 Boreda, a diwch am ymuno gyda fi borema, heddiw bydda i yn aml yn allu fel ymlaenoriaethau ar gyfer y tamor ysgol hwn, ydw i gongol fain llythrenedd ar gyfer, ddyn nhw'n gysyllt ar gwaith ydyn ni'n neud i fynd i'r afael gyda'r prif roestre i gyda'r hefydiad fel presyn oldeb. Gallwn ymgyrchau, mae'n gweithio'n cyfnodau yma ar gyfer y llythren i ymlaenoriaethau a gwahaniaeth a gweithio'r prif roestre i gyda'r hefyd. mae'n gael i'r cyfnod o'r holl o'r gweithio'r hefyd o'r cyfnod o'r holl o'r hefyd. Yn ymlaeniaethau ar y Cymru, mae'n gweithio'r hefyd i gyda'r hefyd, ac yn ymlaeniaethau ar gyfer y dyfodol pwysigol, Before the pandemic Wales was making good and steady progress in both literacy and numeracy. I'm certain that our scores will rise again, thanks to the programme of reforms that we are making, including our new curriculum. But the impact of the pandemic is long-lasting, and it continues to be felt all across the education system, particularly by learners. I will host and chair an education leaders summit tomorrow. Together we will discuss how we will drive up numeracy and literacy standards across Wales. That call to action will be at the heart of the work of the summit. We will also discuss funding and how a fresh round of austerity imposed by the UK government has left us facing the most stark and painful budget decisions of the devolution era. Our overall budget in 2024-2025 will be worth 1.3 billion pounds less in real terms than when it was set in 2021. However, despite the enormous challenges in making the draft budget, we've been able to re-prioritise our spending plans to not just protect but increase the funding that goes directly to schools. I spoke earlier about the long-lasting impact of the pandemic. We had been due to begin reducing funding for our successful COVID recovery programme. But because of the pandemic-related challenges still facing schools, I've decided to increase this funding. This will mean more money for our schools and I'm also pleased to announce further support for the provision of free school meals to all primary children in Wales, part of our cooperation agreement. We've provided more than 15 million extra free school meals to primary school children of all ages, since the policy was rolled out. We're now making a further £3.3 million available to support councils and insulate them as much as possible from rising food costs by raising the unit rate per meal. Even with this additional funding, I am under no illusions that the coming year will be an incredibly difficult one for local authorities and schools because of the financial climate that we are all operating in. I will work with all organisations to find the best way possible for learners of all ages in Wales, recognising the enormous contribution the whole sector is making and continuing to forge the best way forward for all. I want to turn now to the work we are doing to improve attainment and to tackle the barriers to it. Attendance remains an issue in all parts of the UK following the pandemic. Improving attendance and getting our children and young people into full-time education is our national priority. I've taken a number of measures to tackle this issue, including setting up a national task force to provide strategic direction to improving school attendance and learner engagement. I was pleased to see recent figures showing an improvement in attendance, but there is no room for complacency. The task force is providing advice to me about how we build on these recent improvements, ensuring that this priority is seen through and providing the best education possible for all. But we won't stand still whilst we wait for the task force's recommendations. This week, we'll be launching a consultation about plans to set up a database of children who are not registered at school, not in receipt of education other than at school, or who are not known to the local authority as being suitably home educated. Missing education is itself a welfare issue, and the database proposals aim to support our commitment to the success and wellbeing of every learner, whatever their circumstance or setting. This is all, of course, in addition to the introduction of the new curriculum, a change which I'm pleased has been embraced by the schools and teachers I've been fortunate enough to meet over recent weeks. I hope this provides a flavour of the important work which we are taking forward over the coming weeks and months to help improve education in Wales and to ensure our children reach their full potential. Diolch yn fawr. Fynau gymryd cwestiwn nai nawr, I'll take questions now, starting with Gareth Lewis from BBC Wales. Bwyr y da, minister. Good morning. If we can have the answers in English and Welsh, we'd be really grateful. I just wanted to ask you about Gilesden Farm. What do you think the Welsh Government should do with it, and would you be able to be involved in that decision given previous decisions that have been made on that? Well, I have no role in that as education minister