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Question
1 – What are
your views on whether Welsh in Education Strategic Plans are
contributing to the outcomes and targets set out in the Welsh
Government’s overarching Welsh Medium Education Strategic
Plan?
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The
WESP contains local targets and planned actions which are
determined by local factors and intelligence, targets set can fall
short of the ambitious targets set in the Welsh Government’s
(WG) Welsh Medium Education Plan (WMEP) of 2010.
·
The
WESP contribute positively to a few of the overarching targets set
in the WG’s WMEP of 2010, however the target of 25% for 2015
in Outcome 1 is ambitious in relation to the local forecast of
16.16% for 2015/16.
·
The
Strategic Objectives (SOs) in the Welsh Government’s Welsh
Medium Education Plan of 2010 are not fully integrated into the
WESP requirements.
·
The
terminology used in the WG’s WMEP of 2010 is inconsistent
with some current practice i.e School Effectiveness Framework and
in some Councils the Children and Young People’s Partnerships
are no longer in existence.
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If you believe that WESPs are not contributing
sufficiently, how do you think this could be resolved?
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Possibility of the strategic aims in
the WMEP being fully synchronised with the requirements of the
WESP.
·
A more realistic approach to
national target setting, perhaps regionalising targets, so that the
strategic direction of the WG are reflected in the Target setting
outcomes of the local WESP.
·
Reference made to the consideration
of the wide range of current provision and this is
welcomed.
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Question 2
– What are your
views on whether WESPs are (or have the potential) to deliver the
required change at a local authority level (for example delivering
provision to meet any increased demand for Welsh medium
education)?
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The
strategic plans of the Council in relation to education, feed into
the overall WESP, dependent on local and national funding, pupil
numbers and the number of surplus places.
·
Forecasting demand
for Welsh Medium provision is based on a number of factors
including a parental questionnaire, to determine the strategic
planning for provision.
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If you believe that WESPs are not, or
don’t have the potential, to deliver change, how do you think
this could be resolved?
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Too early to evaluate the potential
to deliver change as the strategic nature of the plan came into
force a year ago with one update in November 2014.
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Question 3
– What are your
views on the arrangements for target setting; monitoring;
reviewing; reporting; approving; and ensuring compliance with
delivering the requirements for WESPs (and the role of the local
authority and the Welsh Government in this regard)?
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Coordination of
the WESP in conjunction with the appropriate partners and the wide
range of service areas is a significant piece of work in light of
the significant reduction in capacity locally.
·
Update
timescales are extremely tight.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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An appreciation that the
accountability for improving standards remains within the local
authority, but the reviewing, monitoring and reporting of standards
in relation to education performance could be completed on a
regional basis, as aspects of school improvement are commissioned
regionally.
Other partners contribute centrally,
such as FE, URDD, school organisation etc. Therefore, the
WESP template could reflect the two distinct areas, with
responsibility attributed accordingly.
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Question 4
– What are your
views on whether WESPs evidence the effective interaction between
the Welsh Government’s Welsh-medium education strategy and
other relevant policies and legislation*?
(*for example school transport policy; 21st Century Schools
programme; A living language: a language for living – Moving
forward policy statement; Flying Start; planning policy)
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Including officers
and partners from the list above in the WESP Forwm is critical to
ensure all polices and local legislations are reflected in the
outcomes of the WESP, and are modified and updated.
·
Attendance at all
meetings (twice a year) is good. Participants challenge officers
and planned actions are updated and modified.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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Timescales are tight given that the
time waiting for feedback on the plans can be a lengthy period.
Time between submission and feedback needs to be
shortened.
·
Issues around translation of the
plan and updates. Capacity locally is low, cost is high to
commission out to external translators
·
Responses to the initial
consultation were poor. Wider communication to wider
stakeholders.
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Question 5
– What are your
views on whether the outcomes of WESPs deliver equal outcomes for
all pupils, including for example, primary/secondary pupils or
children from low income households.
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The
plan does not discriminate between groups of children
·
The
WESP in conjunction with other plans within the Council will
monitor the outcomes of all groups of pupils. The Consortium
and Council are currently embedding processes with schools through
the challenge advisers to monitor effectively the PDG, SEG and WEG
plans, which identify opportunities for all pupils to reach their
potential.
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If you believe that the outcome of WESPs do not
deliver equal outcomes, how do you think this could be
resolved?
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Currently the WESP does not report
on the outcomes of groups of pupils, quality of leadership or the
quality of teaching neither 1st or 2nd
language, maybe it should. How would this be
monitored?
Monitoring of standards and
provision could be scrutinised and reported on a regional basis;
the information is available from the challenge advisers’
reports on individual schools in all phases.
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Question
6 - If you had to
make one recommendation to the Welsh Government from all the points
you have made, what would that recommendation be?
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Appreciation that there is a wide
range yet complementary reporting requirements of the WESP across
the Council and regional services therefore a recommendation to
split the WESP into two templates, one which could be reported on
locally and one, namely standards and training which could be
reported on regionally.
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Question
7 - Do you have any
other comments or issues you wish to raise that have not been
covered by the specific questions?
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Aesthetic note
The WESP format is difficult to
manage when updating. Either the template needs to be altered to
ensure the updates reflect the planned actions and current
practice, to make it a more accessible to the wider audience or
permission granted for it to be adapted locally
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