On the point about managing workload, we have had for some time a process that has engaged teachers, teaching unions, Government and other partners and stakeholders in the education system to look at what we can do to remove those elements of workload that may have built up over time and to apply a fresh lens to them to say, 'Are they absolutely necessary? Do they add the value that justifies the level of commitment and hours that teachers and teaching staff will broadly have to put in to responding to those?' So, that work has—you know, it is challenging work. These things aren't randomly designed, they're generally designed for good reasons, but perhaps periodically we need to refresh that, look again at them. So, that work has been going on for some time, and I'm expecting to get advice very shortly about some specific actions that we've been working on with the profession to reduce workload. So, I'll be able to bring forward a statement, I hope, in the not-too-distant future that will give a bit more meat on the bone in relation to that.

He asked a number of points in relation to teaching assistants, and I want to echo his appreciation for the work that they do. He has personal experience of that, as he says. We have a pathway for professional learning for teachers, for teaching assistants. The national professional learning entitlement will also extend to teaching assistants. As he will know from the statement I made earlier this year, we've been undertaking work in relation to the standardisation of roles and the guidance in relation to deployment, advice to governing bodies and so on. I recommend he casts an eye over that statement, which will explain to him the steps that we are taking to support our teaching assistants.

In relation to the national professional entitlement, he will have heard me say in the statement that the whole point of it is to be a national entitlement. The clue is in the name. So, the website that is being launched today provides access to teachers in any part of Wales to the professional learning offer of consortia in any part of Wales. So, it's no longer limited to the particular consortium in which that individual teacher happens to practice. So, that information is now available on a national basis for the reason that he was asking about in his question, and we will be evaluating the effectiveness of the professional learning, the offer. We are in a constant process of evaluation in relation to professional learning because there is so much happening in the system at the moment. But, I can assure him that that will be part of our work there.

He asked for clarity about when a decision would be announced on the INSET day. Adding an additional INSET day requires regulations, and that requires consultation. We've minimised the consultation period consistent with what we feel is the appropriate time to give people an opportunity to respond. The consultation closes on 28 October, so I hope to be able to make a statement pretty shortly after that, so that schools will have the clarity that I know we all want to see. But, it's an inescapable part of the process, as I know that he will understand.

He asked about buddying. Mentoring is, as you will have heard from my statement, a key part of our offer for early years practitioners, so I hope that will have given him some assurance.