In this episode, Director of CREU Dr Noel Purdy was joined by Nick Matheson MLA, member of the Alliance Party and current chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Education Committee.

As well as finding out more about Nick's own background and educational journey, we took the opportunity to discuss his perspective on the strengths of the education system in Northern Ireland, but also some of the big challenges; from the support for children with special educational needs, to the strikingly persistent gap in attainment between children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds, and, of course - always the hot potato -academic selection.