The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2 and 3 in the name of Paul Davies, and amendment 4 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

The next item is the debate on the annual Estyn report. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Education to move the motion—Kirsty Williams.

Motion NDM6246 Jane Hutt

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the annual report for 2015-16 of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I’d like to open this debate today by thanking Meilyr Rowlands for his second annual report as the chief inspector of education and training in Wales. As well as providing evidence on performance and standards, the chief inspector’s report will inform policy development and help us drive improvements in our education system. The report is clear that we are making progress in some areas, however many challenges still remain.

As Estyn reports, further improvement is required. I welcome the inspector’s findings that show that there has been continued progress with early years provision, with literacy and numeracy, with children’s behaviour and attendance and that the performance of disadvantaged learners is also improving. The report is right to highlight that the quality of teaching is the biggest influence of how well learners learn and discusses what is required for improving teaching. That is, better professional learning and staff development, and I couldn’t agree more with the chief inspector. Teachers and leaders in Wales share an individual, professional and national mission to help all of our children succeed.

I have been clear that I believe that teachers should be lifelong students themselves, with an ongoing commitment to their professional growth, learning from one another, continuously improving and studying and implementing best practice. To support this, we’re working towards ensuring a consistent all-Wales approach to professional learning, delivered on a regional basis. This will ensure that all practitioners, including support staff and further education practitioners, are able to develop the skills in pedagogy and leadership to realise the requirements of our new curriculum.

The introduction of revised professional standards for teachers and leaders is an important part of that work. My officials have been working closely with the profession and key stakeholders to develop and test new professional standards that will inspire, challenge and support every practitioner from initial training through to school leadership. Many schools have already made substantial progress in supporting peer-to-peer learning. The revised professional standards will reflect that commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration by supporting practitioners to strive for sustained excellent practice at every level and every step of their career.

Professional standards must also be in step with our reform of initial teacher education and the new curriculum. They will set the bar for entering into the profession and support practitioners to ensure that they have the skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary to meet the challenges of the revised curriculum and to develop leadership capacity at all levels.

The report summarises the Programme for International Student Assessment 2015 results for Wales. It is of course a source of great disappointment to me that Wales’s results were again lower than that of the three other UK nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average. However, what makes better reading is the OECD report that was published just last month and debated in this Chamber just last week. As you know, Presiding Officer, on becoming Cabinet Secretary, I invited the OECD to come to Wales to challenge and test our reforms and they have concluded that we are making progress and that we have the right long-term vision in place to keep improving. So, it is my job to keep that momentum going and to accelerate it where necessary. I will continue to be guided by international best practice and hard evidence. The Estyn report will play a key role in highlighting areas in need of improvement and supporting the implementation of our wide-reaching reform. Our focus must continue to be making sure that we properly implement our national mission of education reform to drive up standards and help every learner, regardless of their background, to fulfil their full and true potential. Thank you.

I have selected the four amendments to the motion. I call on Darren Millar to move amendments 1, 2 and 3, tabled in the name of Paul Davies. Darren Millar.

Amendment 1—Paul Davies

Add as new point at end of motion:

Regrets that the quality and variability of teaching still remains one of the weakest aspects of provision across sectors in the Welsh education system.

Amendment 2—Paul Davies

Add as new point at end of motion:

Regrets that the education system is still not meeting the needs of all learners.

Amendment 3—Paul Davies

Add as new point at end of motion:

Notes that leadership is the most significant factor affecting school improvement and calls upon the Welsh Government to bring forward more detailed information on the establishment of the National Academy of Educational Leadership, including its finances, targets, and how leaders will be able to access its support.

Amendments 1, 2 and 3 moved.

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.

I call on Llyr Gruffydd to move amendment 3, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Amendment 4—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Regrets the relative poor performance of the pupil referral units inspected in 2015-16, of which none were identified with excellent practice and all four were placed in a statutory category of follow up, and calls on the Welsh Government to address weaknesses in provision, leadership and management as a matter of urgency.

Amendment 4 moved.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. May I also echo the thanks expressed to the chief inspector and his team in Estyn for the work that they have done, and for the way in which they engaged with the children and young people committee here in the Assembly by providing evidence and being so willing—in this context anyway—to bring their annual report before us?

