The next statement will be the statement from the education Minister on the PISA results, and I call on Kirsty Williams to make the statement.

Llywydd, today sees the publication of the 2018 PISA results, and for the first time ever, Wales is in the international mainstream, and that is thanks to the efforts of our teachers and our students. I want to let every teacher, every student, every parent, and every employer know that we have caught up. We have improved in all areas and we've got more top performers than ever before. Today's news is positive for all of those invested in the success of our young people and our education system. Positive, yes, but it's not perfect.

Three years ago, I made it very clear that we were not where we wanted to be and that PISA is an important signal to employers, investors and parents. I took the advice of the OECD on our reforms. They told us to stay the course, to be brave, and that what we were doing were the right things. I listened to that advice. Subsequently, we went on to deliver the biggest ever investment in our teachers, the biggest ever professional learning programme, and we have continued with reforming our curriculum. 

Now, for the first time ever, we are performing at the OECD average in all three domains: in reading, in science, and in mathematics. For the first time ever, our scores are up in all areas tested and among a very small set of countries across the world that have done this in the 2018 results. We've also reached our best ever raw score for reading and for maths. So, yes, we have caught up with the pack. We've spent far too long lagging behind countries such as the Netherlands or Switzerland, or Scotland and Northern Ireland for that matter, and we've now joined them in that OECD mainstream. And, crucially for me, we've done it at the same time as closing the attainment gap. But let me be absolutely clear: this is not the time to take our foot off the accelerator. At a very bare minimum, we need to keep pace. I want to see us keep up this momentum and keep moving forward. 

So, let me now turn to particular issues and developments. The PISA sample in each country reflects each national system. So, of course, for us, that is a mix of Welsh-medium, English-medium and bilingual schools within a non-selective public service education. The sample in other systems is very different, reflecting selective and non-state schools, such as across the border. But that's not the Welsh way. We—I—will continue to back our system, setting high expectations for all, no matter what your background is; working together to raise standards for all and ensuring that we partner equity with excellence. Therefore, we will continue to work with the OECD and systems beyond Wales and beyond the United Kingdom. After all, 79 countries participated in PISA, and we are benchmarking ourselves against all of them.

The OECD findings provide us with a rich set of information and some very interesting narratives. A common concern across all participating countries is the gap in performance for reading between boys and girls. Girls outperform boys in every single country, and in Wales, that is the same story. 

Funding for education matters, but the OECD says it's more about how you spend it. Estonia spends 30 per cent lower than the average, but the OECD pinpoint them as a top-performing country. And they can show what a small, smart nation can achieve, so let’s not put any limits on our ambitions for Wales. I know that teachers across Wales share those ambitions. I want today’s results to give each and every teacher a spring in their step. Improvement, we have shown, is possible. We are heading in the right direction, but, again, let me be clear: there is much more that needs to be done.

Our national mission has charted the right course and we can, and must, keep on improving. For example, Presiding Officer, take my challenge from three years ago to improve our proportion of top-performing learners in PISA from the woefully low levels that we saw in 2015. In reading, we now have 7 per cent of high performers, as opposed to 3 per cent in the last round, and we have increased the proportion in the other two domains. A similar gain for maths, and a bit less for science.

It is a significant step forward, but we have to do more. Unlike the overall scores, we have not yet reached the OECD average for these groups of learners. But, I believe that our first proper action plan for more able and talented pupils, expanding our Seren programme to pupils from year 8 upwards and setting high expectations for all are making a difference and will continue to make a difference. 

Working with leading businesses in Wales, as well as our colleges and universities, we are setting a high bar. And it means that our students are making a huge impression when they spend time at universities such as Oxbridge, Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now, one of my priorities as Minister has always been to view our reforms through that international lens. And, as I said, that’s why we will keep working with the OECD as we push forward with our reform programme. Last time, their key messages to me were that we should

'continue efforts to reform the curriculum and raise the standards of teaching'.

Well, the revised curriculum framework will be published in January. It will be backed with direct support, resources and advice for schools and teachers. We will continue to invest in the pupil development grant and additional learning needs reform, giving those learners the extra backing that they need to succeed in our system. And we will continue to reverse the years of neglected leadership as a prime driver of our reform programme, and we will continue to prioritise giving teachers the tools that they need to be the best they can be.

In conclusion, Llywydd, in our national mission action plan, I set out three objectives: to raise standards; to tackle the attainment gap; and ensure a system that is a source of national pride and enjoys public confidence. Today’s results show success against each of those objectives. Scores up in every domain; a reduction in the gap between our most disadvantaged learners and their peers; Wales in the international mainstream for the first time during the PISA era; record scores in maths and reading; and the only UK nation to improve in each domain.

Once again, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our teachers and students. These results are a testament to their hard work and their commitment, and they are just beginning to show what Wales is capable of. 

Can I thank the Minister for her statement, particularly the last bit, when we were talking about what you are planning to do next, which I'm sure will be a subject for debate in time to come? This time three years ago, Minister, you said to my predecessor that 

'nothing that you say here in this Chamber today can make me feel personally any worse about these results.'

So, I'm assuming that you're allowing yourself a small sigh of relief today, but are still very, very conscious of the fact that this is no reprieve. I recognise, as do your officials, that there has been an improvement, and I also want to thank the teachers and students for their efforts in doing that. But do your officials recognise also that these have not been significant improvements?

