Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I formally move the motion on the order paper. As I set out last week, following advice from the chief medical officer and Public Health Wales, it was recommended that secondary schools move to remote learning from 14 December until the end of term. As everybody in this Chamber is well aware, rates of transmission are currently increasing, and we are sadly on course to having 2,500 people with coronavirus in hospital by Christmas Day.

While I am delighted with the offer that we were able to make yesterday with regard to asymptomatic testing for schools, and the announcement of a vaccination programme that began last week, these interventions and these processes will take time to take effect. We need to continue to put in place the necessary restrictions to protect the NHS and to save lives.

We recognise, as we did during the firebreak, that it is much more difficult for primary and special school-age children to undertake self-directed learning. That is why we have encouraged primary and special schools to continue to stay open, unless of course there are compelling and clear public health and safety reasons for them not to be able to do so. Having spoken to local education leaders, we are increasingly confident that schools and colleges have the online learning in place to continue to ensure that our young people continue to learn.

However, Deputy Presiding Officer, it is really important for me to state this: this is not an early Christmas break. Critically, our secondary and FE learners should be at home learning at this time. We all need to do what we can do to minimise contact with others, and to make a real difference to the course of this virus and, ultimately, to save lives. I would appeal to the young people of Wales who have seen their education in school disrupted once again to follow this advice.

I also want to be clear that schools are regulated and controlled settings, and there is no new evidence to suggest that schools are no longer safe. The majority of transmission appears to continue to be through community contacts and activities around the school environment, rather than the school environment itself. As we begin vaccinating, we can be rightly optimistic for a better 2021. But, at this time, we have to be cautious, and we must still keep working together to keep Wales safe and to keep our young people learning.