I also want to focus on variability, and I’m grateful that the amendment has been tabled by the Conservatives. It is certainly something we would have done if you hadn’t got in there first. I raised this directly with the chief inspector when they did come to provide evidence to us, and he was concerned, too, that not enough has been done over the years to tackle this issue. Of course, we can take action on individual school level—indeed, we need to take action at an individual school level, on the education authority and consortia level, and the national level to tackle it. So, there are a number of levels of activity that are needed to tackle this, and it relates to leadership, of course, in terms of tackling the quality of the teaching and learning, and it relates to continuous professional development of staff. In schools, we need to do more to create the culture and the conditions where teachers can share and discuss their practice with colleagues in an open way so that they can learn from each other within institutions, as well as sharing practice between institutions, too.

On a longer term basis, on a national level, as we have seen, there is some work now looking at improving initial teacher training and improving leadership through the academy and so on. Therefore, variability between schools and variability within schools, and that was one of the messages conveyed by the chief inspector—the same is the problem, essentially. When Estyn says that a school is performing well, what they are saying is that that school is consistently performing well. But when a school is adequate, well, perhaps that consistency isn’t in place; there are pockets of good practice, but there are also pockets of bad practice, and that’s where we get the variability, if truth be told.

The consortia were inspected last year, and Estyn said at that time that not enough had been done to tackle variability, particularly at the secondary level. That message is endorsed in this annual report. It is a feature of our best schools, of course, that they do create broad networks and that they are very proactive in learning from others, who will also have a positive experience from doing that—it works both ways. A consistent characteristic of the poorest providers is they are isolated, looking inward, rather than looking externally for good practice. That is something that we can change. I think we can tackle that relatively easily—well, ‘easily’ is a strong word, perhaps, but one of the issues is releasing staff to leave the classroom so that they can share their experiences, but the value of that is so great, I think, that it is something that we must emphasise more.

Another aspect of variability—and this touches upon the need to meet the needs of all learners, as is outlined in the second amendment—is the gap in performance between boys and girls, and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and other pupils. That gap tends to widen as they move through their school career, and I know, certainly in terms of disadvantage, and I’m sure in terms of the gap between girls and boys, that the Cabinet Secretary is eager to tackle this. But, as that gap does tend to widen, what does that tell us about our success in tackling this variability that exists within the education system? It may be a challenge for wider society, but there is a central role for schools here, too, and that is one of the major challenges, moving forward.

In terms of the Plaid Cymru amendment, not a single pupil referral unit inspected was identified as excellent by Estyn in this current year. Significant deficiencies were identified in terms of provision, leadership and management in all four. The performance of these units has been an area of concern for a number of years. Their relatively poor performance was raised in amendments to debates on Estyn reports by the Liberal Democrats in 2012-13, and again in 2013-14 by the Conservatives, and therefore I suppose that it’s our turn this time, unfortunately. Therefore, this is something that should have been tackled with greater urgency over the years. The most recent report as well as the previous annual reports, including the thematic reports, have shown that there is a need for urgent action in this area.

The Cabinet Secretary has mentioned her intention to improve the experiences of pupils in the pupil referral units, noting that she would use some of the additional resources available to her following the budget to that end. I also recognise that she is working with the former chief inspector to look at this situation, but the problem is old history by now. There was a reference in July last year in terms of the task and finish group on education other than in school, and that would formulate part of the emerging framework for action. That was the reference back in July, and I haven’t been able to find much more detail on that, and I would be grateful, in responding to the debate, if the Cabinet Secretary could give us a better idea of what the proposals are, what the timetables are, and where exactly we are in this area. Thank you.

I would like to—not for the first time—raise the issue of community-focused schools, which I continue to believe is very important to the performance of our education system in Wales. I think one issue that Estyn has raised in its report, and consistently raises, is variability in the education system in Wales. That variability applies to community-focused schools. Some schools are very good in engaging with families and the wider community, others not so good. I do believe that it really matters. Many people, I think, are rightly annoyed to see schools shut off from the community in the evenings, at weekends and school holidays. It’s a waste of resource at a time of great strain on public finances, and it’s not doing that job of engaging with families and the community that should be consistently taking place right across Wales.