in any event. So, Gilesden Farm, we've seen the return of ospreys to the farm for the first time, I think, in over two centuries. Having taken expert advice that set recommendations has told us that there needs to be a zone of protection around the nest which has been discovered, which means that the original purposes for which the farm was purchased are more challenging. So, the next steps now will be to look at the farm like any other Welsh Government asset in the context of the guidance and the frameworks that we have, and the economy minister will be making more announcements about that in due course. Mae'r ddatblygiad yma o radar yn dod yn ôl i fferm Jallstone yma, tro cyntaf mewn dros 2 gangrif fel o'i'n deall. Wedi gael ag i bod ni wedi cael cangor arbennigol ar sut i felio gyda'r ddatblygiad hwn, yma'n wedi rhoi cangor i ni bod angen sicrhau ardal o amgylchyneth sydd yn gwarchod ac yn diogelu'r radar. Felly, mae hyn yn golygu na fydd y fferm ymbwr passol o'r gyfer ar hyn a fwriadwyd ar i cyfer hyn. Felly, byddwn i'n edrych ar y fferm fel unrhyw rhan arall o ayddo Llywodraeth Cymru, fewn o'r canllawu'r a'r rheoliadau sydd gyda ni wedi gwneud o greg o'r economi yn eiddo ganiad pysach am hwnnw maes o law. Diolch i'n rhaid i'n rhaid i'n cymraeg o saith yn edrych o'r canllaw i'r canllaw. Senedd y byddai Senedd yng Nghymru wedi'i gwneud o'r canllawu'r rhannu'r rhannu'r rhannu'r rhannu'r rhannu'r rhannu. Ysgol 111, gan y pwylethau Cymru yw ddweud eich bod yn ffasidio i dweud i ddiwrnod. Rwy'n dod â'r gweithio pan hyn yn dddangos korcynal yma yn ddylchio rhoifyrd hon nid o'r Senedd y byddai Senedd, ac yn gymryd i'w ddweud i ddweud o'r gweithio. Efallai, fe'n ddweud i ddweud i'r Senedd eu mwy o ddweud yn bod yn ddweud i'n ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i'n ddweud i ddweud i ddweud Minister's, which I think is a very good thing. Diolch yn fawr, Gareth. Next, Richard Morgan from ITV Wales. Minister, as well please. Indeed, indeed, forgive me. Mae'r polisi o'r restre yn polisi sydd yn rhan o'r cytundeb sydd gyda ni'n gydag fflau'r Cymru, ac mae'r Senedd i hyn wedi prydleisio o oblaid hyn ymbarod, roi'n credu bod dwi'n gior Senedd yn gyfle pwysig i ni allu sy'n gyrhau bod gan y Senedd y Capasiti i graffi ar y wenedogion ac i allu ddewallu chyryfaldebau felly rwy'n cyfnogi'r cynlluniau hynny'n fawr iawn. Richard Morgan, next from ITV Wales. Thanks Minister. Yes, can I ask a question please about the vocational certificate of secondary education that is coming in in 2027. Sounds all well and good, but there's quite a lot to it, a number of courses on offer. Is it likely to be another burden and expense for already hard pressed staff and budgets in schools? Well Richard, I think this is a real opportunity because what the new VCSEs do in fact is to streamline and rationalise the provision which already exists and there are many, many qualifications in the vocational space at the moment and I think it can be challenging for learners to navigate their way through that and what we see in these sets of proposals by qualifications Wales is a more focused set of qualifications which I think will make it easier for learners to engage with. I also think it will make it easier for schools to teach but I think there's a real opportunity here for schools and colleges to work together and I really welcome the commitment qualifications Wales has made to work with colleges to make sure these qualifications are both well designed and well delivered. On the same theme, can I ask if you think they'll travel well? Obviously it's a Welsh idea. Do you think they'll have any value beyond Wales' borders? Yes, certainly. One of the key things which exam regulators in all countries are required to do and our regulators in Wales are obviously no different is to ensure that qualifications both meet the needs of learners in the country for which they're responsible but are also recognised and are portable and I'm confident that is the case with this set of reforms as indeed with all reforms that qualifications Wales has brought in in Wales. Nesaf, Rhys williams of ITN. Finland, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland have all seen significant drops in their PISA scores since they adopted curriculum remarkably similar to Wales's new curriculum. Is any of this giving you pause for thought that this is really the answer to Wales's educational problems? Well, the challenges which we saw in PISA and by the way this reflected data which we have from our own school system which is much richer and much broader in fact than the PISA scores and I think it's important to see that broader context incidentally but the reform programme that we have is yes about the curriculum but about a range of other reforms as well including around school improvement and teaching and those reforms have actually been designed together with the OECD which is the organisation which runs the PISA tests. Your question really is what comparison do we have internationally to know that these