An evaluation conducted by independent researchers, SQW, has found that all Welsh schools in an abandoned Welsh Government flagship improvement scheme made academic progress.

Schools Challenge Cymru (SCC) launched in 2014, involved 40 underperforming schools and cost £20m annually to the taxpayer.

Responding to the evaluation’s findings – more detail here - Darren Millar AM, Welsh Conservative Shadow Education Secretary, said:

“Schools Challenge Cymru was always a sticking-plaster solution to more deeply ingrained problems across the sector.

“Schools need to be more directly funded and headmasters should have more say over how they spend those funds.

“Poorly performing schools don’t need short-term and wasteful cash solutions; they need good leaders, a curriculum which teachers can buy into, and innovative ways of recruiting the best and brightest staff.

“After nearly £50m spent on this scheme in three years alone, it remains the case that we have the worst education system in the UK, and that one in four of our children have inadequate reading skills.

“Yet again, Labour's obsession with throwing cash at a problem without a long-term strategy just hasn't worked."