A report published today by Estyn on Financial education in primary and secondary schools in Wales found that recent changes to the curriculum have helped most schools identify opportunities for pupils to develop their financial skills in mathematics lessons and in other subjects.  

In the best schools, teachers plan a variety of activities that match pupils’ age and ability and challenge them to develop their financial skills across the curriculum. For example, in one primary school, pupils attend a weekly savings club where they bank and keep track of their savings and play games that develop their skills with money. 

Meilyr Rowlands, Chief Inspector, says,

“Schools have a responsibility to ensure that pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be able to manage money confidently. To do this, they should provide enough opportunities for pupils to develop and apply their financial skills across the curriculum. For example, in primary school geography pupils could compare different websites to plan a holiday and learn about budgeting and value for money.” 

The report also found that, while the majority of schools assess numeracy skills, very few focus specifically on financial skills. The report recommends that schools should monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching and learning in this area more closely. 

Schools should provide staff with appropriate training to improve the financial education they offer and local authorities and consortia should review their numeracy training programmes. The Welsh Government should further promote its guidance on effective financial education and include in it a database of useful resources to support teachers. 

About the report

Estyn’s report ‘Managing Money: Financial education in primary and secondary schools in Wales’ was commissioned by the Welsh Government and is available in full at https://www.estyn.gov.wales/thematic-reports

The findings and recommendations of this report draw on an analysis of inspection findings, telephone interviews with schools visited for the previous remit or schools with good practice in financial education, and online surveys of schools and regional consortia representatives.

Schools that participated in the telephone survey: 

• Bishop Hedley Catholic High School, Merthyr Tydfil 
• Blackwood Primary School, Caerphilly 
• Fitzalan High School, Cardiff 
• Kymin View Primary School, Monmouth 
• Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, Swansea 
• Rumney Primary School, Cardiff 
• Ton-y-Ywen Primary School, Cardiff 
• Ysgol Golwg y Cwm, Powys 
• Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Cardiff 

Estyn plays a key role in raising standards and the quality of teaching and education across the country through rigorous inspection and expert advice. The review will look at the implications of Wales’s extensive education reforms for the future role of Estyn.
 
The review follows an exchange of letters between the Chief Inspector and the Cabinet Secretary, where they agreed that such a review would build on Estyn’s strengths and improve the work of the Inspectorate further.
 
The review, which will be undertaken by Professor Graham Donaldson, will begin in August and is due to report in early 2018.
 
The Cabinet Secretary said, “I am grateful to Meilyr for proposing this course of action. I fully support the proposals so that we continue to drive up standards in our education system.
 
“Our education reforms must be aligned to support the delivery of our new curriculum. I am therefore especially pleased that Professor Donaldson has agreed to take forward the review. He has a wealth of experience of conducting reviews of education systems around the world, including Australia, Portugal, Sweden and Japan.”
 
Meilyr Rowlands, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, said, “Significant changes are happening to the education landscape in Wales and inspection is also changing. With Estyn’s mission to achieve excellence for all learners in Wales, we believe it will be helpful to gain an independent view from Professor Donaldson.
 
“I am pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has accepted my proposal and is supporting this review.”
 
Professor Donaldson said, “Estyn has a vital part to play in the success of the reform programme in Wales. I am therefore pleased to have been asked, jointly by the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief Inspector, to undertake an independent review of the ways in which its contribution to the reforms can best be realised.”
 
Professor Donaldson will present his report to Welsh Government and the Chief Inspector after gathering and analysing evidence on inspection, quality enhancement and accountability while supporting Estyn to refine and develop their practices.
 
The terms of reference for the review will be published shortly on Estyn’s website.

Estyn’s report, A review of healthy relationships education, recommends that all schools should use a Welsh Government good practice guide on healthy relationships that provides advice on how to deliver education that promotes gender equality and challenges violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Meilyr Rowlands, Chief Inspector, says,

“Schools play a vital role in teaching young people how they can enjoy the best possible health and be free from abuse, victimisation and exploitation. By ensuring essential messages about healthy relationships are embedded in the curriculum and reinforced regularly, schools will set the groundwork for young people to make and maintain friendships, challenge stereotypes and prejudice, and cope with negative influences.”

