Home Menu

NAHT Cymru

NAHT Cymru is the definitive voice of school leaders in Wales. We keep the best interests of children at the heart of everything we do.

Along with our colleagues in England and Northern Ireland, we are here to defend and extend the rights of our members, as well as provide advice, protection and support specific to school leaders throughout Wales

NAHT Cymru yw llais diffyniadol arweinwyr ysgolion yng Nghymru. Mae buddiannau gorau plant yng nghraidd popeth a wnawn.

Ynghyd â'n cydweithwyr yn Lloegr a Gogledd Iwerddon, rydym yn bodoli i warchod ac ymestyn hawliau ein haelodau, yn ogystal â darparu cyngor, diogelwch a chymorth sy'n benodol i arweinwyr ysgolion ledled Cymru.

NAHT Cymru comments on Covid briefing made by Welsh Education Minister today

Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru Director said: “NAHT Cymru is deeply disappointed that the announcement today by the Education Minister Jeremy Miles did not include a review of the schools framework.

“When there have been 10,000 covid cases in schools in September alone; when studies show that 1 in 7 children who get covid will develop long covid; when schools are struggling to stay open and even when they can, they are doing so with school leaders, TAs and supply teachers taking classes to combat the high levels of staff absence, how bad does the situation need to get before he considers reviewing the framework?

“The Minister acknowledged last week that the TTP system is facing significant pressures.  When the schools framework is predicated on a functioning TTP process, how can the government come to the conclusion that the framework is sufficient?

“The education workforce is at breaking-point, with staff absence having a very real impact on the delivery of education and the wellbeing of staff at the chalkface.  Schools cannot support home learning for those having to self-isolate when they can barely support the learners in the classroom.

“The best place for learners to get the education they deserve is in school, therefore it is our duty to do all we can to protect staff and learners.

“We urge the Welsh Government to sit up and listen to the profession, recognise that even if schools are open they continue to suffer from the impact of covid and urgently review the support for schools that is severely lacking.”

 

In response to the measures announced today regarding lateral flow tests in secondary for household contacts, no more testing for under 5s and PCR tests for close contacts for special school staff, Ms Doel added:

“Bringing in additional LFT testing for secondaries school household contacts and removing the need to test under 5s will bring little comfort to school leaders in those settings.  For our primary schools that continue to suffer from the impact of covid, there was no comfort at all.

“The removal of under 5s testing, which in itself is a mitigation measure against the spread of the virus sends completely the wrong message to parents.

“The one shred of good news was around PCR testing for special school close contacts which may go some way in lessoning the impact on those settings.  However, that will only be of help if PCR tests are turned around quickly and additional staff are on hand to cover any shortfalls.”

First published 05 October 2021

Please give us your views  on the current consultations

 

Welsh Government

Independent review of school teachers pay and conditions in Wales

OPENED 18 January 2018 - CLOSES 1 March 2018

NAHT Cymru draft response of independent review

Support for doctoral study
OPENED 8 December 2017 - CLOSES 2 March 2018

The Education (Amendments Relating to Teacher Assessment Information) (Wales) Regulations 2018
OPENED 14 November 2017 – CLOSES 30 January 2018

Recent consultations

  Title Created Download
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 05/02/2018 Download
application/msword 05/02/2018 Download
;