Putting learners first

It’s no surprise that in 2020-21 all providers prioritised learners’ wellbeing. They built on links with families and set up ways to keep in touch with learners. This meant that they could identify and address issues quickly – which was particularly important for vulnerable learners, who struggled most with lockdown.

In many cases, being more involved with learners and their families led to education providers becoming vital sources of support and guidance for their communities.

In turn, schools and settings better understood their communities, which benefited learners and their families as they developed confidence in providers. 

These relationships are likely to help schools’ vision and aspirations for Curriculum for Wales.  Contributions from families and the wider community can help them to understand the needs of their learners and how they can realise the four purposes of the curriculum.

Supporting staff

We can’t underestimate the impact of the last academic year on those working in education. Our Chief Inspector at that time highlighted their ‘remarkable resilience’.

The pressure on staff was unprecedented. They managed challenging situations and made themselves increasingly accessible to learners and their families.

We often saw leaders placing the health, welfare and safety of their staff above their own wellbeing. And this was on top of prioritising the wellbeing of their learners and families.

Adapting practice

Non-maintained settings, schools and PRUs shared with us many different ways in which they adapted. The short animation in this blog brings to life some of these strategies.

For more cameos, explore the summaries for your sector from the Annual Report.

Sector summaries

Non-school settings for children under five
Primary schools
Secondary schools
Maintained all-age schools
Maintained special schools
Independent special schools
Independent mainstream schools
Independent specialist colleges
Pupil referral units
Local government education services

The pandemic’s impact

Post-16 learners felt the pandemic’s impact differently, depending on what they were studying or training in. This also meant that outcomes were noticeably different across groups of learners.

For example, some apprenticeships continued but others were affected by Furlough and redundancies. And adult learning, including Welsh for adults, was often moved online rather than in community venues. 

Learners shared with us their worries about end-of-course assessments and their move to the next stage of their education, training or work. 

We also noted frustration at changes and delays in assessment arrangements for vocational qualifications – heightening feelings at a continued lack of parity in esteem with academic qualifications.

In the further education and work-based learning sectors, assessment for the purpose of qualifications and accreditation remained a priority. But there were challenges, particularly where learners needed to undertake practical assessments. 

Youth workers proved themselves invaluable. Their broad and adaptive set of skills were an essential contribution to the lives of young people during this difficult time.

This is just a brief picture of some of the main issues in post-16 sectors. Read more in the full annual report.

Overcoming the challenges

We saw creativity, innovation and resilience across the post-16 sectors, from work-based learning providers collaborating, initial teacher education supporting students to develop their online teaching, and a new platform that has increased the number of Welsh-language learners not only in Wales but across the UK and abroad. 

Watch the motion graphic to find out how individual post-16 sectors adapted and always placed their learners first. 

If you’d like further inspiration, then there’s much more to read for your sector in the Annual Report 2020-21.

Sector summaries

Further Education

Work-based learning

Adult learning in the community

Initial teacher education

Welsh for Adults

Careers

Learning in the justice sector

What will change…

• There will be a stronger focus on evaluating the safeguarding culture. This will take priority over simply providing evidence of having appropriate policies in place
• Inspectors will look at the behaviour of learners and staff and how this helps promote a strong safeguarding culture 
• Inspectors will talk with a wider range of learners representing different groups, in informal and formal situations to get their opinion on the provider’s safeguarding arrangements
• The inspection report will contain more detail about safeguarding including describing when safeguarding practices are particularly strong or where there are causes for concern
• An effective culture of safeguarding starts with leaders and we will reflect their impact on safeguarding arrangements when we report on leadership and management. 
   

What will stay the same…

We’ll:

• begin each inspection by looking at the provider’s self-evaluation of its safeguarding arrangements 
• consider information from the pre-inspection questionnaires from staff, parents, learners and governors 
• consider the arrangements for identifying and supporting children in need or at risk of significant harm, and whether or not all staff know what to do if they have concerns about a learner  
• check that all staff have undertaken a suitable level of safeguarding training 
• evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangements to promote and support an anti-bullying culture and check how well providers respond to, record and address any alleged incidents relating to bullying 
• judge how well a provider keeps pupils safe from the dangers of radicalisation and exploitation 
• consider the general security of the buildings and site and how leaders promote awareness of risks to pupils’ wellbeing 
• check the provider’s procedures to ensure the suitability of staff and others who are in contact with learners 
• continue to refer any safeguarding concerns to our internal safeguarding officers 
• continue to issue a wellbeing letter to a provider if there are significant concerns over an aspect of health and safety or safeguarding.  