My contest is not with the teachers and the young people who have taken part in these tests. It's with you as a Government and the hopes that you've raised, based on the last three years of reform, that continue to be dashed. So, yes, while we acknowledge the modest but not significant improvements, they still leave Wales the poorest performing nation in the UK. Our results, in effect, are slightly less bad than they were. It reinforces quite how high the mountain is that we have to climb to reach our UK fellows, let alone some of those in other countries.

We are still missing that target of 500, confirmed just a fortnight ago by the First Minister. We are still below the average in some of the areas that are being examined, although, as we know, the OECD average itself has fallen, and being average is not what we should be achieving anyway. Catching up with the pack, which is going backwards, is not really winning the race. We need to be doing more than keeping pace. We need to be stepping it up.

So, my first question on the statement, and I'm sure that there will be loads, is: you said three years ago that you would look at other countries to see what they do well and to get their good ideas. Even at that point, we were a little bit worried about Scotland because of its obvious influence on the reforms that you were bringing in. Obviously, they've had a good result on reading this time around. Despite that, their scores have remained depressed since the Donaldson era, and even the reading score today doesn't take them back to before that. So, can you tell us what it is that you are still learning from the Scottish experience and their woes, and what you will also be learning from the English experience? Obviously, their scores, as we heard from Mark Reckless earlier, are considerably better and are improving.

Can you just give us a little bit of information about where you think the improvements have actually come from? In 2016 you quite rightly acknowledged—and you've mentioned it today—that our more able and talented children were underperforming. I think that all of us would be uncomfortable if that played any part at all in the position we had in the attainment gap. Specifically, have the changes affected the top half—the seventy-fifth percentile, if I can call it that—as compared to the ninetieth percentile?

You mentioned the Seren programme, and I'd like to hear a little bit more about that. But the reason I'm asking this question is this: while our A* GCSE standards this year were very high—and the First Minister mentioned that earlier—our A* to C grades are down this year across these subjects. This is the same cohort of young people who sat the PISA tests the year before they sat these GCSEs. As you acknowledged, these GCSEs are now more aligned with the skills that PISA is designed to tease out, and your reforms have been in place in informing those exams for some time now. So, why are marginally better PISA results reflected in a drop in A* to C GCSE attainment?

We spoke in this Chamber some weeks ago now about the drop in achievement at the moment across years 7 to 9. It was in the context, if you remember, of the removal of the requirement of school governors to set targets for the purpose of pupil improvement on school leaders in English or Welsh and maths and science. This year's year 7s will be the next cohort of PISA test children. So, do you now worry that the current trajectory for those year 7 to 9s means that adults and children involved in that current education system haven't really grasped the delivery of these reforms? And do you regret now that the removal of these targets for overall pupil achievement in those key subjects may indeed present us with a picture in a few years' time that we'll all be pretty unhappy with?

Earlier, listening to your response to Mark Reckless on the issue of schools not having enough resources, I noticed you were nodding vigorously when he was talking to you, and, obviously, you've mentioned Estonia here today. Whatever you can say to us about the education system and the spending that goes into it, it still remains the case that schools—specifically schools—are not getting enough money, and I'm wondering if you're able to give us some comfort on that today.

I wonder what your observations are that, while reading scores have improved, there is still the serious OECD concern over understanding. So, even though the love of reading is still a bit of a challenge in and of itself, this issue of understanding—'comprehension', as we used to call it in the olden days—is still of considerable concern, I would say, because if you can't understand what you're reading, the ability to actually move into the area of critical thinking is seriously compromised, and of course this is the whole purpose behind what PISA is testing and what our own exams are working towards. That's the direction we're going in, and if there's an issue over comprehension, then we're obviously going to fail.

Then, finally—because I appreciate, obviously, that there will be questions coming from others—it's basically this: how can it be that our scores in these areas are still lower than they were in 2006, when Wales decided to participate? Yours aren't the first reforms, Minister, and even with them, we are still further back than when we started: bottom of the UK, targets being missed, thousands of children still behind their cousins across the world when they don't need to be. So, my final question is this: what guarantee will you give us that in 2021 we will be above this average, that we will hit your target of 500—effectively, when will we be where you want us to be? Thank you.

Presiding Officer, can I thank the Member for that series of questions? I will do my best to make sure that I've logged them all and answered them all.

There is no sigh of relief from me today, Presiding Officer—just a determination to carry on with the reform programme and to do even better. The Member says that we have dropped the target of 500 and then she just says at the end of her statement—am I going to meet the target of 500? The target of 500 is clearly outlined in our national mission action plan for the next set of PISA results. I set a target for this set of PISA results, which was to demonstrate improvement across three areas, which we have done today, and to see an increase in the top performers in our PISA tests, which we have done today. Rather than a missed target, that is a target delivered.

Can I say, Presiding Officer, it is simply not true to say that we are at the bottom of the pile in the United Kingdom? Those that administer the PISA tests, the National Foundation for Educational Research, are quite clear that, statistically, our performance with maths and science is on a par with Northern Ireland and Scotland. Now, I appreciate the Tories have a reckless disregard for the future of the union, but the last time I looked, they were still in the United Kingdom. I will be the first person to acknowledge that we have more to do to improve our reading scores. They were also the words of the NFER to say that we have reached, and are statistically similar to the OECD average across all three domains, whereas last time round we were significantly below the OECD target.

