Figures published show the vast majority of infant and junior age pupils in Wales continue to benefit from class sizes of 30 or fewer. The 30 pupil infant class size limit has applied since 2001. After taking into consideration the exceptions permitted by law, this year’s September Class Size Count revealed that only 17 of the 4,055 infant classes in Wales had more than 30 pupils, 5 classes more than last year.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (SVG) Act 2006 laid the foundation for a Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) which would strengthen arrangements for those wishing to work with children or vulnerable adults. Guidance on the current arrangements can be found here
In a speech to school governors in North Wales, Education Minister, Leighton Andrews, has spoken about the main challenges faced by schools in Wales and emphasised the difference that excellent governing bodies can make to a school’s performance.
Education Minister Leighton Andrews has told representatives of the WLGA that he expects regional consortia groups to find £20 million of resources to send to the education frontlines in Wales.
Janet Hayward, Headteacher at Cadoxton Primary School, has been asked by the Minister for Education and Skills to chair an external task and finish group to explore how digital teaching can best be used to improve learner experience and teacher collaboration. Janet would like to get the views and insights from across education and training into: 1) How should high quality, Welsh and English language accessible digital classroom content be developed? And 2) How should teachers get the digital teaching skills to use ICT to transform schools? If you would like to share your views and evidence, please send these to the following mailbox. The deadline for responses is 6 January 2012.
This guidance does not bring in new rights for disabled people; rather it requires schools to take a more proactive approach to promoting disability equality and eliminating discrimination.
Last week each secondary school received a supply of ‘Raising School Standards: A guide for parents and carers’. These guides have been produced to help parents understand the new banding system and the reasons for its introduction. Secondary schools are required to distribute leaflets to every pupil to take home before week beginning 5 December when the banding information will be published. Please note that we have been able to bring forward the publication date from the week beginning 12 December to week beginning 5 December. The guide refers parents/carers to www.wales.gov.uk/schoolsinfo4parents for more information. We will be contacting secondary schools in the New Year for feedback. If you have any queries please e-mail us at SSU@wales.gsi.gov.uk
A suite of activities for pupils with additional learning needs that focus on 11 themes such as animals, colours, toys and water.
A series of interactive activities based on song and story that introduces new vocabulary and language patterns for young children.
This catalogue contains Welsh and bilingual educational resources which have been published recently, as well as information on online classroom resources.
This is the third of the national school banding updates, following the release of provisional secondary school banding information to schools and local authorities on Thursday 15 September. Read the latest update and the revised Question and Answer sheet
The latest Fact File produced by Governors Wales concentrates on Questions and Answers on Federation
