Diolch, Lywydd. I want to formally move the amendments tabled in the name of Paul Davies. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to speak in today’s debate, and I want to put on record my thanks to Estyn, as well, for the work that they do across Wales. Their inspections, of course, do provide us with a very valuable snapshot of what’s taking place in our schools across the country, and, indeed, in further education and early years settings. That report that they publish on an annual basis gives us the opportunity to take a look—zoom out, if you like—at the whole of the education system, in an overview.

I’m very pleased, actually, that the Cabinet Secretary took a realistic view of what the report had to say. She wasn’t particularly chirpy today—she often is outside this Chamber—but she did highlight some of the good news that was in the report, and there is good news that we can celebrate, particularly in terms of leadership in early years, and leadership, indeed, in the further education sector, as well.

But the concerning thing for me in this Estyn report was that there are echoes of problems that should’ve been resolved by now—things that have been highlighted by Estyn before and, indeed, by other agencies before that are still turning up, time and time again in these reports. Our Amendment seeks to draw some attention to these. You’ve made reference to some of these already, of course, in your Opening Speech. Our first amendment focuses on the quality and variability of teaching. We know that Estyn has concluded that that is the weakest aspect of provision across sectors in the Welsh education system, and it has the biggest influence on learner outcomes. So, we have to get to grips with this issue, once and for all, and I know, Cabinet Secretary, to be fair to you, you’ve made some initial steps to get some improvement. I’m very pleased that we’ve got some new professional standards that have been developed, although I still cannot understand why it’s not the Education Workforce Council that’s setting those standards, and why you still feel that it’s necessary, as a Government, to do that, in spite of the fact that that is not the practice in most other jurisdictions. I also note as well that you are taking steps to improve initial teacher training and I’ll be looking forward to hearing more details about your specific proposals on that in the future.

Of course, it was depressing—very depressing indeed—to see that Wales was at the bottom of the UK PISA league tables and, indeed, in the bottom half of the global league tables, and in a position that was worse this time around than the position we were in 10 years ago. We’ve got to step up the change in order to get up that league table and learn from the best. So, I’m pleased to hear you making references, as well, to learning from international centres of excellence in other countries in order that we get our situation right.

There are things that schools, of course, can do in order to improve the opportunities for teachers to develop their skills and to take part in continuing professional development. Much of that they will be able to do if they’re freed up from some of the bureaucracy that they currently have to face and that’s why we were very welcoming of the recommendation in the OECD report that we needed to make use of more business managers in our schools. I know that that’s a view that you also share.

But, of course, the OECD also said that there needed to be a much stronger leadership from the Government in terms of the clarity about the vision for the future and how you’re actually going to get there. I know that you are seeking to address that particular recommendation and you held a conference last week looking at some of these particular things and trying to highlight the role that schools, headteachers, the regional consortia and others have to actually play.

You mentioned trying to get teachers into the profession as well, and I wonder what consideration you’ve given to making it easier for people to transition from other careers into the teaching sector, if they’ve got the propensity to be good teachers, and the potential to be good teachers. I’d be very interested to hear from you on that.

With regard to leadership, I was particularly struck by the excellence that we’ve seen in leadership, particularly in the FE sector, in the report. And, of course, there was an award given to Coleg Cambria’s David Jones just last week, which also recognised his leadership skills. I wonder whether there’s an opportunity, actually, to cross-fertilise between the different parts of the education sector in order to up-skill our leaders and to take advantage of some of that expertise, particularly in those larger organisations, the larger schools where there can perhaps be something done to stretch people a little bit more and develop those skills.

I think also, just in terms of the abilities of more able and talented pupils, we know that this is something that we also need to focus on. That’s one of the reasons why our PISA scores weren’t as good as they should have been and this is, again, something that’s repeated in the Estyn report. I also appreciate that Llyr is going to be talking about other pupils and pupil referral units, for example, but we clearly need to make sure that all of our pupils reach their maximum potential. I wonder, Cabinet Secretary, whether you will tell us a little bit more about your plans for more able and talented pupils, not just the Seren programme, but what else can be done in order to get those people, those younger people in particular, up there, reaching their full potential, and making sure that we do go up those league tables in the future. Thank you.