reforms are likely to succeed and I suppose the two countries I would point to as being consistently high performing not just in PISA but in terms of outcomes which is the most important aspect are New Zealand and Canada and they remain in this set of PISA results a very high performing systems and the reforms which they've brought in to their curricula very much reflect the same principles that we've introduced with the curriculum for Wales so that's why I'm confident that the role of the new curriculum as part of that broader suite of reforms is the answer to some of the challenges that we have and to make sure that our school system is future focused and fit for the modern world as well. You spoke about the attainment gap when this curriculum was first rolled out experts at Cardiff University wrote a report warning they feared it would widen the gap between the richer and poorest pupils and the authors say the government's effectively ignored this and changed nothing. Why is that? I don't accept that actually and if you look at the PISA results incidentally they will show you that the attainment gap in Wales has narrowed. That's still far worse than it is in England. Well actually the attainment gap in Wales is narrower. The point I'm making is this though that if you speak to heads who are focused on the work of closing that attainment gap in schools they will say to you that the curriculum offers an opportunity to deliver that bespoke approach to learning which can really excite and fire up those learners some of whom may have found you know engagement challenging in the past so I'm confident that the curriculum enables that to happen however it is absolutely important that we make sure that all schools in rolling out the curriculum are also delivering on that challenge of stretching all learners to reach their fullest potential and we will obviously as a government keep that very much on the at the heart of our agenda as we work with schools and the other organizations in our school system. Next question from Abby Birtic. Morning Minister, can you give some more detail on the extra money for COVID recovery that you say you're increasing instead of decreasing? You mentioned that some of that's been used for the free primary school meals. Can you give some more information on how much extra money where that money is coming from and is that money going on those free meals? Yes, so it's not going on those free meals. There are two sources of funding. So what I've done is increased the triple RS funding, the fund which enables us to recruit and retain temporary teachers in schools and that has been the program which has enabled us to enable schools to provide bespoke support for learners to respond to the challenges of COVID which are still in our schools. So that that was intended to be reduced this year but it's been maintained at the level it was previously and separately to that. What we have done is increased the unit rate for local authorities providing free school meals from £2.90, which is already higher than other parts of the UK to £3.20. That is a separate source of funding that isn't coming out from the post COVID funding. Money, this post COVID, how much money is coming? It's the same level as last year plus the 3.3 million from free school meals. Second question, you mentioned this summit tomorrow and you'll also know that the very critical chief inspector schools report is also out tomorrow that paints a very gloomy picture generally, you know, attainment in Welsh literacy, almost everything across secondary schools, attendance, behaviour. You say that the report says that there's a problem recruiting teachers. You've said that yourself as well with all the problems in schools and with all the behaviour, the attendance, the lack of money and the low morale. What would you say to somebody to encourage them to actually, if they are a bright graduate, come and be a teacher in Wales? What is working here that would make them come? What would you say to them? Well, I'd encourage them to read the report, Tramestyn, which will also explain to them some of the successes in our school systems. It's always important, I think, to see the complete picture in these, not least because of the hard work of heads and staff every day in schools who are having a fantastic impact on the lives of our young people, changing their lives and setting up for life. And I thank them for all the work that they are doing. The report does set out a number of the challenges which we face in schools and the purpose of the summit which I'm holding this week is to work with school and education leaders on the priorities in our school system, which are around attendance, they're around literacy and numeracy, our additional learning needs reform, curriculum design and fundamentally excellent teaching. And what I know is that teaching provides, I think almost uniquely the opportunity of giving thousands, hundreds and thousands of young people the very best start in life. And I know