try and depict students or build a narrative that students in some way are not taking this pandemic seriously. As I said earlier the vast majority of students studying here in Wales want to do the right thing and they want to follow the rules. There will be a small small minority that will ignore the rules just as there are a small minority of people who are not students that unfortunately for whatever reason have decided that the rules don't apply to them so I think it's really unfair to try and paint students into a into a narrative that is different from some of the challenges of communicating with the wider population of the importance of following rules. Those rules are there for everybody for permanent residents of Wales but also for our students. You say why aren't I able to give guarantees six months into a pandemic? Well you will know as well as I do that these six months have been a complete roller coaster. I cannot predict now today what December will look like, what I can give an absolute guarantee that we will leave no stone unturned working with our universities and with our public health officials and with other governments in the United Kingdom to give students the chance to get home for Christmas. That's my priority, it's my priority as the education minister and it's my priority as a mum. Thank you very much indeed for that. Slightly separately there's obviously the news today about the outbreak of the of coronavirus at the royal Glamorgan hospital. Are you able to give us an update on what communication the Welsh Government has with Cwm Taf health board about that outbreak and are you aware of any other outbreaks of other hospitals around Wales? Well first of all we are of course aware of the situation at the royal Glamorgan hospital in Llanthrasent and we recognise how upsetting that will be for patients or would be patients at that hospital, staff at the hospital and the community. Planned surgeries have been temporarily stopped at the hospital in a bid to deal with the rising coronavirus cases on the hospital estate. Patients who would usually be taken to A&E at the royal Glamorgan hospital will be sent elsewhere as part of a plan. The temporary measures that we're talking about will come into force as of two o'clock at this afternoon. Emergencies will be taken at the Princess of Wales hospital at Bridgend, Prince Charles at Myrta Tidwell and at the University Hospital of Wales here in Cardiff and we are working very closely with the chief executive and the senior management team at the Cwm Taf Morganaig University health board to help them deal with the outbreak at the hospital and to ensure that patients that would usually use those facilities are able to receive care promptly at other sites. We'll now turn to Kelly Williams at the Daily Post. Good afternoon Kelly. Good afternoon. How confident are you that schools can continue operating as they are with the cases rising and more local lockdowns being imposed? Well the first thing to say is that travelling and attendance at education is an exception in our local health protection areas and therefore pupils and staff should continue to attend school and even in those areas where we have seen local lockdowns attendance continues to remain strong demonstrating the resilience of the education system but clearly our schools are under pressure but as I demonstrated in the slides that I used at the beginning of my presentation we have 183 schools with a single coronavirus case, 47 schools with two cases and 22 with three or more but 1299 schools have no cases to date and what's also really important to remember is that advice from Public Health Wales suggests that what we're seeing cases associated with schools and not as a result of transmission within school it's a reflection of what the virus is doing in the community. Thank you. What's the reasoning behind the local lockdowns in north Wales when the infection rate per 100,000 people is not as high as it is in parts of south Wales for example? Well I appreciate how frustrating it is for residents in any part of Wales that find themselves subject to being in a health protection zone. Unfortunately case numbers, incidences and test positivity are rising in Wrexham, Denbyshire Flintshire and Conwy so the government needs to take swift action now in order to curb the spread of the virus and crucially we're working very closely with the local authorities across north Wales and they are part of the decision making process that leads to this decision to implement a local lockdown and my appeal would be to those residents in those counties that find themselves subject to these new conditions later this week is that there is hope. Numbers in Caerphilly and Newport which were some of the local areas that were first subject to some of these local restrictions, case numbers are dropping and if we work together in those communities to follow the new rules you know we can lift those restrictions as quickly as possible and there is evidence as I said from other local authorities which were first to go into these measures that these measures do work and hopefully you know we're confident that by working with the public in north Wales in those local authority areas they can work there too, we can curb the virus and restrictions can be lifted. We now go to Will Hayward at Wales online. Thank you. In the Royal Glamorgan eight people have died and six are in ICU after catching the virus inside the hospital. We saw the same issue in Wrexham Mailer just a few months ago. How? With adequate PPE and testing has this happened and what assurances can you give that this won't become a running theme throughout the winter? Well as I said earlier we understand that this is a serious situation and how upsetting it is for all those involved. We are working with the local health