I thank Laura Anne Jones for that range of questions. In relation to the points that she asked about the investment in resources, which is one part of the set of actions that I'm describing today, there will be a choice for learners themselves in relation to the books that they will receive. So, they'll have a choice between a range of books and they'll be able to select the one that they wish for themselves. In addition to that book per learner, there will be a set of resources available, a set of books available to each state school in Wales in addition to that.

When I was a young student myself, my love of reading was developed very early on, and I think having access to that rich range of reading materials is an important part of igniting passion for reading, and this will be a contribution to that. But there is also a set of interventions that support the work that the Books Council of Wales do. They will work with us in relation to this, and also the work of BookTrust Cymru, as she will know, in relation to the Bookstart scheme and the Pori Drwy Stori schemes, and so on. So, all of those will be getting additional support as a consequence of the funding that I'm announcing today, which will help learners on their reading journey and support schools and parents in reading with our children and young people. So, there's a set of targeted interventions, if you like, and a more universal offer in the funding that I'm announcing today.

She makes an important point about timing, and when best to take some steps on this path. What I'm announcing today is, if you like, a campaign across Wales over the course of the next months, leading up to the commencement of the roll-out of the new curriculum, and there are important milestones along the way, as she acknowledged in her question. We'll be working with the consortia—we already are—and with Estyn to support our schools and practitioners, both in terms of auditing best practice and sharing some of that, and in providing additional support in terms of professional learning resources, which will be easily found, easily navigable, for our practitioners to make them the most useful they possibly can be. The national network, I think, has an important role to play in this. That is Welsh Government-initiated but practitioner-led, as she will know, and my intention is that that will explore oracy and reading in the spring. It has a programme of work and it's important that we roll that out in a way that practitioners can benefit from and engage with amongst the range of other pressures that they face at the moment. So, the intention is for that to happen in the spring.

She made a series of very important points in relation to the impact that the last 12 to 18 months has had on in particular, perhaps, our youngest learners, and their early developmental stages. She will know that the support that we've provided to date to schools around the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards funding and the renew and reform plan has been weighted, in particular, towards early years. So, we've committed funding to our non-maintained childcare settings until April of next year, and a significant pot of funding to support foundation phase pedagogy as well. That idea of learning through play, which we know so well, is fundamental to being able to help engage some of our youngest learners with their oracy and with their educational needs. So, that has already been part of the work that we do.

There is evidence in relation to the loss of learning. It's a complex picture. It does show that over the course of the last 12 to 18 months, there has been a loss in terms of capacity for reading, but that has been made up in some periods over the last year. So, it is a complex picture over the last 18 months, but it is absolutely the case that we know that learners at all age ranges need further support. That has been the underpinning principle of the investment that we've made so far to give schools that extra capacity to support learners in the way that she asked in her question.