How is the Welsh Government planning to remedy the post-pandemic decline in Welsh language attainment in schools?
The pandemic has had a significant impact on learning, both through the amount of time that all children and young people missed from school; the differential experience of this in different schools and areas; the greater impact on those impacted by poverty or have additional learning needs; and the distinctive impact on very young children who missed key developmental steps. The £500 million we put in Renew and Reform over 2021/22 and 2022/23 was designed to coordinate our support for those most impacted by Covid, and the recent evaluation of the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards programme demonstrates the beneficial impact of our support.
We continue to work closely with regional consortia and local authorities to ensure that there are high quality teaching and learning and professional learning resources available to support the teaching of Welsh.
We have also worked with headteachers and our partners to develop a draft resource to support leaders to evaluate their journey to develop the Welsh language in their school. This is currently being piloted and will be revised in the spring based on feedback.
In respect of Welsh medium schools, earlier this year I launched a toolkit to further support high standards of oracy and reading in both Welsh and English medium schools and settings.
Estyn is currently undertaking a thematic review on developing Welsh reading skills, which will report in June 2024. This report will inform the next phase of this essential area of work.
Local authorities must prepare a Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESPs) which details its proposals to improve the planning and standards of the provision of education through the medium of Welsh. All local authorities submitted their WESPs annual review reports in July 2023 outlining progress made within the first year of the Plan and I have provided feedback to each local authority on their reports. I expect to see all local authorities grow their Welsh-medium education provision over the next 10 years – and support those delivering and accessing it.