All members of the inspection team will gather information to support the judgement on the school’s culture of safeguarding. Safeguarding will be discussed during every team meeting. 

Next steps

In spring 2022, we’ll be piloting the new draft inspection arrangements in a range of different schools and PRUs across Wales. We will use the findings from this work to finalise the new framework. 

Read more about our new inspection arrangements and our supplementary guidance for inspecting safeguarding in schools and PRUs.   

Liz Counsell is an HMI specialising in primary, independent and local authority education. She is also a safeguarding lead officer She has been in education for over 35 years, previously a headteacher in three Cardiff primary schools. When she is not inspecting you will find her watching Cardiff City or playing tennis. 

Safeguarding and inspection

In every part of our work, we place safeguarding children and young people and their wellbeing above all other needs and interests. 

We’ve worked closely with other inspectorates on our ‘Joint Inspection of Child Protection Arrangements’, to pilot a new joint way of evaluating safeguarding in a local authority area.

We also recently published a report ‘‘We don’t tell our teachers’ Experiences of peer-on-peer sexual harassment among secondary school pupils in Wales. The report looks at the incidence of peer-on-peer sexual harassment in the lives of secondary-aged young people and reviews the culture and processes that help protect and support young people in secondary schools in Wales. In the supporting resources we published with the report, there are links to useful guidance and research to support an effective culture of safeguarding. A key guidance document for schools is the Welsh Government’s Keeping Learners Safe.

All education providers, including independent schools and colleges, have statutory duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. During our inspections, we play an important role in evaluating a provider’s safeguarding arrangements. 

Our new approach to inspection ensures that inspectors find out how well staff and governors promote a strong safeguarding culture within their community and how well they understand and promote the school’s safeguarding approaches.  

In the last in our series of webinars looking at the findings from the thematic report focusing on how all-age, secondary, and special schools are preparing for the Curriculum for Wales, our report authors looked at how schools are trialling and evaluating new learning activities and experiences. They also shared some findings from our recent engagement visits with schools.

What we do on inspection

We take these issues seriously and this comes through in all aspects of our work. When inspecting schools, we look carefully and sensitively at equality and diversity as outlined in our guidance document ‘What we inspect’. 

We inspect how well different groups of pupils make progress across the school by finding out if pupils feel safe and secure, and free from physical and verbal abuse. Pupils must feel respected and treated fairly, and our inspectors look at how well pupils are developing as ethical, informed citizens. We consider how the school develops its curriculum to reflect the cultural, linguistic, and diverse nature of Wales and the wider world. Our inspectors then evaluate how well schools plan for teaching pupils about the history and experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and LGBTQ+ people and of pupils with other protected characteristics. 

During our inspections, we review how well the school addresses bullying, including incidents involving protected characteristics, prejudice-related bullying, harassment, and discrimination. We also look at the school’s arrangements to promote and support an anti-bullying culture. We consider pupils’ views through a pre-inspection questionnaire and by talking to them during the inspection week, asking specific questions around feeling safe and incidents of bullying. We’ve also produced useful guidance on inspecting equality, human rights and English as an additional language. This provides further questions for inspectors, which leaders can also use to evaluate and improve equality and diversity in their schools. 
 

Keeping up to date

We work with specialist organisations, such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Show Racism the Red Card, to keep up to date in these areas. 

Thematic reports

We gather information and report on equality issues in our thematic reports. We have published many thematic reports over the years that cover equality-related topics. Our recent reports include The teaching of Welsh history including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic history, identity and culture, Experiences of peer-on-peer sexual harassment among secondary school pupils in Wales, Celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion and Provision for secondary school-aged Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.

Our reports highlight areas that need improvement and good practice in all the equality aspects. For example, our Action on Bullying report highlighted examples of good practice and made some recommendations regarding bullying in relation to the protected characteristics. Effective practice is published regularly on our website. 

The public sector equality duty 

The public sector equality duty means that schools have to have due regard for the need to promote equality, eliminate discrimination and foster good relations on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, sex, sexual orientation and disability. There is also a range of specific duties that schools in Wales should cover to help their general duty and to aid transparency.

So, what can you do to support equality and diversity?

