Decision details

Welsh Liberal Democrats Debate

Decision Maker: Plenary - Fourth Assembly

Status: Recommendations approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Purpose:

Debates are one of the most frequent items of business on the Plenary agenda. Many types of debate are brought forward in Plenary, including:

  • Opposition party debates on a topic of their choice;

Other than in the case of Government debates, the time allocated for all other types of debates and their frequency are determined by the Business Committee

Decision:

The item started at 16.51

Voting on the motion and amendments under this item was deferred until Voting Time.

A vote was taken on the motion without amendment:

NDM5906 Aled Roberts (North Wales)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1.  Regrets that Wales lags behind the rest of the UK in educational outcomes, particularly in key areas of reading, mathematics and science.

2.  Believes that educational policies should help foster strong leadership and governance, excellent teaching, high aspirations and opportunities to innovate.

3.  Calls on the Welsh Government to empower teachers and school leaders who have shown capacity and innovation with the freedom to excel, by:

a) reducing infant class sizes to 25 to give teachers more time for individual learning with pupils;

b) introducing a talented headteachers programme to encourage top leaders to use their expertise to support underperforming schools;

c) ensuring that teachers are given protected time to undertake continuous professional development;

d) introducing elected representation of peers from the teaching profession to the Education Workforce Council to ensure proper accountability; and

e) introducing a system of individual pupil monitoring, so that teachers can focus on the experiences, achievements and outcomes for individual pupils.

For

Abstain

Against

Total

5

0

43

48

The motion without amendment was not agreed.

The following amendments were tabled:

Amendment 1 - Elin Jones (Ceredigion)

Insert as new point 2 and renumber accordingly:

Believes that investing in early education is the most effective way of raising educational attainment.

A vote was taken on Amendment 1:

For

Abstain

Against

Total

38

10

0

48

Amendment 1 was agreed.

Amendment 2 - Paul Davies (Preseli Pembrokeshire)

Delete point 3 and replace with:

Calls on the Welsh Government to empower teachers and school leaders who have shown capacity and innovation with the freedom to excel, by:

a) introducing a comprehensive headteachers programme that provides continual professional development and ongoing support to all headteachers;

b) working with the teaching profession to develop and offer a suite of continuous professional development programmes that delivers for the needs of teachers and schools;

c) ensuring that teachers are given protected time to undertake mandatory continuous professional development; and

d) removing the bureaucratic burden from teachers to enable them to practise a system of individual pupil monitoring.

A vote was taken on Amendment 2:

For

Abstain

Against

Total

10

0

38

48

Amendment 2 was not agreed.

Amendment 3 - Elin Jones (Ceredigion)

In point 3, delete sub-point a).

A vote was taken on Amendment 3:

For

Abstain

Against

Total

33

0

15

48

Amendment 3 was agreed.

Amendment 4 - Elin Jones (Ceredigion)

Add as new sub-point at end of point 3:

introducing compulsory continuous professional development for teachers.

A vote was taken on Amendment 4:

For

Abstain

Against

Total

24

0

25

49

As required by Standing Order 6.20 the Deputy Presiding Officer exercised his casting vote by voting against the amendment. Therefore, the amendment was not agreed.

Amendment 5 - Paul Davies (Preseli Pembrokeshire)

Adds new point at the end of the motion

Calls on the Welsh Government to undertake a review of teaching capacity and training needs in order to enable accurate workforce planning.

A vote was taken on Amendment 5:

For

Abstain

Against

Total

24

0

25

49

As required by Standing Order 6.20 the Deputy Presiding Officer exercised his casting vote by voting against the amendment. Therefore, the amendment was not agreed.

A vote was taken on the motion as amended:

NDM5906 Aled Roberts (North Wales)

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Regrets that Wales lags behind the rest of the UK in educational outcomes, particularly in key areas of reading, mathematics and science.

2. Believes that investing in early education is the most effective way of raising educational attainment.

3.  Believes that educational policies should help foster strong leadership and governance, excellent teaching, high aspirations and opportunities to innovate.

4.  Calls on the Welsh Government to empower teachers and school leaders who have shown capacity and innovation with the freedom to excel, by:

a)  introducing a talented headteachers programme to encourage top leaders to use their expertise to support underperforming schools;

b) ensuring that teachers are given protected time to undertake continuous professional development;

c) introducing elected representation of peers from the teaching profession to the Education Workforce Council to ensure proper accountability; and

d) introducing a system of individual pupil monitoring, so that teachers can focus on the experiences, achievements and outcomes for individual pupils.

For

Abstain

Against

Total

24

0

25

49

As required by Standing Order 6.20 the Deputy Presiding Officer exercised his casting vote by voting against the motion as amended. Therefore, the motion as amended was not agreed.

 

Publication date: 09/12/2015

Date of decision: 09/12/2015

Decided at meeting: 09/12/2015 - Plenary - Fourth Assembly