Now, with regard to the curriculum, the Member asks us about the Scottish curriculum. What's important to remember is that we are developing our own curriculum in Wales. It's not the Scottish curriculum that we are replicating in Wales—we are designing our own. For the first time ever, we will have a curriculum designed by the people of Wales for the children of Wales, and we continue to learn lessons from across the globe as to what represents good practice and what we need to avoid. That includes learning the lessons of successful curriculum implementation from around the globe, including Scotland. For instance, one very clear example of what we've learned is not to rush the process, which is why I made the difficult decision to delay the implementation of the curriculum, making sure that we got our profession ready.

With regard to the other lessons that can be learned, the Member will see that there's been great focus in the British media today—and I made mention of it—on the system in Estonia. The system in Estonia focuses very, very heavily on early years care and education, ensuring that all children, when they go into formal education, have the maturity and the sense of well-being and confidence to make the most of their learning. That's why in this Government we continue to prioritise Flying Start, we're making more high-quality childcare available to families, and why I will always, when resources allow, front-load investment into education for those early years, because that's where we know that we can ensure that our children will develop those early skills—the oracy that is so important to developing good reading and understanding later in life—and it's by investing in early years we will see a return on that investment.

The Member asked about Seren fach. Well, I've been very fortunate to come this morning from the Seren conference in Newtown, where universities in Wales, in the UK and from America were represented. And it so positive to hear people from Oxbridge talk about the high numbers this year of interviews that they have offered to Welsh students, far outstripping the national picture. They know the quality of a Welsh A-level Seren student and they want that quality in their institutions. But we've also listened to parents and teachers about how we can bring the benefits of Seren sooner into a child's education career, and I'm very pleased to say we have Seren fach pilots in every single Seren hub running this year. And, again, I'd like to thank the hub co-ordinators and the participating schools that have worked really hard to begin to pilot that approach for younger students.

With regard to the issue of what has made the difference, it's impossible to point to one single factor, but I do believe that the significant improvement in top performers has had an effect. And when I say 'significant improvement', those are not my words, those are the words of the OECD that have characterised what we've done in top performers in that way. But let me be absolutely clear, as I said in my statement, even though we have seen that significant improvement, we are not at the OECD average yet for the percentage of students performing at that level, and that's why we must persist with our support for the more able and talented, because that is one of the ways in which we will hit the target of 500 in the next round.

Issues around resources—I was nodding to Mark Reckless, because he is perfectly correct in what he was saying: teachers in Wales did report a higher proportion of feeling that they did not have the resources—in this case textbooks and ICT—that they required. What's interesting is that teachers in Welsh schools did not report not having the right amounts of staff. Actually, that was at the OECD average. So, Welsh teachers did not feel that they didn't have the teaching personnel that they needed. And I'm nodding because we've recognised that issue within Welsh Government. So, this year, for instance, we have supplied, on a national basis to every single school in Wales, Microsoft Office, so that schools don't have to buy that. It's universal, everybody's on the same playing field, and we've been able to do it at a cost saving, actually, to overall spend. And this year alone, we will invest £50 million in educational technology. I'm pleased to say we're doing that in partnership with each of the 22 local authorities. Each local authority will have a share of that investment, and each local authority has been asked to send in an assessment of where their schools are at the moment. All those assessments have now been received by Welsh Government, and we are now in the process of ensuring that that £50 million is spent by the end of the financial year. And that will, I believe, go some way to addressing some of the concerns that teachers have raised. That's a practical response, even before we had this report.

Can I say, with regard to targets missed, the Member only needs to refer to the national mission document where we said the target for this time was to see an increase in the performance of top performers? We have delivered that. The national mission also states quite clearly that we want to reach that 500 target by the next set of PISA results. Interestingly, if you look at girls' reading, actually, that score is not that far away. But, clearly, there is more work to be done to reach that target, and I, and, more importantly than me, everybody involved in the education system, is determined to push on to make sure that that happens.

I would like to pay tribute to Welsh pupils for all of their hard work, as well as to thank all the staff and teachers for their unstinting efforts in ensuring that our young people do achieve. The PISA international tests are one way of measuring progress, but we must use the data wisely, and I look forward to having an opportunity to analyse the content carefully over the next few days and weeks, and will also seek the views of educational experts on these latest results.

There has been a small increase across the three domains—maths, reading and science—since 2015, which is encouraging. In comparison with 2006, there has been a small increase in maths and reading, but a reduction in science. Now, we must bear in mind that there had been a decline in the three areas in 2009 and 2012, and we are only now getting back to the position of 2006. It is good to see some signs that these results could be back on the right track after a long period of decline, but it is early days and the challenge is a great one.

My first question, therefore, is: how confident are you that we will reach the 500 point mark by 2021? I'm pleased, having heard you say it today, that that target remains, but how confident are you that we will reach that target and what are your priorities in terms of the work that needs to be in order to be in that situation in 2021? Because it is clear that we need to continue with the slight progress that we have seen since 2015, but it is a period of huge change in our education system, and the new curriculum needs time to bed in, and we need to provide resources and sufficient opportunities for professional development for our staff.