It does come home to me, Llywydd, many times in my own constituency—and I’m sure it’s the case all across Wales—that very often there is, in some families and some communities, not a sufficient valuing of education and not a sufficient commitment to education that we would all like to see. So, that reflects itself in school attendance. I often hear people saying that, for example, their children have achieved 95 per cent attendance as if that’s something or a rate to be proud of, when of course that means missing far too much school. Indeed, there are many worse attendance rates than that. It manifests itself, I believe, in a lack of support sometimes for children doing their homework, revising properly for exams, and it lowers ambitions in terms of higher education. So, one thing I frequently hear—too frequently—is that you can go to university and you may still end up without a job, or without a job that is any more rewarding than the job you might have got had you not gone to university. So, I think we cannot generalise, but there are some families and people in some of our communities where these sorts of attitudes are too prevalent. One way of cutting across them is to genuinely and consistently engage with those families and those communities, even given that some families had a bad experience of education themselves and may view schools as very middle-class institutions, largely full of middle-class professionals that they do not particularly feel confident in engaging with, or perhaps even want to engage with. So, there are real barriers—difficult barriers—that have to be broken down. But, Llywydd, the only way that that will happen, with consistency, will be if there’s a strong drive, I would say, and leadership from the Welsh Government, working with local authorities, school governing bodies, educational professionals and others to achieve the consistency that we need to see. I do believe that it’s necessary to establish a mechanism, whatever it might be, to ensure that consistency and a lack of variability right across Wales.

I often hear from governors and school heads that the caretaker might want some extra money to open up the school—it’s never much money, but that’s seen as an issue—and that there are security issues on site if the school is open to the community. Again, that’s not an issue that cannot be overcome with the right sort of will and commitment. Indeed, I think many schools find that opening up the site actually is an aid to security, because there are people around more often when the school is closed to ensure that people cannot do things without being seen, and acts are witnessed.

It’s not just about twenty-first century schools, Llywydd, either. It’s about the existing school stock. So, if we are going to have the consistency that we need right across Wales, it has to be a mechanism that achieves progress in the existing school stock, not only the twenty-first century schools. So, I would be very grateful if the Cabinet Secretary could say something in her contribution to this debate that would give me some comfort that we may see that consistency achieved and a mechanism in place as quickly as possible.

Welsh Labour has had control over education in some shape or form since the inception of the Assembly. Sometimes they’ve been assisted by coalitions with Plaid Cymru or the Lib Dems, as they currently are now. Elements of the Estyn report today clearly show the people of Wales what happens when you hand control of education policy to one of the so-called progressive parties.

Firstly, Estyn admit that only a minority of pupils have sound reasoning skills and can solve problems logically. This admission is absolutely shocking. Our schools are supposed to be preparing young people for business, entrepreneurship, science and research of the highest standards, but the majority of them, according to Estyn, in most secondary schools, do not have sound reasoning, problem-solving skills, or a grasp of logic. If this is the result of the progressive coalition policy, the Welsh public must wonder what the Welsh Government via its curriculum are directing both teachers and students to spend their time on. The reports mentions time being spent on eco-committees—

Member of the Senedd:

Will you take an intervention?

No. [Continues.]—pupil councils, conflict resolution, community activity and charity fundraising and suchlike, but raising standards in reasoning, problem solving, and logic through traditional subjects must take priority.

Secondly, I want to talk about teacher retention, and the impact this has on the areas that Estyn monitors. Estyn talks about developing the profession. It outlines developing the right culture, supportive relationships, engaging with research evidence, using data and new technology, and leadership. They emphasise that unelected—and, I repeat, unelected—third sector charitable foundations such as the National Foundation for Educational Research, the Sutton Trust, the Education Endowment Foundation, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, play some role in gathering evidence to impact upon these updates. These topics, however well meaning, should not mask or override the topic of teacher retention. It is not as simple as taking a new graduate and downloading the latest and greatest politically correct updates and research into them. Teaching is something that develops with practice and experience. Experienced teachers are a vital asset to Welsh schools, but Welsh schools are losing them rapidly. StatsWales tells us that Welsh schools lost 334 teachers with six or more years of experience in the year 2014-15 alone. The statistics present similar figures for each and every academic year since 2007 to 2015. Why are experienced teachers not being retained? Could all of the time spent on updates, training, data monitoring, and suchlike, rather than practical, face-to-face teaching, in fact be the reason why they become disillusioned and leave? UKIP emphasise that teachers do best when they acquire as much experience as possible by doing face-to-face teaching. We also emphasise that retaining those teachers has to be the way forward.