One school identified by inspectors that delivers healthy relationships education well is Pen-Y-Dre High School, who promote healthy relationships through a wide range of activities including assemblies, themed days, parent workshops and lessons. In another example of best practice, St Woolos Primary School work with Women’s Aid, who run workshops with key stage 2 pupils that promote gender equality and safe, respectful relationships. A common feature of schools that demonstrate best practice is that they work in partnership with specialist agencies as part of regular opportunities to explore healthy relationships across the curriculum.

The report also recommends that local authorities and regional consortia ensure that all staff who work in schools complete the healthy relationships training set out in the Welsh Government’s National Training Framework.

Notes to Editors:

About the report

The findings and recommendations in this report draw on:
• evidence from inspection outcomes
• evidence from a survey questionnaire
• visits to schools
• interviews with representatives of specialist agencies
• Schools visited as part of the survey were:
• Brackla Primary School, Bridgend
• Cathays High School, Cardiff
• Connah’s Quay High School, Flintshire
• Dinas Powys Community Primary School, Vale of Glamorgan
• Maindee Community Primary School, Newport
• Pen Y Cwm Special School, Blaenau Gwent
• St Helen’s Roman Catholic Primary School, Caerphilly
• St Joseph’s Catholic & Anglican High School, Wrexham
• St Woolos Primary School, Newport
• Ysgol Golwg Y Cwm, Powys
• Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr, Cardiff
• Ysgol Llanddulas, Conwy
• Ysgol Pen-Y-Dre, Merthyr Tydful
• Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn, Gwynedd

Sealand Community. Primary. School, Flintshire provided evidence through telephone contact.

Specialist agencies that contributed to the report were:
• Barnardo’s Better Futures Project, Cardiff
• BAWSO, Cardiff
• Hafan Cymru Spectrum Project, Cardiff
• Governors Wales
• Gwent VAWDA
• Police Wales School Liaison Programme
• Public Health Wales
• Welsh Healthy Schools Network
• National Adviser for Violence against Women and other forms of Gender-based Violence, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence.

The Welsh Government and Welsh Women’s Aid produced a good practice guide in 2015 that provides advice for schools on how to develop, embed and successfully deliver a whole-education approach to promoting gender equality and to challenge violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence: http://gov.wales/docs/dsjlg/publications/commsafety/151020-whole-education-approach-good-practice-guide-en.pdf

In 2016, the Welsh Government published statutory guidance outlining a National Training Framework that requires all staff who work in schools to complete training to ensure they provide an effective response to those experiencing violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence: http://gov.wales/docs/dsjlg/publications/commsafety/160317-national-training-framework-guidance-en.pdf

Estyn’s report, A review of the work of the National Centre for Learning Welsh, examines how the National Centre is influencing, leading and managing the developments in the Welsh for Adults education sector following a national re-organisation. In 2016, the National Centre replaced the previous six regional centres and their 20 plus sub-contractors with just 11 providers.

Chief Inspector, Meilyr Rowlands said,

“I’m pleased that the National Centre has effectively re-organised the Welsh for Adults sector and is addressing the key challenges the sector faces, such as the wide variation in approach to the curriculum.
 

“The strategic work of the National Centre is an important step in creating a bilingual nation and supporting adults to improve their Welsh language skills at home and in the workplace.”
 

Inspectors found that while the National Centre has clearly defined and communicated its objectives, not all providers of Welsh for Adults are fully aware of governance arrangements for the National Centre and in some instances they are slow to react to proposed changes.  The report recommends that providers fully implement the policies and practices introduced by the National Centre and improve their understanding of these practices and of the structure of the National Centre.”

Two further recommendations are outlined in the report for the National Centre to help it hold providers of Welsh for Adults to account for their performance and to refine the National Centre’s marketing strategy to target more potential learners.