authorities senior management team and Public Health Wales to understand and crucially address the issues that have arisen at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital to bring that outbreak under control and learn the lessons of that so that those lessons can be implied in other health care settings. So just, I mean this happened before in Wrexham Mailer, are early indications that it's for similar reasons that we saw in Wrexham and if I could just push you for a clear answer on halls of residents you've said that a student's contacts would have to isolate if there was a case of the virus. If a student in a particular halls tested positive would there ever be a situation where you would lock down that entire halls of residents? Well as I said the situation at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital is a worrying one and all steps are being taken to protect existing patients, staff and to ensure that those residents that would usually use that hospital are directed to appropriate care in other hospitals in the near vicinity. What I said was regards to halls of residents we have issued guidance to our universities about how they can make halls of residents as COVID secure as possible and that is by ensuring that groups of students do not meet where at all possible in large numbers. As I said each case, each positive case will be subject to the usual TTP regimes and the only the close contacts of that individual would look to be asked to self-isolate at that time. So it's really important that we manage those contacts within those university halls of residents. Of course individual university halls of residents are quite diverse so there are some very traditional ones so trying to make sure that shared facilities are only used by a small group of students rather than the general population. But I think it's also important to remember that what we're seeing at universities at the moment is that second year students and older students who are living off campus are potentially need to follow the rules as well so we shouldn't just fixate on and just on that issue of the halls of residents. We need to make sure that behaviour across the piece is compliant with the rules and that gives us the best chance of containing and minimizing disruption to to any other student. So just to be clear you are rolling out locking down an entire halls of residents? One thing I have learned during this pandemic is that to rule out anything is very unwise. To rule out something today when the public health advice might turn around and say that there was a large number of contacts clearly would be foolish we will be guided as we always are by our TTP regime and asking only those that are close close contacts to isolate. The success of this will be managing the number of contacts with an individual halls of residents. There's a role to play for individual students in doing that by following the rules and there's also clearly a role for our universities to make sure that students are able to minimize the number of contacts that they have. If we move on to Rob Taylor at rexham.com Definitely Minister you've touched on the new measures in north Wales. Rexham had appeared to be doing better than other places and it's probably fair to say most people are expecting action for flinch from dementia but a local lockdown measure for rexham has come up as quite a surprise. Are you able to give clear detail on not to change specifically rexham in terms of figures or any other information over the last week or even over the last few days that's made that decision necessary? Okay the unfortunately as I said earlier case numbers instance rates and test positivity is growing rapidly in rexham. That's very unfortunate indeed but it is simply the numbers involved that have led to this decision in conjunction with discussions with the local authority in rexham itself. Further details will be made available when the health minister gives a briefing to north Wales journalist which I believe will happen later on today. Thank you and we'll be asking questions at that. In terms of the technical advisory cell data in the first way it mentioned that the spread came from the Liverpool Manchester Chester directions down the A55 and A483 corridors. Can you explain the science that means that people can't travel from rexham to flinch and people returning from Slovakia for example subjects quarantine rules yet people coming from COVID hotspots in England have no restrictions. The government you're part of could legislate to stop that but doesn't and why is that? Well what the what the government I'm a part of has done is to write to the prime minister to ask the the British the English government to put those restrictions in place. We've been very clear in Wales as you said ensuring that people in a public health protection area don't travel to other areas. We think that's an important part of safeguarding and bringing the virus under control and the first minister has written to the prime minister in England asking him to do the same because we understand that that would be a very helpful way of controlling the virus even further but in the first instance we do believe it is for England to make those provisions on behalf of English citizens and we await a response from the prime minister. I think it's now time to go to Andrew Nettle of the leader Andrew. Thank you minister. We've spoken to a handful of parents today who are concerned about sending their children to school once these local lockdown measures come into force here in Flintshire and Wrexham and obviously the wider areas and the families that we've spoken to they may be consistent of members that have people that will previously shield them. I'm worried that sending children to school during these high risk times may risk have