Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Today, I would like to set out my priorities for the initial teacher education change programme in Wales.

Every parent, Presiding Officer, should be confident that their child goes to a school that helps them grow as capable, healthy and well-rounded citizens. Teachers must be supported to be the best that they can be, raising the standard of the profession as a whole. Teachers share an individual, professional and national mission to help our children succeed.

I believe Professor John Furlong’s report, ‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers’, is critical in reforming our teacher education courses and developing the skills that teachers want and need. The teaching profession can only make its proper contribution to raising standards of education in our schools, as set out in Successful Futures, if our ITE offers our future teachers the skills, the knowledge and the appetite to lead the change required. ‘Teaching Tomorrow’s Teachers’ recommended the development of a very different approach for accrediting programmes of ITE in Wales, and it recommended the establishment of a teacher education accreditation board within the Education Workforce Council for Wales.