whenever I go to schools, I talk to teachers who are motivated despite the challenges that schools face to do that work. It is incredible work that they do. And I think any young person who wants to make a significant contribution to the lives of people in Wales would do well to consider teaching as a means of doing that. Next question is from Claire Board. So when the PISA results came out, Wales was bottom of the four UK nations and in fact Wales has been bottom of the four UK nations since at least 2006. What isn't clicking in Wales that's working for all the other countries in the United Kingdom? Well actually, the picture is slightly more nuanced than that. If you look at the figures in 2018, you'll have seen that Wales was the only part of the UK that was improving in all three domains of PISA. We've seen in the last set of PISA results right across the world the impact of Covid which is variable across different countries. What we have been embarked on in Wales for a number of years is a programme of reform working together with the OECD in relation to our school system and how we can make sure it's fit for the future. And so that is partly about the curriculum, but as I was saying earlier, only partly about that. It's also about an approach to inspection. It's about an approach to school improvement, to the professional learning of teachers. So there's a holistic vision which underpins the suite of reforms which we are introducing, some of which instantly will not have yet impacted on the learners who took the PISA tests last year. So those reforms are in the system. They haven't yet been tested as it were through PISA and I'm confident that coupled with the focus I'm bringing on literacy and numeracy, that they will mean that our results increase into the future and set us on that path to better outcomes overall. You mentioned budget issues from the UK government have been an issue when it's come to educational results in Wales, but what do you think the Welsh Government could improve on? Yes, the UK government are providing the money, but it's still you making the decisions. Yes, and I've just outlined to you what we are doing with that. I think it's, you know, one shouldn't just set aside the funding challenges because they're very real and what they have meant is incredibly difficult decisions, which ministers right across the government have had to make in their budgets, which no minister wants to make and doesn't reflect our long term preferences for the budget, but that is the reality. Our budget is worth £1.3 billion less and in that context, every minister has had to make reductions in the budget. What I've been able to do, recognising the points which a number of colleagues have made this morning is to protect and indeed increase the funding available to schools. I absolutely recognise that local authorities and schools and cells will still be under incredible pressure as indeed is the Welsh Government's budget, but our commitment is to make sure that we provide the level of protection we can to schools and we've been able to increase the funding in my budget, which supports that wide range of reforms that I've just been talking about today. Bronwyn, whether it be from LBC, please. Boredar, good morning. You mentioned absenteeism. I believe the latest figures show that one in five pupils in England are persistently absent. I wondered how does Wales's figure compare with that and what is believed to be behind such high levels of absence? Thank you, Bronwyn. The basis on which the governments in the UK compile data for absence is different, so a direct comparison is not straightforward. What we know in Wales is that the figures compared to the year before have increased, but let's be clear. I don't take much comfort from that. It's a positive trend, but it certainly isn't sufficient and that's why the work of the attendance task force is absolutely critical and what we have as part of that is a range of professionals and from a range of agencies. Of course we have education represented in a number of different ways, but we also have representation from health, from social services and from parents and beyond and what we are learning is that the underlying reasons for absence for an awful lot of young people are complex. Now, alongside the work of a task force, you'll know that I've changed the guidance in this area so that the support available is deeper and faster if you like, so for those who have followed this discussion previously in order to get that support, a young person had to be persistently absent, which is absent for 20% of the time. We've reduced that now to 10% of the time so that the support is available sooner. But that work of that multi agency approach is a really important way for us to tackle what is a very, very worrying situation. Thank you and secondly then in your opinion as a government minister, how concerned are you that unions may be using undemocratic means to back a candidate for the next first minister when whoever