This assessment was commissioned by Kirsty Williams AM, Minister for Education in the Welsh Government. The OECD team is indebted to Ms Williams for her support and engagement throughout the assessment process, to Tom Woodward, Special Advisor to the Minister for Education, and Dewi Knight, Specialist Advisor for Education Reform, for their help, and to the Welsh Government, under the leadership of its Education Directorate, for facilitating the assessment. We are grateful for the invaluable support, contributions and guidance of Steve Davies, Director of Education, and of the Education Directorate’s staff. In particular, the team would like to thank Joanne Davies, Professional Learning Policy Lead and Lisa Clarke, Professional Learning Programme Lead, for co-ordinating the process.
The assessment benefitted from the contributions of the officials and education experts from the Education Directorate and beyond, who shared their knowledge with the OECD team during the assessment and provided feedback on this report. We would like to thank in particular the Education Directorate’s Deputy Directors, including Kevin Palmer, Pedagogy, Leadership and Professional Learning, Claire Bennett, Curriculum and Assessment, Mel Godfrey, Education Business Planning and Governance, Huw Owen, School Effectiveness, and Ruth Conway, Support for Learners. We would also like to acknowledge the valuable contributions and feedback provided by the members of the Strategic Education Delivery Group, as well as by the Welsh Minister for Education’s advisors. Special thanks go to Professor Graham Donaldson for sharing his insights and providing guidance to the OECD team throughout the assessment.
The OECD team thanks all the participants in the assessment visits (Annex B), starting with the head teachers, teachers, staff, students and parents of the schools who warmly welcomed us and made time to meet with us even during a busy school year. We are also grateful for the contributions of officials from public agencies – including Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and Training (Estyn), the National Academy for Educational Leadership (NAEL), and Qualifications Wales. We thank the scholars, researchers, non‑governmental organisations, unions and professional associations, and all the entities and individuals who kindly shared their views, experience and knowledge with us. The courtesy and hospitality extended to us throughout our stays in Wales always made our task as enjoyable as they were challenging.
The OECD team who conducted the assessment and authored this report was composed of Beatriz Pont, Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD, Romane Viennet, Policy Consultant at the OECD, and Claire Sinnema, Associate Professor of the University of Auckland (Annex A). The OECD team acknowledges the support from the OECD Secretariat, and especially from Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills; Paulo Santiago, Head of the Policy Advice and Implementation Division; and Miho Taguma, Ester Carvalhaes, José‑Luis Alvarez‑Galvan, Pierre Gouëdard and Pinhsuan Huang, of the Directorate for Education and Skills, who provided in-depth feedback and advice at critical stages of the development of the report. Precious support was provided by Jacqueline Frazer, who prepared the report for publication and provided administrative support; by Mimi Trentin, Claire Berthelier and Sara Gouveia, who helped throughout the process; and by Rachel Linden, who organised the publication process. Special thanks go to Marco Kools, previously of the Directorate for Education and Skills, and now at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) offices in Laos, for his continued support and precious contributions.