5.2 Session data not showing in views

Validation errors are not being stored on my Laravel 5.2 application (new installation, not upgraded). In addition, $old('value') is not retaining the values after validation fail.

All my routes are contained in the web middleware, and I also tried moving the web middleware contents to the global $middleware variable in Kernel.php.

I have also attempted to clear my route cache in artisan and include use Illuminate\Foundation\Validation\ValidationException at the top of my controller to see if i could make it work. It seems like the validation is processing, it's just not storing it in the session/throwing the exception. I say this because Session::flash is also not working in the same way and the user remember me feature doesn't seem to be storing as long as the cookie says it does, as I am required to re-log in after about 6 hours (though this may just be a change from 5.1).

Routes Setup (I have "regular" public routes and then a staff route:

Route::group(['middleware' => ['web']], function () {
// Basic Route...
 $this->get('/', 'PublicController@index');

 // Staff Route...
  Route::group(['middleware' => 'staff'], function () {
  $this->get('/staffpanel', 'Staff\StaffController@showStaffPanel');
 });
});

Kernel.php

namespace App\Http;

use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Kernel as HttpKernel;

class Kernel extends HttpKernel
{

protected $middleware = [
    \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode::class,
    \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
    \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
    \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
    \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
    \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
];

/**
 * The application's route middleware groups.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $middlewareGroups = [
    'web' => [
        \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
        \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
        \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
        \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
        \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
    ],

    'api' => [
        'throttle:60,1',
    ],
];

/**
 * The application's route middleware.
 *
 * These middleware may be assigned to groups or used individually.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected $routeMiddleware = [
    'staff' => \App\Http\Middleware\Staff::class,
    'auth' => \App\Http\Middleware\Authenticate::class,
    'auth.basic' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\AuthenticateWithBasicAuth::class,
    'guest' => \App\Http\Middleware\RedirectIfAuthenticated::class,
    'throttle' => \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\ThrottleRequests::class,
];
}

Validation snippet:

protected function validatorMakeCategory(array $data) {
  return Validator::make($data, [
    'name'           => 'required|max:50|unique:categories',
    'description'    => 'max:255',
  ]);
}

public function postCreateCategory(Request $request) {
  $validator = $this->validatorMakeCategory($request->all());

  if ($validator->fails()) {
    $this->throwValidationException(
      $request, $validator
    );
  }
}

Errors/Session in views (neither of which show):

   @if(Session::has('message'))
          <p class="alert {{ Session::get('alert-class', 'alert-info') }}">{{ Session::get('message') }}</p>
      @endif

      @if (count($errors) > 0)
        <div class="alert alert-danger">
          <ul>
            @foreach ($errors->all() as $error)
              <li>{{ $error }}</li>
            @endforeach
          </ul>
        </div>
      @endif