16/05/2017 Welsh Assembly

And the provision by the Academy. I want people to aspire to come to a

Welsh institution to train to be a teacher because they are the best

institutions that deliver that training. Time is a real issue and

constructions in budgets to make the time for professional learning a

real challenge. But why we have got to be much more creative about how

we provide professional learning opportunities, not in the very

old-fashioned way. There is so much to be games simply by department to

department working. One of the real challenges we have got in schools is

not that that school is better than that school over there in another

county, it is in-school variation. We can have high performing

departments in one area and a low performing one in another. Getting

the school to work itself together to raise its stone is -- it

standards internally is a situation I would like to see happen more.

This has to be taken as a whole package. It will not succeed without

reforms to initial teacher education, so it is very important

we look at all this in the picture and this is about creating education

system that is a source of national pride and holds the profession up to

be the high status profession we would all wanted to be. Thank you to

your statement, Cabinet Secretary. If the Academy is responsible for

brokering and quality assuring leadership programmes, it is going

to need to employ staff, I don't dispute that. The question I want to

ask is what size the Academy is likely to be, how many are likely to

be on the board and how many employees will it need? How will the

board of the Academy be held to account for the performance of the

Academy? Will we wind up with a similar situation as health boards

where, despite repeated failings, known on the health board is held

properly to account? You also state you are continuing to consult on the

full role and remit of the Academy. Can you give any indication as to

when the Academy's fal Rolan dream it will be finalised and the details

announced? -- full role and remit. I would like you to confirm whether it

will be equal across Wales. The Cabinet Secretary states the Welsh

Government has also been improving a range of leadership programmes for

heads and middle leaders but can the Cabinet Secretary please clarify

whether those programmes brokered by the Academy will replace all set by

those already in existence? If it is the latter, will the Cabinet

Secretary please explain how the new programmes will be coordinated with

existing ones? I support the Cabinet Secretary's objective to improve

leadership in schools and give school leaders the help they need

but there is a lack of detail in this statement and I look forward to

hearing that detail engine course. I genuinely hope this Academy will

succeed but we will see what happens. Thank you. Can I thank

Michelle for her optimistic outlook on the future of school leadership

in Wales. What I should have done, in answer to perhaps questions from

Darren and Clare Griffiths and indeed to Michelle, the chair of the

Shadow board I am sure would be very happy to meet with spokespeople or

indeed other Assembly members to gain a deeper understanding of the

full processes. I'm fortunate that I get to meet and on a regular basis

but I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I extend that opportunity to Assembly

members if they would like to engage with her on that. It is my

anticipation that the existing programmes will come into the

Academy, but some of the questions Academy, but some of the questions

that Michelle raised, we simply haven't got the answers yet. That is

the focus of our ongoing work. As I said in my statement, we have road

shows organised for next month and the establishment of an internal

Welsh Government Project board to take the project forward. By July, I

expect work to begin to set up the Academy, including the articles of

association, the terms of reference, board members and transition from

the Shadow board to the new board. Once the counties are established

for priorities will be given to the public appointment of a CEO and

chair and I want that to be under the terms of Nolan and public

appointments and then from the spring, the board, the Shadow board,

will morph into the new organisation. Some of the details

Michelle has asked for have not yet been agreed. Like I have done today,

I am willing to come back to the chamber to update the chamber as

those decisions are taken by me. We have three more speakers and can I

just remind everybody that we have had one spokesperson from every

party now, so can I just ask for a short preamble and short questions

and shorter answers? Thank you. I would like to warmly support the

passion you have a nurturing leadership as a way of achieving

excellence in standards. Can I just ask a couple of questions about how

you see this sitting within the existing landscape of initiatives,

bearing in mind we are meant to be doing fewer things and keeping

things simple. How in particular juicy this fitting in with the

consortia and local education authorities -- do you see this. We

have a cluttered landscape. Secondly, we have an emphasis on

school to school support for raising school standards and there is, as

winner, excellence already in leadership all across Wales. How do

we see existing leaders supporting emerging leaders and finally, you

mentioned in your statement that you said the quality of the education

system cannot exceed the quality of our teachers. As we know, half the

school workforce learning support assistants and I do feel they are a

neglected part of the. How do you see that workforce being captured

within the spirit of the Academy? You wanted to give short answer is

that those are big questions, big, big questions. Ahn higher level

teaching assistants, you're quite right, they are a crucial part of

our workforce and we have seen the development of high level teaching

assistants over the last Assembly term and we want to accelerate the

number of teaching assistants that can access those training

opportunities to raise their qualifications and as I said in

answer earlier, while the Academy will look at school leaders and

potential leaders, we want the Academy to look at leadership at all

levels, including teaching assistants. With regards to school

to school working, it's absolutely crucial as part of the self

improving system that we provide those opportunities for people to

see what good looks like. Sometimes, when you go to a school, it's not

because people want to get up and do a bad job in the morning but simply

they do not know what good looks like and giving them the opportunity

to see what excellent leadership and what great teaching looks like is

absolutely crucial and as part of our work on school to school

working, that is what we are focusing on, to give people the

opportunity to meant all, to work together and work together in

classrooms to use excellent practice we already have. . I totally about

improving learning, if you go to the firm partnership, their professional

learning is developed by live coaching. Teachers are actively

professional learning as they professional learning as they

deliver this lesson. Try this, have you thought about this? So we are

investing in that kind of support.