It does concern me that it appears that there is some inconsistency across Wales in terms of how teachers are facing the challenge of the new curriculum. I'm talking here about a study carried out by Cardiff University, which shows that almost 40 per cent of teachers in the pioneer schools don't feel that they are part of the development of the curriculum. Now, I'm talking about 40 per cent in the pioneer schools; it appears that the figure would be quite a bit lower in the schools that aren't part of the introduction of the new curriculum. And I'm sure that you would agree with me that such inconsistencies need to be addressed. So, my second question is: what plans do you have in place to ensure that teachers in all schools are part of the process of introducing the new curriculum?

Now, in addition to the work on the curriculum, new assessment arrangements and accountability systems are changing. As a background to all of this, there are teacher recruitment problems, and one in three new teachers leaves the classroom within five years. And, as well as the ambition of reaching that 500 point mark, then it's clear, too—. I do share that ambition, by the way, and am confident that we need to have that ambition in place, but surely we need an injection of consistent funding for schools now and we need to improve teachers’ working conditions. Teachers need to be able to allocate their time to teach and inspire our pupils, and we need to make the profession one that is attractive to prospective teachers, leading to the recruitment of more teachers into our schools.

We, as a party, have pledged to provide £300 million in addition per annum to school funding, in light of the reduction of 8 per cent in real terms in the funding that has actually happened, and, although one is aware of countries such as Estonia, the teachers do tell us that the financial pressures that they face are hindering their work. We know that far too many of our most experienced teachers have to be made redundant as schools have to operate on smaller and smaller budgets as a result of cuts, and that in turn leads to a large number of children in classes, fewer opportunities to provide attention to individuals’ needs, and pastoral work being cut and neglected.

And I turn to that final point in conclusion. The report does highlight concerns about the well-being of pupils. This is worrying. They report levels of anxiety and concern that are higher than the international average. So, I would like your response to that, and what you're going to do about it. The children's commissioner, and the children and young people committee, have been drawing attention to the welfare issue for some time now, but it appears that progress is slow, and I would like to know whether you have specific plans in place to tackle this increasing problem in terms of pupil well-being. Thank you.

Diolch yn fawr, Siân. And can I say thank you for recognising the efforts of teachers in achieving these results today? As you went on to say, we are in the midst of the largest reform of education anywhere in the United Kingdom, so we're already asking an awful lot of the profession to engage in those reforms, especially in the curriculum, and therefore to be able to achieve these results is a real testament to their ability not only to engage in those reforms, but to carry on with the day-to-day job of teaching our children. And we are asking a lot of them. 

Can I also agree with you that we need to use the data wisely? Sometimes, it feels that, having participated in the PISA tests, we just wait for today, we see the raw scores, and that's the end of that. Actually, there is a wealth of information here that we need to analyse carefully, not just in relation to our own schools, but to look at international trends and to really engage in that narrative, so that we can get the full meaning out of participating in the PISA tests.

You're absolutely right: today, we have seen the best ever scores for maths and for reading since we participated in 2006. Our science scores haven't got back there yet, and I was very clear outside of Government, as I was clear last time, when we had the results for 2015, that nobody could describe those intervening years as good years and scores that any of us wanted to see. And that's why we've engaged in this process of education reform. But what these results demonstrate is that decline is not inevitable—we can do better, and we must do better. 

How will we achieve that? Well, we will achieve it by focusing on the four core enabling objectives within our national mission. And we're focusing on those not because we need to hit a PISA target of 500, but because we know that, by focusing on those objectives, we will develop and deliver raised standards, we'll close the attainment gap, and we will deliver that education system that is a source of national pride. So, what will we do? We will continue to invest in our teaching profession, by ensuring that we will give them the resources necessary to engage in professional learning. We will focus on the well-being of our children. We know that children with higher levels of well-being, on average, do better academically. So, we will need to continue our focus on ensuring that our children can make the most of their opportunities in school by addressing issues of well-being. 

We do need an accountability and assessment regime that drives the right sort of behaviours in our schools. When we look at an accountability regime that gave equal weighting to certain science qualifications, as opposed to GCSE science qualifications, understandably—quite understandably—we saw a huge drive towards those particular types of qualifications. And then we look at our decline in science scores and we wonder what happened. We've changed that accountability marker, and what we have seen is a significant, over 50 per cent, increase in the number of students studying triple science GCSEs, and those students doing well in them. So, getting the accountability regime that drives the right sort of behaviours in schools, not just academically, but also measuring well-being and how schools are addressing well-being, is absolutely clear. 

And what we've also been very clear about is that we have neglected the important point of leadership within the education system, and, too often, we have not been there to stand alongside our school leaders to provide them with the professional opportunity and the support that they need to be the best they can be. So, a focus—professional learning, well-being, accountability and assessment and leadership is where we need to focus, which is what will drive our education journey onwards. 

