Thank you, Minister, for your statement. You’ve responded to a number of questions that Llyr Gruffydd has already put down in terms of the timetable. But, can I just ask you this? One of the things that you mentioned in the statement was the importance of alternative routes into teaching. I’ve heard what you’ve just heard in response to Llyr Gruffydd about the opportunities that might be afforded to people who are out there, who are potential teachers, but can you tell us what you’re actually doing as a Government to explore opportunities that might be there with people who currently have careers in the public sector, private sector, business and industry who might make great teachers and could be a fantastic asset to the teaching profession here in Wales, in order to ensure that they can have access to come into the classroom if a career change might be appropriate for them? We know that there has been some pressure in some parts of Wales on having sufficient numbers of teachers, particularly in the STEM subjects and in terms of having teachers who can teach through the medium of Welsh. I wonder what specific action you are taking in order to try and recruit into those specific subjects.

One of the things that you haven’t mentioned either are the opportunities that there may be for overseas-trained teachers to come into the Welsh system. At present, as I understand it, anybody in the European Economic Area who’s a qualified teacher in any of those countries that form part of the EEA can come here and make a relatively swift transition to qualified teacher status. But, of course, there are many other education systems, many of which are more similar perhaps to ours than those in some parts of the EEA—Australia, Canada and some of the other systems around the world with similar standards to ours—who do not automatically receive qualified teacher status, even though many of those teachers have had many years dedicated to the teaching profession. I wonder, Minister, what consideration you and the Welsh Government are giving to those particular individuals, in order to remove what may be unnecessary barriers to them being able to come and work here in Wales in our schools.

I also note that there was no specific reference to continuing professional development for teachers. You’ve made some references to this in previous statements that you’ve made, particularly in terms of the passport scheme that is out there and that people are able to take advantage of. But, in terms of mandating training for our teachers to ensure that they do continue to develop their skills so that we’ve got a highly skilled workforce out there, I just wonder whether you could tell us what further progress is being made in terms of CPD for our teaching staff.

Again, I heard your response in terms of the leadership academy. I’m pleased that things are progressing with that. We know that the quality of leadership in our schools very often determines how good a school is and how well a school and children in those schools, and, indeed, the staff in those schools, actually perform. Again, I just wonder if you could point to some practical examples of where you think that best practice that you’ve said you’ve identified actually is, and how you expect the consortia to assist in rolling out that best practice to the schools in the areas for which they are responsible. Thank you.