Covid-19 has had a significant impact across the region and this has exacerbated some of the challenges our children and young people face. Many of our communities face significant poverty related challenges; others are amongst the most prosperous in the country.
Throughout the pandemic, schools have worked tirelessly to provide educational opportunities for children and young people in a range of ways. Our business plan will incorporate the learning during this time. We will build on this and ensure that schools are supported to enable all pupils to make progress.
As we continue to move forward to fully implement the National Mission it is essential that we continue to work together. The success of schools in this region is the key to the future economic and social success of the country.
It is challenging to predict how learning will progress in the coming year. We recognise that this has been an extremely difficult time for all schools and our support will continue to focus on ensuring the wellbeing of staff and pupils. Research evidence shows that learning has been disrupted during this time and all schools will need a bespoke model of support.We will continue to work in partnership with school leaders, LAs and WG to ensure that schools receive the right support to enable all learners to make progress throughout the year. We will continue to give full consideration to the current operating models for schools and support leaders to manage learning in their schools.
Working with stakeholders from across the region, the vision for CSC remains:
“Empowering schools to improve outcomes for all learners”.
This is even more essential in the current climate.
We aim to meet the priorities of schools, local authorities and Welsh Government, against a backdrop of the pandemic, a new curriculum, new accountability frameworks, new approaches to supporting children with additional learning needs, the implementation of schools as learning organisations, the work of the National Academy for Educational Leadership, and a National Approach to Professional Learning (NAPL), as well as changes to the way in which Estyn will inspect schools and local authorities. The delivery strategy within CSC is outlined within the Central South Wales Challenge, and has been developed in light of the challenges schools are facing.