Properly resourced schools are important. The OECD says that, but it also goes on to say that simply spending more and more and more money is not necessarily directly linked to better and better results. It's how you spend the resources available that does make a difference. And that is, of course, why we have engaged Luke Sibieta to carry out our independent evaluation of education spend in Wales—yes, to look at the global sum that we as a Welsh Government make available to education, but also to really interrogate how that money is then used within our system, and is it being used to best effect. So, I'm not running away from the situation that are we absolutely confident that every single penny is being used to the best it can be, and that's why we have somebody outside of Government that is looking at that issue.

Well-being: the results of the well-being section of PISA I'm sure are of concern to all of us. Any of us who have our own children, or grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or just have a general interest in the well-being of the children of our nation, will want to understand what lies behind some of that question. Notwithstanding what the First Minister said in answers in FMQs, we do need to have a look at those results, and we need to see what more we can do. Of course, we are already beginning to address this, I believe, in the work of our whole-school approach, which we have begun since the publication of the Children, Young People and Education Committee's report, and that work is progressing really well. My feet, and those of Vaughan Gething, are held to the fire at every meeting by Lynne Neagle—and, believe me, she doesn't wait for meetings to happen either to hold my feet to the fire on those issues. So, we are continuing to see the whole-school approach work that the Government is undertaking to address that.

Of course, health and well-being will be one of the six areas of learning and experience within our new curriculum. But we also, Siân—and I hope you would agree with me—need to look outside our education system at what might be some of the factors that are driving that—so how can we work with our youth service, especially at these critical adolescent teenage years, how can we make sure our youth service—. We have seen a significant increase in investment this financial year in our youth services; I have had significant and long discussions with the finance Minister about our ability to keep that investment in youth services going. But we also have to look at issues, which were raised, again, in First Minister's questions, around poverty. If you're a child who is living in poverty, I daresay that you'll answer those surveys by saying that you feel miserable. If you're watching your mum and dad struggle, if you don't know whether there will be heating when you get home, if you are going with your parent down to the food bank, because that's the only way that you know your family will be fed this week, I daresay that affects your well-being. And, therefore, there is a responsibility across Welsh Government to take action to address these issues. So, yes, schools have a role to play—of course they do. But wider Government, and, indeed, wider society, has a role to play as well to ensure that our children have a better sense of well-being; it cannot be just the job of schools alone.

I congratulated you, education Minister, earlier in remarks, along with everyone involved, on the improvements that we have seen in the PISA results on this cycle. Reading your statement earlier, I was just a little concerned that you might be becoming a bit too self-congratulatory on these ones. The remarks that are positive, yes, but not perfect, for instance, I thought was a bit too much, and it's not as good as the rest of the UK. But I think in what you said now in the answers to both the spokesmen before—. And you also you added at the end of your statement—the verbal version—that this must just be the beginning, and I do recognise that. However, when you say that we spent far too long lagging behind other countries—you said Netherlands and Switzerland, and then you said, 'Well, Scotland and Northern Ireland, for that matter, we now join them in the OECD mainstream.' Do you recognise that Scotland and Northern Ireland are significantly above that mainstream for reading, and we're not quite there yet in the overall comparison?

Could I refer to the—? We had some slides circulated earlier that were jointly badged Welsh Government and Education Wales. And one of those was on high performers. You also mentioned just now the improvement at level 5 or above in reading from 3 per cent to 7 per cent—a significant improvement, and behind but beginning to approach the OECD average of 9 per cent. On the maths, not quite as good—we've gone up from 4 per cent to 7 per cent, and that compares to the 11 per cent average. You said in your statement just now—an increased proportion of top performers in the other two domains, referring to maths and science. And we also see this in the slide that was shared earlier. In science, it says it went up from 4 per cent in 2015 to 5 per cent in 2018 at level 5 and above. However, in the results report that was also circulated to us earlier, I note at page 194, it says that for science, only 4 per cent got level 5 or above for Wales in 2018. So, I just wonder if we could check that, and if we haven't seen the improvement compared to the 4 per cent in 2015, if we could, at least, correct that while recognising the improvements in the other areas at this level, which matches the emphasis you put earlier on the A* proportion at A-level. 

Since you came into the role, I've questioned you quite a lot about the Seren project, and it has struck me that it has been something you've been pushing personally and persuading colleagues to get behind as well. Perhaps we do see some of those outcomes coming through. Again, though, while I'd say there have been improvements and I am prepared to welcome those, I just caution against getting too far ahead of ourselves in comparisons to the rest of the UK about where we now are with Oxbridge or the Russell Group. Yes, there have been improvements, and I'm really pleased that admission staff are recognising that. But do you agree that there's still a long way to go, and keeping that trajectory going is really important if we're going to be saying that we're better than other parts of the UK? I would caution against suggesting we're there yet. 

One area I would like to ask about is, you have the ambition to close the attainment gap in terms of the socioeconomic basis and also to raise standards, and I just wonder if, as we push towards that, whether a tension may emerge between those two aims. The attainment gap is relatively flat for Wales when you compare with the rest of the UK, but particularly with the OECD average, where there's a very steep upward trajectory across the socioeconomic groups. And internationally, quite a lot of countries will actually see more spending for kids of well-off parents than poorer ones, and perhaps may correct for that, to a degree. But we're very unusual in going far beyond that and having substantially higher spending for the children of less well-off parents than for the better-off parents.

