News

National Updates - Autumn term 2024

Press Release – £225.5m funding boost to support education in Wales

Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Education: Improving attendance
During her Oral Statement in the Senedd, the Cabinet Secretary for Education outlined her key actions to improve attendance, including extra funding for family engagement officers.
Watch it here.

The Curriculum for Wales grant support programme: guidance
The Curriculum for Wales grant support programme: application form
Guidance explaining the grant scheme. It is for anyone wanting to apply for funding to develop support for the Curriculum for Wales.

Welsh in education workforce plan
Welsh Government’s 10 year plan for developing the Welsh language workforce in schools to realise Cymraeg 2050.

Estyn’s Impact of poverty on educational attainment, support, provision and transition for early education: Welsh Government response.

Supporting learners with additional learning needs (ALN)
Ysgol Bro Banw, Parkland Primary School, Coleg Gwent and Coleg Llandrillo Menai share how they are supporting and meeting the needs of learners with ALN. The case studies discuss person centred practice, transition planning and meeting diverse learning needs.

Estyn Thematic Report – The additional learning needs system
This report considers how well the funded non-maintained settings, maintained primary, secondary and all-age schools that participated in the review are implementing and embedding aspects of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (ALNET) and the accompanying Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Code. It also considers how well local authorities have supported schools. This report builds on our findings from the first thematic review The new additional learning needs system (Estyn, 2023) and identifies effective practice to support inclusive education which includes developing strategies to support pupils with ALN, enhancing Welsh-medium support and strengthening professional learning, quality assurance and the roles of the Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinator (ALNCo) and Early Years Additional Learning Needs Officer (EYALNLO).

Welsh Government’s response to the report – Progress of schools, settings and local authorities in supporting pupils with additional learning needs.

Emergency planning and response guidance for education and childcare settings.
As some parts of Wales have experienced snow recently, we thought it would be useful to provide the link to the following guidance that includes information on severe weather and school closures.

School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions (Wales) Document 2024.

Press Release – Attendance, literacy and numeracy central to improving school standards as stats show schools attendance levels improve.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education has outlined the key improvement priorities for school in Wales as well as more funding for initiatives to improve attainment in literacy, maths and science.

Support for children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in educational settings.
How to help learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorder using a variety of approaches.

Qualifications Wales publishes a new guide to the National 14-16 Qualifications.
The guide has been designed to help educational professionals understand the changes to qualifications provision for 14 to 16-year-olds from September 2025 and aid centres’ continuing preparation. It also includes a toolkit to help centres communicate the new qualifications to learners, and their parents or carers, governors and other key local stakeholders.

Attendance of pupils in maintained schools: 2 September to 25 October 2024.
Management information provided by schools in Wales on attendance of pupils in maintained schools from 2 September to 25 October 2024.

Written Statement: School improvement – Lynne Neagle, Cabinet Secretary for Education.

Guidance on the co-ordination of school admission arrangements.
This non-statutory guidance relates to new requirements imposed by the 2024 Regulations. It is for admission authorities, admission appeals panels and admission forums.

Sustrans – Active travel school plans.
The Welsh Government aims for all schools in Wales to create an active travel school plan. The Sustrans Cymru team can support your school to produce your own active travel school plan.

Updated 1 August 2024 – Pupil Development Grant guidance and Pupil Development Grant (PDG) school statement template

A school level review of the Pupil Development Grant (PDG)
Findings from research into how the Pupil Development Grant is used, how it is targeted and how its impact is measured.

14 to 16 learning guidance
This 14 to 16 learning guidance forms part of the Curriculum for Wales Framework statutory guidance.

Written Statement: Report and recommendations from the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB).

New-style VCSE subjects confirmed. Qualifications Wales has confirmed the 15 VCSE subjects which will be available to 14 to 16-year-old learners from September 2027.