Responding to Cabinet Secretary Kirsty Williams AM’s announcement today of a new fund to cut infant class sizes, Jess Turner, UNISON Cymru organiser for schools said,
“Classroom based support staff really welcome this news. Smaller classes reduce workload and give support workers more time with pupils and this more personalised support helps to tackle inequalities. UNISON would like Welsh Government to go much further and also apply additional funding to junior and secondary schools too. The evidence around class size shows they need to be reduced very significantly to make a real difference to student attainment.
“It’s essential teaching assistants are properly deployed in the classroom and never used as cheap stop-gap replacements for teachers.”