And I just note, when you compare with England in reading, most of the difference with England is in the top half of the socioeconomic distribution, and there, we're averaging 30 to 40 points less on the reading tests than England. I just wonder, if we are to close that gap with England, we may need to see significant improvements at that level of the socioeconomic, as well as the lower level where, if you were to do it all through a closure of the attainment gap, you would be seeing attainment that would be really quite extraordinary at the lower levels, and I welcome your ambition on that. But I just wonder about the funding of some of the schools, which have their socioeconomic intakes in the upper half, and I've been struck at the primary level by barely £3,000, a bit more sometimes, per year, per child, and to some extent, at secondary. And in England, what we're seeing is a levelling up of those lower spending schools, and I worry that, if we don't also see that in Wales it will be very hard to get up to that 500 level, and particularly to get our levels close to England on the reading side in particular. 

Finally, you refer to advice from the OECD, and after the poor results last time, you emphasise these results and this advice and engaging with them, and I just wonder, can you clarify what that is? We've got this 262-page results report. I don't know when you've received that or whether you've got other material for them that we haven't seen yet. What is it that you do with the OECD in terms of advice? Is that an ongoing relationship? Do schools who participate in PISA have an opportunity to benefit from that as well? And what, so far, do you see as the key bits of advice as to what they're saying to you as to what's required now, having looked at these results and the improvements relative to last time, albeit still lagging behind the rest of the UK on many measures? 

Can I, Presiding Officer, thank Mark Reckless for his acknowledgement of the efforts of staff and students in achieving these results today? If I could start with that last point first, I don't know which schools did PISA. Some people find that extraordinary, but that actually is part of the rules of engagement. I can't tell you which schools did and which schools didn't do PISA. So, we don't facilitate an ongoing working relationship with individual schools and the OECD. The OECD works at a system-to-system level, and so I have only, in the last couple of days, received the report from the OECD—again, that's part of the rules of engagement.

So, I've had less than—let's see, Thursday, Friday—. Well, Wednesday afternoon, I saw the initial results and then got the report on Thursday, so I've only had a few days myself to acquaint myself with it.

But we have had OECD back in Wales earlier on in the autumn term to, again, give us an independent assessment on where we are with our reform journey, and they are looking to report that sometime in the new year. So, again, we've commissioned them, we've asked them to come in to have a look at what we're doing and scrutinise us as a Government; to go out to schools and speak to headteachers; speak to local education authorities; speak to regional school improvement services to ask them about where they think they are; and to speak to other stakeholders, and we'll have that independent report delivered to us, as I said, in the new year. And that is a genuine attempt to keep the pressure on, to have that outside independence looking at what we're doing so that we don't get carried away, or begin to believe our own spin, but to actually have that outside scrutiny to keep us honest with regard to the delivery of our programmes, and then use that advice to amend or adjust things that are going well, or if things are not going so well, to be able to respond accordingly. So, that will come in the new year.

You talked about the issue of trajectory, and I think trajectory is important. What gives me some satisfaction today is that we have been able to sustain, over two cycles now, that improvement in mathematics, and that's what we need to see happening in the other domains as well. Whilst we have gone up in reading, that's from the low base that we achieved last time, and although we've gone up in science, which is different from the rest of the UK, again, that is from a low base. It's the first time ever, actually, that we've ever been able to improve our science score, but that has to be sustainable. We've seen that now over two cycles for maths, which I think can give us a greater level of confidence, and we will have to see that continued in the other two domains as well. 

With regard to equity and excellence, I think it is important to reflect that, in Wales the disadvantage gap was significantly smaller, and pupils in Wales were relatively more able to overcome the disadvantages of their background than the average of OECD countries. So, we're closing that attainment gap, and we're giving our young people the skills that they need and the tools that they need to overcome disadvantage that they may bring with them within the system. What's also important is that pupils in Wales with an immigrant background were not significantly different from non-immigrant pupils with regards to their reading performance which, again, bucks the OECD average. So, with regard to learners who might have a variety of challenges coming into school, whether that be perhaps not from an English or a Welsh-speaking family, or coming from a socially-disadvantaged family, our system helps those children do well.

But does that mean there's a tension between our support for more able and talented students versus our support for our students from a more socioeconomic deprived background? I don't believe there is a tension there. The Government cannot ignore anybody. The education system has to be a system that works for every single pupil to allow them to reach their full potential, whether they are students with profound additional learning needs, like I met in Trinity Fields School & Resource Centre in Caerphilly yesterday, or whether they're the students I met today who are destined for world-leading universities, we have to create an education system that allows each and every single individual to reach their full potential.

I never will make any apology for the investment in the pupil development grant. Those children we know are less likely to do well, and I don't want to live in a country where the size of your parents' pay cheque or the background that you come from designates you and tells you from the very youngest of ages, 'This is your destiny.' We have to buck that. We have to let the innate abilities of each and every child shine through, regardless of where they come from—regardless of where they come from. And I will never apologise for chasing that dream for those children.

