Letter to Headteachers: 07/09/2020

We are taking this opportunity, early in the new term, to update you on the support GwE will be providing for you and your team in relation to ‘accelerating the learning’ for the ability range of pupils within your school. Implementing an Accelerated Learning Programme in the short term will be a crucial element within our strategy but in moving forward the approach will also incorporate support for the further development and embedding of effective teaching and learning.

Details of the national programme were shared by Welsh Government on 21st August 2020 (https://gov.wales/recruit-recover-raise-standards-accelerating-learning-programme). An additional £29 million of funding has been allocated direct to schools to create new capacity to ‘Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards’ [your local authority will inform you of the sum allocated to your school]. Our strategy dovetails with national expectations.

The GwE ‘support package’ will also grant access to resources and learning materials to support the Accelerated Learning Programme in your school, with a focus on improving the consistency and quality of teaching and the development of literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum and the age range.

Further details will be shared with you and your school leaders over the coming weeks, via your head teacher forums and our existing Teaching and Learning Leads and Core Subject Networks in the secondary sector. Primary sector contact will also be made via existing networks.

We are keen to collaborate with schools across the region to further develop the approach and the resource bank over the coming months.

Our approach, coupled with the supporting resources will further strengthen your efforts to:

• develop greater consistency and quality in the ‘universal’ offer available to the ability range
• effectively support targeted groups of learners in the short term
• effectively support the development of literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum
• deliver effective blended learning models
• plan for the new Curriculum for Wales.

We acknowledge that there will be many demands on the funding made available for your school as part of the national programme. Making effective use of our adopted regional approach and resource, will, we believe, maximise the impact of the additional funding.

We are aware that this is an extremely testing, busy and challenging time for you as school leaders and we greatly value your ongoing support and collaboration.

We will share the dates for the briefing sessions with you shortly.

Please feel free to contact your Core Lead should you wish to further discuss any aspect of the above prior to the briefing sessions.