, Welsh Liberal Democrat
Education Minister, has today announced a number of immediate
actions to support teachers with workload and reduce bureaucracy.
The actions, confirmed in a statement in the National Assembly
for Wales, are as follows:
- To develop a Workload & Well-Being Charter and Toolkit
for the school workforce.
- To refresh and promote the Reducing Workload Resources and
Training Pack and monitor take-up.
- To further develop and circulate the training models and
exemplar case studies produced across all four consortia regions
to develop a cohesive approach to be applied on a national basis;
and
- To carry out a sector wide audit exercise to examine what
data is collected across all tiers and how impact assessment on
workload should be considered as part of policy development.
The steps announced today build on existing work to manage
workload and reduce bureaucracy, including: the establishment of
the School Business Manager pilot; the production of ‘Reducing
Workload’ resources; the scheduled replacement of paper-based
tests with online personalised assessments; and the Welsh Liberal
Democrat’s £36million fund to reduce infant class sizes.
Speaking in the National Assembly for Wales, Kirsty
said:
“I am in no doubt that managing workload and reducing classroom
bureaucracy is essential if we are to support our teachers to
raise standards. This government remains determined to give
teachers the time to do what they do best: planning and teaching
the best possible lessons for their pupils.
“Finding ways to better manage workload and reduce bureaucracy is
a significant challenge but one we must meet head on if we want
to ensure a high quality motivated education workforce.”
, Leader of the Welsh Liberal
Democrats, said:
“Welsh Liberal Democrats have long been clear that the best way
to raise standards is to invest in teachers, give them more
freedom, and allow them more time to concentrate on a child’s
individual needs.
“Workload and bureaucracy is, of course, inextricably linked to
these objectives, and the actions announced today are another
step in the right direction.”
Ends.
Notes
The actions have come from the ‘Managing Workload and Reducing
Bureaucracy Group’, which was established in April 2019 and
comprises of people from across all education tiers as well as
trade unions. The group has also considered medium and longer
term actions, which will be revisited.
School Business Managers provide dedicated support for school
leaders and teachers, allowing them to better focus on raising
standards in schools. As it was launched the pilot was backed by
over £1.28million in funding, working across 11 local authority
areas. More information can be found here: https://gov.wales/written-statement-school-business-manager-pilots
‘Reducing Workload: A Guide for Teachers &
Headteachers’ are a set of resources developed, endorsed and
supported by the Welsh Government, Estyn, regional education
consortia, local authorities, the Education Workforce Council,
and unions representing the education workforce. More information
can be found here: https://www.estyn.gov.wales/effective-practice/reducing-workload-teachers-and-headteachers
Paper-based tests are being replaced with online personalised
assessments, which are less burdensome for teachers while
providing a tailored assessment experience for each pupil. The
assessments provide teachers with information on learners’ skills
and development, offering immediate, high-quality feedback with
the benefit of automatic marking. The phasing in of the
assessments will be complete by 2020/21. More information can be
found here: https://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/171206-personalised-assessments-faq-en.pdf
The Welsh Liberal Democrat’s 2016 manifesto called for a
dedicated fund to reduce class sizes. Since then, AM has announced a
£36million fund to reduce infant class sizes, comprising of
£16million of revenue (to help recruit additional teachers) and
£20million of capital (to help building additional classrooms and
learning space). More information can be found
here: https://gov.wales/54-new-classrooms-schools-across-wales-reduce-classroom-sizes