Thirdly, I would like to talk about those the Welsh schools have failed, specifically, NEETs—those not in education, employment or training. Estyn say that, at the end of 2015, just over 10 per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds were in the NEET category—this is 11,500 young people in Wales. They report in 2015 that 19 per cent of the age group of 19 to 24-year-olds are in the NEET category—that’s 42,200 young people.

Whether or not these statistics are some sort of an improvement on previous years is beside the point. These figures are far, far, far too high. They are again testament to the fact that the progressive coalitions that have controlled education for so long are failing large numbers of young people and families in Wales by not equipping them with the skills to live a productive and fulfilling life.

To conclude, I would like to reflect on the Welsh coalition parties responsible for education one last time. They like to describe themselves as progressive or the progressive left, but Welsh schools haven’t progressed, at least not in the areas that I’ve highlighted. My best guess is that ‘progressive’ is simply a code word for the complete destruction of all best practice, logic and experience that went before, and replacing it with politically correct updates and training from unelected third sector expert foundations and charities. Thank you.

Until about 10 years ago, I used to get paid to stand in the street and stop people and ask their opinions on the issues of the day. Some people would stop, some would shout abuse. In fact, when you think about it, my life hasn’t changed that much at all. I’m pretty confident that, if I were to do a vox pop today and ask people which they were most concerned about, the PISA report or the Estyn report, I’d be met with blank looks. Most people don’t obsess about these things, but they have a view of their local school, and it’s usually positive.

Of course, for most people, schools are much more than about data; they are focal points for their communities. Before becoming an Assembly Member, I spent 10 years as a primary school governor, seven of those as an active chair in a successful school, a school whose leadership did not take the deprivation of their community as an excuse for performance but as a spur for excellence. One of the things I learned was the value of data properly used to direct teaching and learning to try and ensure every child achieves their potential.

If I was stopped for a vox pop, I would say I am far more concerned about the Estyn report than I am about the PISA rankings. I don’t dismiss the importance of PISA; I think it’s right that we take notice of it. But, to my mind, the annual report of the chief inspector of schools contains far more worrying conclusions about the day-to-day performance of our schools. It’s these issues that determine whether we can create a successful schools system, which, ultimately, is what PISA measures.

I just want to focus on a few points from the report about schools that jump out at me. Clearly, we have a problem with the quality of teaching. Estyn regards teaching as one of the weakest aspects of the education system. We should be clear: there is some world-class teaching in Welsh schools—world class—but there is far too much variation;

‘the gap between providers that are doing well and those that are not is still too wide’, the chief inspector of schools says in his annual report. And, as the report notes, the Donaldson curriculum reforms will demand more of our teachers, particularly in digital learning, an area where the report tells us there are only ‘very few schools’ excelling and many are completely failing to equip young people with these essential skills for the modern world.

As well as addressing the recruitment and initial teacher training of teachers, as the Welsh Government is, Estyn argues we need to address professional learning and development for current teachers, an area we have neglected—and, I would add, not just for teachers. Very nearly half of our school staff work in a support role. They are critical to the success of our education system, but we do not value them, we do not train them well, and we do not pay them well enough.

The Cabinet Secretary has already started work on improving leadership in our schools, and I strongly support that. Being a headteacher is an enormously challenging role. You can spot a great one a mile off, and I am in awe of them. I’m always amazed at the range of skills needed to be an excellent head, a mastery of everything from the plumbing to pedagogy. The best, Estyn found, know the strengths and weaknesses of teaching in their institutions. But, in providers where teaching has shortcomings, Estyn says,

‘leaders do not have a clear idea of what needs to be improved and self-evaluation reports are often thin on detail regarding teaching.’

Leadership is the key to addressing these shortcomings. I find it very worrying that, in Carmarthenshire, there are currently 23 schools without a permanent headteacher. I am encouraged that seven out of 10 primary schools inspected this year are good or better, which is a little better than last year, but it is deeply troubling that just four out of ten of our secondary schools are judged to be good or better—the same as last year—with just a quarter having some excellence, down from 38 per cent last year.

Now, just as we should celebrate excellence, we should not tolerate mediocrity—we all know it when we see that, too, but the system doesn’t call it out. Governors do not challenge it enough and mediocre heads often surround themselves with mediocre governors to ensure they’re not challenged. Local education authorities do not do enough to deal with underperforming heads. One of my disappointments with the end of the Schools Challenge Cymru project is that it’s ending before some of the leadership shortfalls have been fully confronted in our poorest-performing schools.

