Wales is now treated as a serious player in the education world, for both what we have all achieved together and the vision set out in Wales: A Better Country, which will take forward our plans for a better education and lifelong learning system.
For the coming year one of the major development areas will be early years education. Already there are new early years centres across Wales, with more to come. We have given a commitment that every three-year-old in Wales will have a half-time Assembly-funded nursery place from September.
A huge amount of effort has gone into developing the way forward for the innovative and uniquely Welsh Foundation Stage for three- to seven-year-olds. This new early years education phase will concentrate on learning through well-structured play, practical activity and investigation. We are working with the experts to develop a curriculum that offers a broad range of experiences. Piloting will begin in September.
We will also be piloting our imaginative free breakfasts proposal.
Alongside such initiatives we will continue to evaluate how children's learning is assessed and encouraged, particularly as they move between primary school and secondary school.
My priority remains to firmly establish Wales as a 'Learning Country'. It is about unlocking talent, widening access and encouraging people into learning who have never considered it before.
I will continue to underline the importance of putting learners first, while keeping standards high, equipping teachers to teach, and opening up new access routes to learning. We must ensure our policies are evidence based, that they will secure social inclusion, that they will drive forward equality of opportunity.
This is a hugely challenging education agenda because it means doing things differently, building on our success but being prepared to tackle failure.
If we work in partnership for a common goal, then Wales will truly be able to take its place on the world stage.
