Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg
Our national mission to transform education is gathering momentum, and our ambitious programme is coming together.
This Autumn I look forward to talking to Heads in all our regions about how each element of reform is coming together to support our new curriculum and our ambitions for the future of all our children.
We’ll celebrate current successes as well. Our progress in the way we have worked together on developing the new curriculum and ALN reforms. The way Wales improved in the A level rankings and are now first for A* compared to the English regions and Northern Ireland.
Consortia colleagues have worked with my officials to develop the conferences, which will have consistent content across the country to put us all on the same footing, but adapted to local needs.
What will we be discussing?
Leadership at a time like this is crucial. So we’ll look at how we build leadership capacity, including middle leadership, and the leadership role in curriculum planning.
We’ll discuss the professional learning programme, with national and regional elements, which will begin for leaders in January 2020 and for wider staff from the end of Spring term. This support, delivered regionally, is part of a £24m investment in preparing staff properly to realise the curriculum in 2022.
And crucially we will be talking through profound changes to accountability. This can’t be rushed, because we all know the danger of unintended consequences, but pilots on self-evaluation, with an eye to peer assessment, are already underway. Schools will be evaluated in their own context, supported by bespoke target setting. Meanwhile interim performance measures are in place. Headteachers will always be front and central in being required to demonstrate good performance, so it’s only right that their views are central too – the ultimate reality check.
We’ll also consider Additional Learning needs and preparation for rolling out the new system from September 2021.
So Headteachers, if you haven’t already booked onto your local Regional Consortia conference, the first of which is this Thursday in Central South, then please get in touch with them to get registered. I look forward to seeing you there!