Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:36 pm on 26 September 2017.
Well, I’m sorry to hear that. In Wales, we’ve traditionally used teaching assistants to a great deal of effect. It’s really interesting, when I visit other countries, like Finland, and, most recently, southern Irish schools, that teaching assistants do not play a part in the education system at all, or to a very, very, very, very small degree. Usually, the only adult in the room is the qualified teacher. Now, I think teaching assistants have an important part to play, especially in our foundation phase, and, if there are questions about the quality of the professional learning opportunities that our teaching assistants have, I do meet regularly with Unison to talk about these and I’m happy to take them up.