Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 27 February 2018.
There's a danger that we forget that the PDG isn't just about getting the lowest attaining children from deprived backgrounds up to a certain level—it's about meeting all of those individuals' needs, some of whom, of course, are more able and talented. I think Estyn has said that very few schools are actually using the PDG to target more able and talented pupils. Indeed, the national pupil database impact analysis shows that the gap between those eligible for free school meals and non-free-school-meal pupils attaining the highest grades of A* or A remains large—indeed, it hasn't changed over the past five years—despite, of course, the overall attainment gap at key stage 4 closing.
So, I think the point I'm making here is that, actually, there's more that we can do with existing programmes and initiatives to maximise the opportunities for more able and talented children, let alone then embarking, as we rightly should, on other new initiatives. I'm just wondering what the Government will do to make sure that the PDG is actually being used more effectively in that particular respect than is currently clearly the case, as evidenced by Estyn.
Finally from me, you tell us that there will be a pilot approach from September involving the younger learners before GCSEs. I trust that that will particularly test approaches in relation to provision in rural areas, which I'm sure—I know—you will be passionate about, but also the availability of support through the medium of Welsh, because these are areas that have been highlighted in the individual evaluations previously, and certainly they're ones that I would hope and trust that the Government would want to make sure are met robustly.