I say this as a proud comprehensive schoolboy: we can never be complacent about striving for ever-higher outcomes from our school and our college education, and we do need to see continued and accelerated improvement on the trajectory we're now seeing. But as we approach the season of cheer and good will, I will not be talking down the achievements of our students and our teachers and our governors and our educational consortia, our schools and colleges. In fact, I'm going to thank them and talk up their achievements over the past year, because the educational reforms that our Welsh Government are undertaking are focused squarely on teaching excellence, on equity and well-being for all our learners, on leadership and collective responsibilities.

And these reforms are indeed showing early signs of paying off, with overall GCSE performance improving again this year, and A-level results remaining at an historic high. So, let's have a look at some of these outcomes in detail, starting with the 2019 GCSE results. This summer's GCSE results marked the end of a significant period of GCSE reform undertaken in Wales. The last seven reformed GCSE subjects were introduced earlier this year, including history, computer science and Welsh second language. Overall, 28 reformed qualifications have been introduced since 2015, and we have to say, pupils and teachers have handled the introduction of these reformed qualifications well. These reformed qualifications are providing pupils with the right skills for the modern world, and they will play a vital role in raising standards. And the main figures for the summer 2019 GCSE results include an overall performance increase, with nearly 63 per cent of learners achieving A* to C over all—up 1.2 percentage points—despite the relative upheaval resulting from the qualification reform. The A* to A pass rate has remained stable at 18.4 per cent. There's been an increase in entries and numbers achieving top grades in science and maths, which are at the core of the PISA assessments. The performance in science continues to improve. The percentage of pupils gaining A* to A and A* to C grades in all individual sciences—including biology, chemistry and physics—has risen. The number of pupils who sat GCSE English literature has increased by nearly 23 per cent, with over 2,800 more pupils achieving and A* to C grades compared with 2018, 58.1 per cent of students achieved grade A* to C in GCSE maths numeracy, and 59 per cent achieved grade A* to C for GCSE maths. Now, I think that's something that the Member opposite will want to stand an applaud.