a higher risk of bringing the virus home to them. Will these parents face any sort of fines for choosing not to attend school and if the need is so strong to call for local restrictions at what point would shielding be million forced and would schools consider potential closures again? Thank you Andrew and can I say I absolutely understand the anxieties that parents may have at this time. It's a worrying time for all of us and the and the imposition once again of local lockdowns can only heighten everybody's anxiety. But I hope parents will look at the slides that I used at the beginning of this presentation. Four weeks into the school term you will see that the vast majority of schools have no cases at all and where there are cases the vast majority of those schools have a single case and there is there is no evidence to date that schools are driving the spread of the infection in in any way and we've had long debates haven't we about the impact on the virus of children. So I would ask those parents who have concerns to discuss that with their headteacher to understand that the measures that schools are putting in place to keep children safe and to and to review and to review that evidence but you'll be aware because we've discussed it before Andrew parents will not be fined if they choose not to send their children in at this time but I would urge parents to do so and keeping schools open and keeping children learning is a priority for me and it is a priority for the government and even though we are subject in local authority areas now to additional measures schools and education remain open because the balance of risks associated with closing schools are much greater to our children than than keeping them keeping them open. Thank you and so in a more general sense do you anticipate that there will be further disruption to education by these local measures? The measures themselves should not result in further disruption we are very clear that schools remain open and travel to school whether you are a pupil or a student or whether you are a member of staff is permitted under nations because we understand how important it is to keep schools functioning so the the local lockdown itself should not impact on or shouldn't create further disruption but clearly the virus will continue to cause further disruption and that's why I'm so grateful for the immense efforts that are going on in our education system to minimise that disruption but whilst this virus is with us we will see cases in schools, in colleges and universities and and we must do everything that we can to suppress that. And last but not least as ever Tom Magner from Carers Worlds. Indeed last as ever good afternoon Minister. But not least Tom never least. It's very kind of you thank you. You may not feel the same after the questions. My first one comes from viewers who are young adult carers starting at university they're telling me they feel an artificial pressure on them to go home at Christmas they're worried about party things like those in Coventry and now you're emphasising face-to-face lectures they see it all as a pressure to return to an unrealistic pre-pandemic normality in the face of the serious risk to health and COVID-19. Do you feel that you are inadvertently pressuring the vulnerable? No not at all Tom and clearly it's not a normal return to university life in exactly the same way that that it's not a normal return to schools or colleges. University life it will be different this academic year because of COVID-19 but certainly I think if we look at what the alternative was which was to turn around to this to that part of our society and tell them that we were going to deny them the opportunity to pursue their higher education when we have opened up the rest of the society I think that would have been a much greater harm to to to students than looking to take every step possible to manage the risk and I think it's really important to recognise the breadth of the students that we have here quite often and we've done it again today haven't we we often think of students being 18 year olds but our student population in Wales is much more diverse than that and we will have part-time students, mature students, students who live in their community and attend their own local university so we need to make sure that that opportunity is provided right the way across the piece and not not constantly just talk about the tradition what many people would regard as a traditional student and universities are very alive to all of that. Thank you very much indeed for that. Carrying on on the theme of perceptions viewers are increasingly concerned that allowing under 11s not to wear masks is telling families and others that the pandemic is nothing really to worry about. What's the science behind that age limitation or is it a political decision which of the two is it and be interested in the reasons? Thank you. I can assure you Tom absolutely and categorically that that decision is a scientific decision. If the science was to tell us that mask use for children under 11 was appropriate then clearly we would look to act on that but the very clear advice to me is that it is not appropriate and you know and we haven't got time to go into a long lecture about it now but as you will be aware there is a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests that younger children especially have a different reaction and play a different role in this pandemic to older children so it is purely I can promise you a scientific decision. Colleagues in the media ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us this afternoon and to all of our students as I said close them out a very big welcome to you back to Wales and I wish you all well in your academic studies this year and thank you very much for being with us.