is chosen as you know will make decisions that affect the entire country and are you confident that that process of electing the next first minister is transparent and fair? Well Bronwyn, that isn't a question for a Welsh government press conference and I've already made a statement and I have nothing to add to that statement. Emma Seith from TES. Thank you. I was just wondering about the creation of this database of children missing from education. I was just wondering if you could maybe explain why we don't already know who these children are and do we have any sense of how many children are missing and when we do know who they are you just sort of maybe talk us through what will happen, what will happen? Certainly Emma, this is part of a suite of reforms which we've introduced in relation to children who are educated at home. So part of that has been around the database. We've also introduced new guidance but also we have in Wales a package of funding which local authorities are able to use to support those who learn at home. Some of that is around access to exam centres. Some of it is around the more direct support and we've also designed a handbook to support those who choose to educate at home. So this is one part of a broader set of set of policies in relation to home education and the purpose of the database proposal is to make sure that local authorities are able to identify those who are educated at home and then to be able to make sure that they're receiving a suitable education which is part of their statutory duty. Just another question just about the announcement today about the full range of qualifications for 14 to 16 year olds. How is the government going to ensure that people's access to a good range of those qualifications given the budgetary problems that schools are facing? Well they replace qualifications that are currently being taught in schools and what I was saying earlier what they do is provide a more streamlined updated set of qualifications which reflect are the changes to our curriculum in Wales. So in that sense there are more more focus and streamline version of what's currently being taught. Obviously there's a period now of design the first teaching of the new curriculums of the new qualifications have been 2027 first awarding rather. So that is the that's the timescale that we're looking at. David Nicholson morning star. Morning minister. On the vocational qualifications. Is a lane not likely to be undermined by the cuts to the apprenticeship budget that's just happened as part of the Welsh government budget cuts? No David we don't expect that to happen from 2027. This is part of a suite of an offer which young people will be able to choose from in the vocational space so they'll be able to choose from VCSC's which are the qualifications being discussed today but also foundation qualifications skills for life and skills for work qualifications and personal project qualifications. So there's a range of options for young people and what's being announced today is part of that. And on the work you were just talking about around attendance and attainment and joining up health and social services with local authorities. I mean surely part of the issue here is the conservative party local management of schools and wouldn't it make more sense in Wales for the Welsh government to bring schools back into local authorities so that they can coordinate all these things across the different statutory functions they perform in supporting children. If an approach in Wales to the approach in England schools are delivered by education is delivered by local authorities in Wales and that is exactly what enables us to have that more joined up approach. There are interventions which the government will do in England which suit the arrangements they have there ours are much more joined up here in Wales because of the nature of our school system. So there are opportunities to connect the support that we provide to families and in the discussion we've had so far in the task force. There's been a real appetite for that but also recognising the perspective of parents in this and I think one of the challenges that we are facing is that the approach and the appreciation of the importance of attendance in school has in fact changed as a consequence of learners being at home for periods during COVID and you know that is a challenging change for us to grapple with but there are other aspects as well and so that multi agency approach I absolutely think is the solution to to this challenge. So is that known to bringing schools out of local management by themselves into local authority control? Well they are already in local authority they provide schools are our system in Wales David is very different from the system in England as you know decisions are taken at a school level but within a very clear framework of local authority control and I think that is the best way for us to make sure that our young people in Wales get the best schooling. Diolch yn fawr.