I was very concerned to hear the chief inspector of schools tell the Public Accounts Committee some months ago that he did not propose to inspect LEAs in the next inspection round, but he would instead focus on the regional consortia. Clearly, they have some explaining to do for the variability in performance across schools, particularly secondary schools, but I would ask the Cabinet Secretary to reflect on whether we can afford to take the eye off LEAs.

Surely, the lesson of the last 20 years of the devolution of education policy is that we can innovate and we can achieve excellence, but only when we are searingly honest with ourselves about how the whole system is performing. This year’s annual Estyn report is invaluable in reminding us that we can ill afford to be complacent. Thank you.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Education to reply to the debate—Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Could I thank everybody for their contributions to the debate this afternoon, which, on the whole, have been incredibly positive and supportive and add to the debate on how we can take our education reform journey forward? If I can begin by addressing some of the issues around the amendments that have been tabled today, the Welsh Government intends to support amendment 3 and amendment 4.

Starting with the Plaid Cymru amendment, I absolutely accept, Llyr, that there needs to be improvement with regard to pupil referral units. I was worried about them when I sat over there and I continue to be worried about them now that I sit here, and I’m very happy to accept that amendment. As you said, Llyr, none of the four units inspected this year were identified as having excellent practice, and all four were placed in statutory category ‘follow-up’, and that isn’t good enough. We have to aim higher for these most vulnerable of pupils.

One of the greatest strengths of our education other than at school—EOTAS—is its ability to provide bespoke and unique support to meet the untypical needs of its challenging learners. While we acknowledge that the sector is in need of reform, I’m also very keen to maintain as much flexibility as possible. We know that good practice does exist in PRUs. The challenge is to mainstream that good practice so that all young people accessing the provision receive a high standard of education, enabling them to reach their full potential.

As Llyr alluded to, Presiding Officer, the Welsh Government established the EOTAS task and finish group in 2015 with the purpose of developing practical measures aimed at improving outcomes for learners accessing the provision. The group is still finalising its framework for action, which I expect to be submitted for my consideration later this year, and then I will be informing the Chamber of how we intend to implement the framework for action and drive change forward in that area.

If I could turn to the amendment by the Conservatives, we will also be supporting the Conservatives’ amendment on leadership. This Chamber will be aware that promoting and supporting leadership is central to my reform agenda. As initially outlined, I would hope to have entrants into the new system as quickly as possible. The academy itself, I should make it clear, will not be the provider of services—it will be the broker, it will co-ordinate services, and it will quality assure the range of leadership programmes that will be available.

Whilst we will be supporting the amendment, I will, of course, reiterate that things do take time, but we do need to increase pace. While I have laid out some of the broad principles for the new organisation, further work will be undertaken by the shadow board on the development of the broad underlying principles. The shadow board will initially look at leadership from headteachers, which ties into the point that was made so eloquently by Lee Waters: we have to focus on the quality of the leaders that we currently have in our schools, but we also have to look at the role the academy can play in supporting aspiring headteachers, the next generation of our school leaders.

But, in the longer term, I want the academy to cover leadership development for the whole educational sector. Darren Millar made a very, very good point about FE leadership: once again, quality of FE shines through in the inspector’s report, and I would like to congratulate David Jones on his recent award. The FE leadership programme has been in place for a number of years. We also have a similar leadership programme in place for HE—that’s been available for a number of years, and there are clearly lessons for us to learn from both the FE sector and the HE sector in developing the leadership programme for our schools. It’s a matter of regret that we have not had a similar programme, but we have to learn from what has worked so well in terms of FE and HE, and get the cross-fertilisation of ideas to have the impact that we want. So, the development of the leadership academy is an important step forward, alongside our new professional teacher standards and our reform to initial teacher education in developing and addressing the issues around inconsistent teaching standards here that have been highlighted.

The other points that were made, Darren—I’m glad that you recognise the range and scope of Estyn’s work; it’s not just about schools. I’m less concerned about who sets the teaching standards than I am about the outcomes of them. I’m sure that we will both be very happy if, as a result of the new teaching standards, we see a driving up in quality in future annual reports about teaching.

