I thank the Member for his questions. He will know from my statement and from other statements that I have made that, closing the attainment gap between those students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers is a key priority for me, as I just outlined in the statement. He somewhat misrepresents the experience in relation to the attainment gap since the publication of the national mission. Actually, there was progress at a number of cohort points, which, unfortunately, the experience of COVID has halted, and in some cases, reversed. The impact of COVID has been similar in different parts of the UK, and I daresay, probably internationally as well. But what he will have seen in the statements that I made last year and the updates I've given since then—and he will be aware that I'm giving an update to the Chamber next week in relation to our policy initiatives in this area—is a whole-system approach to focusing on making sure that every single learner, regardless of their background, has the same access to an excellent education and is encouraged to have not only high standards, but also high aspirations.

He refers to PISA. He will know that the 2022 PISA results will be a baseline from which we can review trends going forward. It's one part of a much broader programme of monitoring and evaluation; an important part, no doubt, but only one part of that. We are looking at how we measure success across the system, as he will know, in terms of what we evaluate, and I set out our approach to that and the next steps that we are taking to that, to the Senedd at the end of January, as he will be aware. 

He may have wanted the Curriculum for Wales to be delayed; I think that underestimates the enthusiasm and commitment that schools and teachers and teaching assistants have for the curriculum right across Wales. He will know that we are about to debate, later on this afternoon, the Estyn report for 2021-22, and he will know from having read that, no doubt, that Estyn provides an assessment of the roll-out of the Curriculum for Wales and demonstrates good practice and commitment in relation to doing that. Understandably, there is a level of variation across the system that is generally not isolated in relation to curriculum roll-out, but relates to other features that some schools have also found challenging as well, and those schools, as he will know, will be getting specialist support in relation to those particular areas.

Similarly, in relation to the roll-out of the additional learning needs reforms, which have been, I think, very, very widely welcomed, obviously introducing a reform of such magnitude, which involves such change across the system—there is a huge amount of effort that practitioners and organisations are making in order to ensure those reforms are a success, and I pay tribute to them for the incredible work and commitment that they are investing in this work. We have substantially increased the funding available to schools, as he will be aware, both from a capital and revenue point of view, in order to help smooth the transition, and I’ll be making announcements in the coming days about further support that we intend to provide for practitioners in order to make sure that the ALN reforms are a success for each individual learner, as we need them to be.