With regard to reading, you are right; we are not where we need to be with our reading scores, and that is particularly true for our boys. We will need to reflect on our performance and understand what more we can do to ensure that we make progress in this regard. Reading for girls, their score is significantly higher, but we do—and I'd be the first to admit—have a challenge here, especially for boys, to drive up that reading level. There's been much reporting on the 44 per cent figure of people not reading books. Now, I don't know whether that's a stable door that has closed, but what I do know, it takes us back to early years, the development of reading habits early in the child's educational career, developing a love of reading, is something that we have to engender from an early age. Suddenly turning around to a 15-year-old—and as a mother of a 15-year-old, I know this—and saying, 'You have to pick up that book and you read it' is not going to get us very far. We have to start that again at our very earliest years and develop that love of reading and that habit of reading. And, of course, there's a huge amount of work to be done, then, by parents. Parents can help us hugely, help schools hugely, by reading with their children at home from the earliest age to get children into that habit of picking up a book and discovering the joy of reading. But we also have to embrace new technology. Maybe young people—we're more likely to get them to engage in the world of words if we find them different alternatives, but we have more work to do in this regard, and I'd be the first person to admit that we are below the UK when it comes to our reading scores.

Can I join others in congratulating our young people and their staff and their work? I'm sure everybody across this Chamber will actually join in with that congratulations. Minister, you've answered an awful lot of the questions on points that I wanted to raise, because you clearly are passionate about this and you can see that passion coming through. I do agree with you, the early years is key to reading and the joy of reading because I was interested to read—and Siân Gwenllian was quite right—the analysis of the text, not just the headline figures, is important. Ninety-one per cent online chats is where they get a lot of their reading from, and when they say 44 per cent rarely or never read a book, we need to look at how we address that whilst encouraging young people to use technology for their research and their development. I couldn't understand how the understanding element of reading, or comprehension, as Suzy put it, was below the line and yet, our reflection and evaluation was above the line, which is clearly a critical point.

But also, I want to remind ourselves of the positive message here: actually, we've improved nine places in science in the national figures; we've improved eight places in reading; and we've improved seven places in maths. So, actually, against other countries, we have definitely improved ourselves and gone up the line and we should not ignore that point. It's not just about improving those individual figures, we've gone up against other nations as well, and that's critical. I also noticed the attainment gap has decreased as well, though I do recognise the 10 per cent dial and the 90 per cent dial aren't necessarily at the levels we want them to be to be able to have that gap smaller, but giving us better averages, and we need to do something on that.

Can I ask the question of, clearly, how we address this? Some of the things—. I think vocational education is an important aspect when we hit some of these levels, because I think vocational education can also be a need to help some of those pupils understand some of the points we're talking about. It's not just purely the academic agenda, it's the vocational agenda as well, which we can feed together into approval. So, how will you look at how the vocational agenda and the academic agenda in your curriculum will work to ensure that we can improve those levels of both the bottom 10 per cent and the top 10 per cent, which gives us that better figure in that? How do we ensure that we raise the expectation of possibilities? You talked about reaching the potential, but we want to raise the expectation and opportunities and possibilities for those people to reach that potential. So, what are you doing to work towards that so that we're giving them more hope?

Siân Gwenllian talked about teachers. Again, I also raise the question of teachers. How do we encourage more in? But also, we weren't reflected in that about the absent teachers, but we do have a lot of supply teachers coming in. How do we address the supply teacher agenda to ensure that that doesn't impact upon the learning of our young people, so they can still continue the development? There are many schools where supply teachers come and go quite frequently, and that does impact upon them. You've talked about food banks and their well-being, but let's not forget, the well-being affects the learning of children, and that's crucial. We need to address that.

I noticed the OECD reflected Andreas Schleicher and his comment: 'You're on the right path.' That's what he said: 'You're on the right path. Stick to it', but can you convince us that the curriculum changes that you are going to be bringing in next year will actually take us continually on that path, that it's not going to divert us off the path into another route, another direction? Because it is important that we continue the progression we have seen in the last three years. We've all called for this progression. From 2015, I remember it—we all called for this progression. We've got it now, let's celebrate it, but let's also make sure that we continue with it, because that is the aim for our young people, to ensure that they're able to benefit from improving our systems.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

I want to thank David for his commendation of our teachers and students and for his question.

The aim of the new curriculum is to be a much broader-based curriculum that will address both the knowledge that our children will need but also to give them the skills and experiences. And that does mean that, potentially, there is more scope within that curriculum for a more vocational focus. But you'll also be aware that Qualifications Wales is carrying out a consultation at the moment with regard to the qualifications, and there is some suggestion of a narrowing down of the literally thousands of qualifications children can do, but that, really, will be the guide as to the qualifications that will be available after the time at school. But this more broad-based curriculum and the ability of teachers to be able to design a curriculum that meets the needs of the children in front of them and the needs of local employers and the local economy—I believe that that greater freedom will be able to address that crucial thing of engagement.

I was at a school recently being interviewed by students, and they asked me to name something that I studied at school that I have never, ever, ever used again in my entire professional career, and I suspect we can all think of those kinds of things. And they gave me a long list of things that they felt that they had learnt in school that they were convinced were ever, ever going to be of use to them. We've got to listen and give the opportunity for our children to be able to have a say in, actually, 'What do I need?', and to give relevance to the learning. So, even if it's something that—. Surds in maths comes up a lot, so even though you might not understand why you're having to learn surds in maths, we give relevance to the learning by saying, 'Okay, maybe you don't like this, but you need to learn this because—', and show them the linkages to their future life skills, to their future careers, and that's how we really engage all of our learners. Raising aspiration is an important part of that and explaining to children that what they see around them isn't necessarily the limit of their ambitions and that they can think beyond that. And our Seren programme is the epitome of raising aspirations of our children to say, 'You are good enough. You can compete with the very best. There is a place for you at these universities, at these high-tariff courses.' That's one of the reasons why we want to bring Seren down the school age to be able to address those issues of aspiration earlier.