        Notes to Editors:

        About the report

• In May 2015, the Welsh Government awarded the grant to establish the national entity to the University of Wales Trinity St. David (UWTSD).  The grant is for a period of seven years from 2015-2022. In January 2016, UWTSD created a company limited by guarantee, ‘Y Ganolfan Dysgu Cymraeg Genedlaethol / The National Centre for Learning Welsh’, as the national entity. 
• The evidence base for the report includes questionnaires and other documents from the 11 Welsh for Adults providers and interviews with staff from a representative sample of six providers.
   
• Welsh for Adults providers and their geographical areas:
  • Bangor University / Grŵp Llandrillo Menai (Gwynedd / Ynys Môn / Conwy)
  • Coleg Cambria / ‘Popeth Cymraeg’ (Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham)
  • Nant Gwrtheyrn (residential courses based in Llithfaen, Gwynedd)
  • Aberystwyth University (Ceredigion / Powys and intensive courses in Carmarthenshire)
  • Carmarthenshire County Council (Carmarthenshire-non-intensive courses only)
  • Pembrokeshire County Council (Pembrokeshire)
  • Swansea University (Academi Hywel Teifi) (Swansea, Neath Port Talbot)
  • University of South Wales (Rhondda Cynon Taf / Merthyr Tydfil / Bridgend)
  • Vale of Glamorgan Council (Vale of Glamorgan)
  • Cardiff University (City and County of Cardiff)
  • Coleg Gwent (counties in Gwent)

The report, Learner progress in independent living skills learning areas in further education colleges, looks at how well FE colleges provide learning programmes for young people with a wide range of moderate to severe learning difficulties.

Meilyr Rowlands, Chief Inspector, says,

“It is vital that FE colleges prepare young people with learning difficulties for life after they leave college and help to equip them with the skills that they need to live an independent life.
 

“Colleges should design sufficiently challenging learning programmes that have an appropriate balance between qualifications and other activities so that learning is purposeful and well-matched to the abilities of the young people.
 

“Today’s report highlights some success stories where colleges have made a real difference to individual learners’ lives by setting meaningful targets and taking a flexible approach to planning the curriculum.”

The report includes a case study from Grŵp Llandrillo Menai where staff re-evaluated the way that they set targets for individual learners. They introduced a six-week initial assessment at the start of courses to gain accurate and relevant information about learners’ abilities. They ensured that learners’ long-term goals were at the heart of learning plans. Inspectors found that since the changes were made, staff have been able to provide co-ordinated support for individuals’ progress both inside and outside of college. A number of learners have made notable achievements. For example, one young person who had difficulty socialising with peers is now attending a youth club and another who had problems ordering and eating lunch at college is now able to do this independently.

The report has five key recommendations for FE colleges to help improve their provision for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities. These include identifying learners’ wider skills and abilities during initial assessments, ensuring individual learning plans take sufficient account of these, and designing programmes of learning that are more relevant and challenging. There are also recommendations for local authorities and the Welsh Government.

         Notes to Editors:

         About the report

• In 2015-16, around 1,400 learners completed programmes of learning for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities at 12 colleges in Wales
• The evidence of the report included visits to 11 out of the 12 independent living skills learning areas in FE colleges (information about the provision at The College Merthyr Tydfil was gathered during an inspection in 2016):
• Bridgend College (including Weston House)
• Cardiff and Vale College
• Coleg Cambria
• Coleg Ceredigion
• Coleg Gwent
• Coleg Sir Gar
• Coleg y Cymoedd
• Gower College
• Grŵp Llandrillo Menai
• NPTC Group of Colleges
• Pembrokeshire College
• FE colleges offer a range of courses and qualifications. In around half these are referred to collectively as independent living skills programmes, but in the other colleges these are grouped under programmes such as skills for life or foundation studies. For the purposes of the report these are considered collectively as all discrete programmes of learning for those with difficulties or disabilities.

The awards recognised the 28 schools, colleges and other settings that were judged to be excellent for one or both of the overall judgements for current performance and prospects for improvement in the academic year 2015-2016.

Meilyr Rowlands says,

Celebrating the excellence achieved by hard work and commitment within Welsh education is important. Recognising and sharing this excellence can help to inspire improvement in the classroom and, in this spirit, Estyn has published a short brochure highlighting some of the successful features of the 28 schools and other education providers that achieved excellence during 2015-2016 inspections.