Thank you for your statement, Minister. Firstly, may I congratulate you on your appointment as education Minister? It's such a vitally important role; you really do have the future of our children in Wales in your hands now. And it's to this end that, as well as to scrutinise you and to hold you to account, we the Welsh Conservatives will look to work with you in any way we can, in a constructive manner, because the importance now on getting education right and the future of our children, after everything they've been through in the pandemic over the last year and a half—it's absolutely vital that we get it right, and it's vital that we work together across the Chamber in order to make this so. 

We need to ensure that our children get the very best start in life, that they get the fair, equal and progressive education system that they deserve, and that they get the support and opportunities to move on into their future lives. I too would like, like you outlined in your statement, to just quickly thank, if I may, Deputy Presiding Officer, all the educational staff that have looked after our children throughout this pandemic with the whole new ways of working, working from home. As a parent of an 11-year-old, I saw first-hand the difficulties in that, in reaching our children, and also delivering that education. So, hats off to them. They did such a fantastic job in such trying circumstances. 

Also, I'd like to just mention the pandemic and the impact that that had. It was massive. It obviously impacted everybody, but our young people gave up so much of their lives, and gave up so much to protect the vulnerable in our society, and they've missed out on some education because of it, but also the social aspect of school, which we now see, as you've outlined in your statement, as vital, and a vitally important part of our children's education system journey. So, I just wanted to ensure that we really do focus on that. 

In regard to the statement, with regard to funding, of course, we welcome your statement, and we welcome more funding coming to the education system. It's vital now that we're not just filling gaps with money, but we really look at how we can support our children long term, and our teachers long term now, and keep that funding going for as long as is necessary to help them get back on their feet—both pupils and teachers. We welcome the funding, but specifically, Minister, can you just outline how that funding is going to be used? Is it going to be used for new teachers, or is it, like in the last round of funding, going to be used for new teaching assistants? Obviously, there's a big difference between the two, and we've seen the number of teachers fall over the last few years. So, it would be good to bolster the number of teachers that we have. I'd appreciate clarity on that. 

Also, when it comes to teacher assessment grades, we need to look at the here and now, and that's what's most pressing in our schools at the moment. We have enormous amounts of pressure being put on our schools and our teachers to get this right, and it's important that we all work together to make sure that the teacher assessment grades are fair and right, but the pressure they're putting on doing the assessments and everything, and everything that goes with it to get to that point now, is massive.

I know you visited a school in my region recently, Monmouth Comprehensive School, and I know that the headteacher there was very concerned about the numbers he's got to deal with—having to deliver 30,000 teacher assessment grades and all that's involved in that. I just wanted to know what sorts of plans you've got in place to support our teachers in that regard. And also, do you think that that pressure, then, if you're looking into trying to deliver this new curriculum, on the timetable that we have—do you think those pressures are steering people off course in the time now that they should be using to prepare for delivering that new curriculum, in the timescales that we have? So I'm just wondering if you could answer a few of those questions.

Also, when it comes to Welsh-medium education, your statement acknowledges there have been particular challenges for the younger learners who attend Welsh-medium schools, where Welsh wasn't spoken at home. This is an issue that's been recently raised by Estyn in recent engagement with our schools, and many schools felt that, overall, there was some regression in our pupils' language skills. So, there is need, Minister, and I'm sure you'll agree with me, for more targeted help for these particular learners. I'd be interested to see what you have to say about that.

And also, when it comes to mental health, mental health has to be a—