We are working on a new version of ‘Qualified for Life’, which will provide the clarity around our national mission of education improvement, as has been suggested by the OECD, and we are exploring a range of new ways in which we can get people who have perhaps enjoyed part of their career in a different profession into the teaching profession, because they can bring a great wealth of experience. I’m particularly interested in looking at people who’ve worked in industry, in the sciences, and having them brought into our schools. [Interruption.] Certainly.

I’m very grateful to you for taking the intervention. Would you agree with me that we also then have to look at the bursary system, in order to perhaps use that to entice people in, particularly in those shortage areas that you just referenced?

Yes, and I think we have to be creative. We have to acknowledge that we are being outbid at present by the English system, so we have to be creative in what we can offer people. It’s not always about the money. People don’t go into teaching to make a huge amount of money, so we have to be creative in how we can use our bursary system to be able to attract people here.

More able and talented—it is a source of huge concern to me. We recognise Nesta’s report about our more able and talented children in the primary sector, who are not making as much progress as we would like to see, and then we see that as it goes on through the system. You’ll be aware that we have recently announced new initiatives around an excellence framework around maths and science, to try and drive up standards—it’s primarily focused on improving the teaching experience that people have in the classroom.

Llyr, you’re absolutely right; our most successful schools are schools that are outward looking. They look around themselves, they look and see what best practice is, they reflect on research, what works best for children, and they implement that and they do it in their own individual practice. Our commitment to professional learning is all about that. That’s why we’re changing the way in which we’re going to train our teachers, and the professional learning opportunities we will have for current teachers. You talked about the gaps that exist between different cohorts of students. What’s really pleasing is that Estyn’s inspection notes that in the primary sector, the gap between boys and girls, and the gap between those on free school meals and those who are better off, is closing. So, we are doing something right in the primary sector, we just have to make sure that that continues. But let’s be clear; we have seen a 4 per cent narrowing at level 2 plus for children doing their GCSEs, over 3 years. It’s down to the hard work of individual schools and institutions, supported by a generous pupil deprivation grant, which drives some of that change forward.

John, on your commitment to community-focused schools, I believe that schools have the potential to be drivers for real change for their entire community, and we already have some really fantastic examples of that in Wales, and we need to ensure that those principles can be adapted. I’m working very closely with my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Children on how we can use the programmes that we’re both in charge of and schools as a hub to drive that change. Family engagement is absolutely crucial. Recently, we received a presentation from Joe Cudd. He works in the Morfa, in Llanelli, my home town. Those of you who know it know that it’s a pretty tough place to grow up. There are some pretty unsavoury things going on not very far from his school door. But that man—that man is absolutely fantastic. He sees his school, and his commitment to his children, going beyond just those individual children. He works really hard with mums and dads to address the learning environment children have at home and to address barriers to the children learning at home. He’s getting mums in to schools and they are then are going on to take further qualifications themselves and going out to work themselves—and doing amazing work. That’s happening in the Morfa. It happens at Woodlands primary school in Cwmbran; again, amazing interaction with the family that is turning into real results for those children. So, we have to work much harder in getting a consistent message from Welsh Government on how schools can be the hub of real change, not just for individual children, but communities as a whole. Joe Cudd is going to a conference in America next year to talk about his work in Morfa. How amazing is that? They are so impressed by what he’s doing that they want to hear about a tiny bit of a school in Llanelli over there in the United States and we should applaud people like Joe and what we’re doing. But you know we’re going to have summer food and fun clubs utilising schools this summer to provide those opportunities.

Can I just say, Michelle—? You might not think that the drop in NEETs that we have seen is significant, but I tell you, for each and every one of those children, that is a massive, massive improvement. Dawn and I were recently at Merthyr college, which has seen a significant drop in the number of children that are not going on to study post 16. It’s fantastic and it makes a massive difference to those children. I don’t know about you—you may think that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Sutton Trust and people like that are do-gooders, but I see them as crucial aids in driving change in our system, because what they do is not peddle the latest thing; what they do is peddle evidence—evidence about what works and about what makes a difference to children. I will be driven and I will follow that evidence and I just think you need to reflect on what you said about those well-respected organisations in this Chamber today.

To conclude, Llywydd, I am, of course, really pleased that Estyn considers that many of our schools are making good use of research and are taking advantage of professional learning opportunities to influence their work with the most disadvantaged learners. There is much to be done in the Welsh education system and I will not rest and I will strain every sinew to make sure that all of our children—all of our children—have the opportunities that they deserve.

The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? [Object.]

I will defer voting on this item until voting time.