So, what can you do to support equality and diversity? If you’re a school or other education provider, make sure that your learners recognise and respect the broad range of diversity in Wales and the wider world. Make sure that everyone within your establishment is treated fairly and equally (not ‘the same’). Use our inspection frameworks and thematic reports for support. 

Approaching the Curriculum for Wales

Since the publication of the Curriculum for Wales 2022 the teaching profession across Wales has had the opportunity to reflect on its current practice and consider how this might change when delivering a purpose-led curriculum. Further guidance to support schools has been provided in the Welsh Government document The Journey to 2022.

Although schools have faced a challenging time during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly those we speak to are beginning to reconsider their planning for Curriculum for Wales. This has also involved considering what they have learnt from this period that they may want to develop further, for example the use of digital platforms. 

We don’t advocate a particular approach to curriculum planning or delivery. However, through inspection and thematic work we are able to gather and bring together a range of emerging approaches we see across Wales.

In May 2018, we published a thematic report looking at Curriculum innovation in primary schools.    
 

This report provides a useful starting point. You could use the toolkit to see where your school is on the curriculum journey or explore the links to specific case studies.  

We produced a similar report for secondary, all-age and special schools in November 2020, Preparing for the Curriculum for Wales.  

All of our visits for this report were carried out prior to the pandemic. It was pleasing to see how positive staff were about the opportunities the Curriculum for Wales provides. Staff welcomed the freedom to develop and deliver a curriculum that is personalised to their learners and were inspired by this approach.

What’s working well?

We have recently hosted the first in a series of webinars which look at this report in more detail. Overall, our engagement with schools shows us that leaders and their staff remain enthusiastic about the opportunities the Curriculum for Wales presents.  

Where emerging plans are working well:

• leaders show a clear commitment to and understanding of the Curriculum for Wales
• schools are developing a strong, ambitious vision for their curriculum, teaching and learning, and outcomes for pupils
• schools focus on improving teaching and learning, developing a common understanding of the ‘how’ of teaching
• senior leaders encourage staff to take considered risks to improve curriculum design and planning; where this works particularly well there is flexibility on the approach across disciplines or areas of learning and experience
• school-to-school collaboration, for example between primary and secondary schools, is used effectively to understand what the progression of pupils from 3 to 16 looks like

Ensuring success

But what are some of the barriers that need to be overcome to ensure the successful implementation of the Curriculum for Wales?

• Finding time to think strategically 
• Providing professional learning opportunities to ensure all staff understand the curriculum design process
• Developing an understanding of the link between the curriculum and pedagogy
• Developing stronger partnership working between schools 

Next steps – Watch our first webinar and sign up for our future webinars

The aim of sharing these strengths is to encourage you to take this opportunity to reflect on your current practice and consider ‘how might I do things differently’.

If you missed our first webinar you can find the recording of that here.  

The next two webinars will look more deeply at the themes in this report and schools will share with you how they have approached their developments of Curriculum for Wales.  

Further details of these will be discussed in the our Curriculum for Wales webinars series, so book your place now!

• 7 September: Developing a vision for teaching
• 15 December: Trialling and evaluating authentic learning experiences

Are attitudes towards youth workers changing?

Recently, youth workers were asked to deliver across a wide range of activities. They have done this enthusiastically, energetically and effectively. 

However, youth workers feel undervalued as professional educators and say their skills are underused particularly in formal education settings and pupil referral units. 

We found that ‘many secondary schools are beginning to see the value of having a youth worker on the staff, but in many cases, they work only with the most challenging young people and are seen as aids to behaviour management, or as support for young people with ‘problems’, rather than for their educational expertise and particular skills in working with young people.’

Clearly, in inspection jargon, there are still areas for development.
 

How has the pandemic affected youth work?

During the pandemic, the new context has highlighted the value and flexibility of youth work and youth workers. Before the pandemic, during our field work for the 2020 report, we were struck by the passion of students and lecturers for their chosen field. It’s more than a profession to them; it’s a vocation in the true sense of the word. They believe in what they do. 

We’ve been collating information on how different sectors responded to COVID-19. Again, the picture in the youth work sector was a positive one.

We found that local and national youth work providers built on well-established patterns of partnership working to be proactive and agile in their response to the pandemic. Youth workers and trainers have, over the past few years, developed and promoted an understanding of the issues involved in digital youth work. This helped youth workers to be ahead of the game when delivering services and contact online. 