Teachers, of course, are crucial. No education system can exceed the quality of the teachers who work with our children day in, day out. That's why we've reformed our initial teacher education programme, that's why we are actively considering moving to a two-year newly qualified teacher phase, so there's greater support and mentoring for those first entering the profession, and that's why we need to look once again at the Master's programme. But not telling teachers in their first year of teaching they've got to do a Master's then, because they've got enough to contend with, but actually creating that gap for teachers to study at a Master's level. But also to continue the initial investment that we have started off in professional learning and ensuring that I can secure those resources so that professional learning can be ongoing.

Now, the head of the education department in the OECD indeed has had an interesting take on the Welsh education journey. He does believe that the reform programme that we're engaged in is the best chance of achieving a great education system, and he is very supportive of the curriculum and the curriculum changes. But what is crucial to me—it's all very well having a national mission written down on a piece of paper—in January, we will have our finished curriculum written down on pieces of paper. Our attention then has to turn to the serious business of implementation. I have been in this Chamber long enough to see very worthwhile plans formulated on paper and then fail in their implementation phase, and I am determined to learn the lessons of that and not to repeat that on my watch.

Thank you. Finally, Neil Hamilton.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Minister said in her statement:

'for the first time ever, we are performing at the OECD average in all three domains: in reading, in science, and in mathematics.'

But will she acknowledge that there's less cause for self-congratulation here, perhaps, than meets the eye? Because her own graphs show that the OECD average is itself falling; it's getting lower and lower year by year. So, if we stand still, eventually the OECD will fall below us and that wouldn't be a cause for self-congratulation. Having said that, I do acknowledge, obviously, that the Minister has achieved something worth while—she has arrested a long period of decline in standards in Welsh schools. With Wales languishing below the other countries of the UK after 20 years of the existence of this Assembly, I don't think that any education Minister could rightly expect to be pleased, even with the results we've been talking about today. We certainly can't celebrate still being below all other countries in the UK. We can't celebrate still being below the OECD average. Indeed, in the case of Northern Ireland, of course, they haven't had an Assembly in operation for several years, and they haven't got a democratically controlled Government, but they have beaten us in these results.

I wonder if the Minister will acknowledge that we should look at the most recent results through the eye of history. And we look back to 2006, what we have seen—although there has been, and I acknowledge it and welcome it, an improvement since she has been the Minister, we have actually not gone forward very much at all. In the case of reading, we've gone from a score of 481 to 483. That's broadly static. In the case of maths, we've gone from 484 to 487, and in the case of science, disastrously, we've gone from 505 back to 488. We have to do a lot better than this before we can pat ourselves on the back.

I don't think it is really much of an ambition in life to seek to be at the average. What we should be seeking to do is to be a lot better than average. If we look at the tables of all the countries that have been participating in the PISA results, and we look at Singapore—almost at the top, because it's actually No. 2—Singapore's scores in reading is 549, compared with ours at 483, 569 in maths, compared with ours at 487, and 551 in science, compared with ours at 488. Of course, not everybody can be the best, that's the whole point of averaging, but I still think that our ambition should be greater than that.

I know that the Minister doesn't like to be congratulated or complimented by me—she doesn't have a good reason to be so—but I do applaud her for the energy, commitment and passion that she has brought to the conduct of her office, and I do welcome the change that she has brought to the education system in Wales. If this arrest of decline is to be sustained, and I believe that she has put in place some of the building blocks for future success, then she will go down in the history of Welsh devolution as the best Minister for Education that we have had, albeit that may not be too great a compliment.

Well, I'm not sure if the Member availed himself of the opportunity to attend the briefing this morning—I'm afraid I was at the Seren conference—if he was there, he would have received a very deep analysis of the figures, and it's simply not true, what he has characterised. Statistically, we are performing at the OECD average. Is average good enough? Well, as the old cricketing saying goes, averages are for average players, and I want to be better than average. But considering that just three years ago, we were significantly below the OECD average, I think we have picked ourselves up and we have regained some dignity here in our Welsh education system, and it is a building block on which we can move forward, and move forward I am determined to do. We are not standing still, we have made improvements in our scores across all the pieces.

Now, the Member is correct to say that we have come from a low base, but we have now recorded today the best ever score in maths and the best ever score in reading. There is more work to be done—I have been very clear since I got to my feet this afternoon that I'm not resting on my laurels and I'm not taking anything for granted. There is more hard work to be done. But today is something that we can be pleased with. As I said, it's positive, but it is not perfect, and I, and, more importantly than me, the teachers of Wales are determined to do even better. I see that every day when I visit them; there is a shared ambition across our nation. We have improved today, but we will improve further, I am confident of that.

Thank you very much, Minister.