1. What assessment has the Minister made of last week's increase in school activities? OQ55427

Thank you, Joyce. The immediate feedback received from key stakeholders, parents and learners is overwhelmingly positive. The opportunity for school staff to catch up with their learners has been very much welcomed. Good practice and evidence from this current period of operations is helping inform schools' operations for the future.

I'm really proud that I'm able to stand here today and say that children in Wales have had an opportunity to go to school before people had the same opportunity to go to a pub. I think it actually does say something about the priorities here in Wales. I, like you, share my appreciation of all those people who've come together in the joint efforts to make that happen, and I want to thank all those, here today, on behalf of all those parents.

As you say, this is an opportunity to check in and catch up, and these few weeks before the summer break are important for identifying logistical challenges. One of those logistical challenges in my region will be transport to school. So, can we look forward to a statement in the near future about what has been learned, what's worked well and perhaps where we need to be next?

Thank you, Joyce, especially for the recognition of the hard work that has gone into making these opportunities available for children in Wales. It has been a huge collective effort on behalf of all those involved. One of the reasons why we did want to provide these opportunities, above and beyond education, is precisely for the reasons that you have described—so we can get to grips with some of the really wicked logistical issues around a safe return to schools for pupils and members of staff—and, clearly, transport is one of those. I must say that the vast majority of local authorities across Wales during this period have been able to ensure that those children who need transport have been able to access transport, but there have been logistical issues, undoubtedly. Only last night I met with a significant number of council leaders and trade unions to discuss issues around education. Transport, of course, was raised, and we will be working with both directors of education and transport leads in all 22 local authorities to address these issues prior to the new academic year.

Education Minister, I recognise these are difficult decisions for the Government, but the Government must balance the harms and benefits of any policy. And although I see you're trying to keep our children safe, and respect that, obviously, it is, ironically, having an adverse effect on our children and they are suffering, which I've seen first hand, having a 10-year-old son of primary age myself.

As I said earlier in the Chamber, it's not just our children's education that is suffering, it's their mental, physical health and development. I ask you to look at how low the risk is with COVID-19 now and balance that with the harmful effect that not going back to school full time is having on our children. And although we welcome the opportunity in these three weeks for our children to go back for three days, unless all children go back to school in September, I'll be interested in hearing how you expect parents to look after their children, educate their children, and hold down jobs if this part-time learning carries on.

Even though there is very little time now for our schools to prepare to reopen, the Scottish Government has made it fully clear that they want to reopen in August fully. In Wales, teachers, pupils and parents, as I said before, have been in the dark too long. We need to know. Please can you tell us, Minister, when we can expect all children to return to school full time?

I will be making a statement on the next stages of education for the children in Wales before the end of the week.

Oh, I should say—sorry, it's very rude of me—welcome back, Laura.