Thank you, Minister, for your statement. I’m encouraged, actually, by a lot of what I’ve heard, particularly in terms of your vision for more federation of schools and, presumably, not just in rural areas, but also in urban areas as well. I do think that that gives opportunities to teachers to develop specialisms and expertise that are more exciting for them as they embark on their professional careers, and gives extra opportunities to stretch them and to develop that expertise. That might, of course, include Welsh language expertise, which can then be shared across schools, and other examples of good practice as well.

Of course, it does give opportunities to secure some economies of scale across a number of sites with, perhaps, administrative costs being shared, and also it increases the capacity of those individual schools, when they’re working collectively, to be able to provide services for themselves, rather than perhaps being forced to access them via the local authorities, which, of course, is the case for too many schools at the moment.

One thing you didn’t mention, though, Cabinet Secretary, was the opportunities that might be presented as a result of all-through schools, which, of course, are a growing feature on the Welsh education landscape and also give opportunities to shorten the distances travelled, particularly to secondary schools in rural areas. I wonder whether your rural policies, as they continue to develop and emerge, will take into account the need to support the development of more all-through schools.

I’m very pleased also to hear you refer to a review of the surplus place policy, which we’ve had in Wales for some time. That’s resulted in the closure of a number of schools in my constituency. Some of them, I believe, would have been avoidable had there been a better policy around that—so, I think, again, something very much to welcome.

I listened with interest to your references to the establishment of a Welsh academy of leadership and, absolutely, it’s all about leadership in our schools, and we’ve got to have the very best quality leaders possible as headteachers across the piece. But I just wonder what the timetable for the establishment of that academy will be and also whether it will be tied to a particular location in Wales or whether it’s something that people will be able to participate in in all regions of Wales. Clearly, you know, there are challenges, shall we say, in terms of accessing some of the programmes that are available at the moment, and I think making sure that there’s an opportunity to access—whether you’re from north Wales, south Wales, west Wales or mid Wales—is really very, very important indeed.

You’re also rather cryptic in your description of how you’re going to achieve your policy of reducing class sizes to 25. You seem to be referring more to pupil-to-teacher ratios, or pupil-to-staff ratios, rather than bums on seats in classrooms, and I just wonder whether you can tell us very clearly what is your aim there. Is it about staff ratios, which is not the impression, I think, that many of us had when this policy was announced as part of your coalition deal with the Labour Party, or is it going to be about those bums on seats, which I think was the perception that every one of us had? Also, in terms of the class sizes, if it is about bums on seats, what does that do to the viability of some of our smaller schools, in particular, that need the extra capacity, as it were, to ensure that they’ve got sufficient resources within those schools to be able to keep them open?

I was pleased, also, to hear the reference to the pupil deprivation grant continuing. You haven’t said precisely at what level that will continue, whether it will be the current funding level, whether that will increase, or whether it might be extended further—perhaps you can give us a little bit more information about that. Is it going to be the same as last year? Are you expecting more money? I have no idea and want to give you the opportunity to respond.

I’m pleased to see the references to an increased focus on the Welsh language and, of course, special educational needs, but I’m a little bit alarmed that you want to replace the special educational needs co-ordinators with additional learning needs co-ordinators because, of course, that could mean that those more able and talented pupils in our schools might lose out, because, of course, the special educational needs co-ordinators at the moment also have a role in providing for those more able and talented children in addition to those children with additional learning needs. I wonder, Minister, whether you could tell us where those opportunities for more able and talented children might fit into your agenda.

Just finally, there was no reference to looked-after children in your statement. Everybody in this Chamber, I know, shares the commitment to wanting to improve the life chances of looked-after children and to improve their attainment in schools in Wales. I wonder, Minister, whether you can just tell us again how you expect looked-after children to fit into this and whether there is perhaps more scope for more discussions between our parties and others in this Chamber to take an agenda forward that leads to improved outcomes for them.