Children, Young People and Education Committee’s Inquiry into Teachers’ Professional Learning and Education

27/09/2017
The timescale for the introduction of the new Professional Standards is, at least superficially, reasonable. However, this is set against a background of schools having to cope with a period of transition and unprecedented change to curriculum and assessment reform.
 

If this was the only major change that was being expected of schools, we would have no problem with the timescale. However, despite our enthusiasm for and support of the new standards, we are not confident that the timescales can be achieved without some degree of support.

As far as we are aware, no provision has been made by the Welsh Government for staff training for the implementation of these standards. We would suggest that it would be reasonable to provide schools with some additional staff-training time and a degree of financial support. With the plethora of other changes happening at the moment, we fear that otherwise this may not be seen as a priority by schools, and as a result given less than the amount of time and attention it needs to be effective.

Read the full response here.