Responding after Welsh first minister Eluned Morgan set out her priorities for government, Laura Doel, national secretary at school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, said:

“It beggars’ belief that school funding, support for learners with alternative learning needs and staff recruitment and retention didn’t feature in the first minister’s priority list.

"School leaders were clear when we took industrial action over a year ago that schools are buckling under the pressure of chronic underfunding. 

"They warned it would have a detrimental impact on the delivery of education and it is. If schools are to drive up standards, they need funding to do so.  This is a missed opportunity - funding for schools should have been at the top of the first minister’s in-tray.

“We expect school funding to be picked up in the list of responsibilities promised by the first minister.”