As a result, youth workers across Wales set up virtual groups so that young people could stay connected. These included activity groups for young people with disabilities, young carers and groups for young mums, where they can discuss issues and practise skills such as cookery together online. Vulnerable young people were particularly targeted to participate. Youth workers sometimes delivered packs to homes so that young people could take part in activities online together, for example the ingredients to cook something or the parts to build a skateboard.

In Blaenau Gwent, youth workers set up virtual youth clubs online and found that more young people ‘attended’ these clubs regularly than would usually attend their clubs at a physical centre. The virtual Welsh-medium youth club they set up was particularly successful and is helping to change the approach to Welsh-medium youth work. 

Many youth workers worked in hubs, particularly in secondary schools, to provide support for young people. Detached youth workers continued to make contact with young people outside their homes, especially those causing concern to local residents. These youth workers used their skills to build relationships with young people, promote their wellbeing, help them consider how their actions affect other people, and signpost them to support where relevant.
 

Recent findings

In October 2020 we published our report The Value of Youth Work Training – A sustainable model for Wales. The report paints a positive picture of training (level 2 up to post-graduate level) across Wales. The first 3 main findings set the tone: 

‘Youth work qualifications equip students with a sound background in youth work practice and provide them with the skills they need to carry out their profession. The youth work sector has made valuable progress against nearly all of the recommendations in ‘A survey of professional qualification training for youth workers in Wales.’ 

‘Youth work students generally achieve well even though many have entered higher education from non-traditional education and social backgrounds, and may have faced significant challenges in their lives. Their own experiences often mean that they can understand and empathise with the issues affecting young people.’

‘Youth work training programmes align well with the five key aims outlined in the Youth Work Strategy for Wales 2019. Course content at all levels has a suitable balance between academic and practical training and gives students the skills they need to carry out jobs in a wide variety of youth and community work settings.’ 

However, our main findings also highlighted the old misconceptions regarding the role and value of youth work: 
‘Many secondary schools are now beginning to see the value of having a youth worker on the staff, but in many cases they work only with challenging young people and are seen as aids to behaviour management, or support for young people with ‘problems’, and are often undervalued as educators in their own right.’

‘After training, youth workers are not required, as teachers are, to complete a probationary year, nor are they entitled to professional learning opportunities as a right. The lack of a qualified youth worker status (QYWS) equivalent to qualified teacher status (QTS) means that youth workers do not benefit in the same way as teachers from ongoing training for and recognition of their professional skills. There is also a lack of funding to support ongoing training opportunities. Senior youth workers are not included in national or regional educational leadership programmes and this hampers the development of leadership within the profession.’

You can see all the findings and the full list of recommendations in the report. A recommendation for local authorities notes that they should encourage schools to recognise the specialist skills and professional knowledge youth workers bring to supporting the development of the new curriculum. Also, regional consortia should explore ways to include youth workers alongside teachers in professional learning and educational leadership training opportunities. Read the full report for all our findings and recommendations.
 

Strategies

Since our 2018 report, things have moved on. As well as the publication of the Youth Work in Wales Principles and Purposes, the Interim Youth Work Board published the Youth Work Strategy for Wales that was co-developed with young people and the sector. 

The five key aims of the Welsh Government Youth Work Strategy for Wales are: 

• Young people are thriving 
• Youth work is accessible and inclusive 
• Voluntary and paid professional youth work staff are supported throughout their careers to improve their practice 
• Youth work is valued and understood 
• A sustainable model for youth work delivery 

The Welsh Government also published an Implementation Plan that sets out arrangements for delivering the youth work strategy.
 

That’s the theory. But how valued is youth work throughout education?

Our 2018 report, Youth Support Services in Wales: The Value of Youth Work, outlined the place of youth work in youth support services. While clearly demonstrating the vital role of this work the report highlighted several issues. These included the lack of an ‘overall strategy for the planning, provision or funding of services, and policy makers and providers do not have one clear, shared vision for the delivery of services, or how youth work contributes to young people’s personal development and their role in community and wider society’. 

Another common issue identified was that the term ‘youth work’ is often confused with ‘work with young people’. This leads to conflicting ideologies and priorities, which does not help to support policy development. For example, youth work refers to a professional methodology for working with young people. It is based on a clear set of values and underpinned by the voluntary nature of the relationship between the young person and the youth worker, but this is often confused with the settings in which it is delivered. It is also confused with general work with young people even when there is no supportive or educational aspect.