Joyce Watson: ...you, Cabinet Secretary, and I really do welcome that much needed investment from Welsh Government. As I’m sure most of us agree, whilst non-teaching activities are critical to the running of a school, teachers’ time would be far better directed at teaching activities, and reducing unnecessary burdens is essential to achieving that. So, Cabinet Secretary, as I understand it, there will...
Joyce Watson: .... Torrential overnight rain flooded parts of Talsarn, Lampeter, Llandysul and Newquay, and the Teifi’s flood peak travelled downstream between Llanfair and Glan Teifi and the ford near Talgarth school was closed. Fields turned into floodplains affecting ponies and other livestock. There was traffic chaos on the A486, the A487, the A475 in Ceredigion and the B4333 between Aberporth and...
Joyce Watson: ...to access and due to understanding that maybe they could join a club this week, but not go to it next week. The inconsistencies of their day-to-day life and the interruption of their pattern within school, within their social life, and with their own family life, couldn’t actually be overstated, and I wanted to bring that to the table. As somebody who travels from Pembrokeshire to...
Joyce Watson: .... Maybe he needs to think about where he stands and who he represents. It would have been nice to have that same £1 billion in Wales. It would have been nice to have it to spend on our NHS, our schools, our roads. Next time, when the Conservatives bring a debate and they ask us for more money, I hope that they will consider taking that begging bowl, taking it to Westminster, and asking...
Joyce Watson: ...benefit from delivering it would also be denied opportunities. So, I suggest to the UKIP Members that it would be a very good lesson for them indeed if they actually did take any time whatsoever to educate themselves about what it actually means to help and support people, instead of coming here and quoting from things like the ‘Daily Mail’ or ‘The Times’ and actually choosing...
Joyce Watson: I was particularly pleased to see that, as part of that announcement last week, there was funding for road safety measures in my area, and particularly near schools. Hakin and Hubberston, Newtown High School, Presteigne primary and Lampeter are all now going to benefit. So, I thank you for that. But, under the Wales Act 2017, Welsh Ministers will now have more power over roads and transport,...
Joyce Watson: It’s really hard for us to think here that, in 2017, young girls across the UK, and possibly in Wales, are actually missing school because they can’t afford the sanitary protection that they need. And it is quite clear that this is an issue of poverty. So, I ask you, Cabinet Secretary—or Minister—if it’s possible for you to assess the prospect of working with schools, through...
Joyce Watson: ..., and it’s a project aimed at doing just that. It is a Welsh Government-funded project that allows 16 young women to be trained as youth ambassadors on FGM to spark conversations about FGM in schools and in communities across Wales. I’m really pleased to say that the project, last night, won the Royal College of Midwives award for partnership working. So, I ask you, Cabinet Secretary,...
Joyce Watson: ...census—it identified over 11,500 young carers in Wales offering ongoing care and emotional support to their family members. Young carers often experience isolation, bullying, and they struggle educationally, and they can miss out on those opportunities that other children enjoy when it comes to play and learning. They’re often too frightened to ask for help, as they’re worried about...
Joyce Watson: ...of people who were questioned thought that they were not wasting any food whatsoever. So, given those facts, First Minister, what do you think the Welsh Government could do in terms of at least educating people about the food that they are wasting to the tune of £35 million a year?
Joyce Watson: .... You talk about the continued enrichment that children within communities enjoy through these fun clubs so that they don’t slip back and lose all of that momentum that was gained in their school term. Will you also look at isolated communities where there isn’t an awful lot happening because of the nature of their rurality, so that those young children get an opportunity just the same...
Joyce Watson: 5. What is the Welsh Government doing to support school children during the summer holidays? OAQ(5)0077(EDU)
Joyce Watson: ...services and jobs from those communities has had. Because the other thing that happens when you’ve got armed services residing within a constituency is that they also supply children to the local school and they help keep those schools open. They also provide, in some cases, staff to help keep your hospitals open. So, the impact is much bigger than might be originally perceived. As I...
Joyce Watson: ...goals do provide a framework for that work. Looking at the current world order, there has been progress: increased female representation in national parliaments, increased enrolment of girls in schools, and a shift in the rights of women, but, if we scratch the surface, in politics, across the Commonwealth, women’s parliamentary representation has plateaued. There is only 22 per cent of...
Joyce Watson: Thank you. I’d now like to call on the Cabinet Secretary for Education to reply to the debate—Kirsty Williams.
Joyce Watson: What I’d like to do, and I recognise that you’ve had your experiences, is ask you: when you were in the secondary school and they were setting you up with apprenticeships, which I wholeheartedly support, were they actually encouraging you also to become the teachers of those apprenticeships?
Joyce Watson: ...a part, of course, on both sides of this debate. I would like to point you in the direction of a passion to do something positive about this, and I’d like, here, to commend the work of Coedcae school in Llanelli, from where the pupils came here and they actually delivered their action plan and their understanding in their White Ribbon campaign two years ago. They put together a...
Joyce Watson: ...thanks to the Welsh Labour Government’s engagement in a range of work that promotes sport and physical activity. That has achieved improving access to opportunities, it has ensured that physical education meets the needs of our children and young people and it has also helped support community sport and physical activity. But that is only part of the picture. I think that we can’t go...
Joyce Watson: ...has ceased trading. Nonetheless, our concern now must be for those who have been affected by those job losses and also to secure the services that Silcox operated in Pembrokeshire, particularly school transport and essential local bus services. So, I just wonder, Minister, whether we can have a statement that would give some reassurance to that community that we here are taking those...
