Thank you very much, acting Presiding Officer. Could I begin by thanking Vikki, Julie and Rhianon for the contribution to this important debate this afternoon? I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to reinforce our commitment to the importance and the unique value of outdoor learning for children and young people the length and breadth of Wales. The evidence, as Vikki has said, is clear: outdoor learning has major benefits in helping children to understand how things work, and using a variety of indoor and outdoor activities helps them to develop different ways to solve problems. That is why the foundation phase for our three to seven-year-olds places such a strong emphasis on experiential learning. Learning by doing is at the heart of our foundation phase approach, and great importance is placed on using the outdoors to extend learning beyond the classroom boundaries.

Professor Donaldson highlighted in ‘Successful Futures’ the importance of learning beyond classroom boundaries for learners of all ages. He makes a clear case that learners need to understand the relevance of what they learn and to be able to make connections with the world beyond the school gates. Schools and nurseries need to encourage children to make sense of the world around them. We know that if children are stimulated and inspired, and enjoy a varied set of experiences, then their learning and their development will be enhanced, and I’m very proud that we have a curriculum with that focus.

Outdoor learning remains an important part of our school and teaches everyday teaching and learning experiences. Activities that I’ve seen recently in schools included mud kitchens, nature trails, forest classrooms, construction sites—they all consolidate children’s learning and allow teachers and parents to support their understanding of the world around them. And Estyn has urged schools in Wales to take greater advantage of the benefits of teaching young children outdoors, most notably in the sciences.

Estyn emphasises that the outdoor learning experience generally improved children’s well-being, it improved their behaviour, their physical development, knowledge and understanding of the world and stated that children under five learn better and develop quicker with outdoor lessons. Only last week, I experienced a teacher teaching grammar to children in the playground as they ran around, identifying certain types of word that had been laid on coloured pieces of paper. They were learning really, really quickly. In fact, they didn’t realise they were learning at all; they were just really enjoying being in school for that lesson. So, it is this ambition that these approaches to experiential and outdoor learning are used throughout the school and in the delivery of the curriculum. Children and young people should have opportunities to learn from expertise and experience from outside of their schools.

Welsh Government published its guidance on outdoor learning, ‘First Steps Outdoors’, and additional guidance, ‘Further Steps Outdoors’, in 2014. I will shortly be publishing and putting in place an action plan that will focus on the consistency of delivery of the foundation phase across Wales, including attitudes and approaches to outdoor learning. One such way in which we can provide outdoor learning experience is through the forest school approach that Julie Morgan referenced, which involves the regular use of a woodland or other outdoor area as a learning resource. There is a history of outdoor nurseries, as we’ve also heard, in other countries such as Sweden, which has led to the forest school movement here in the UK and elsewhere. It is indeed encouraging to see that Wales’s first nature kindergarten will open next year in woods in Rhondda Cynon Taf, and it will cater for up to 30 children aged 2 to 5, spending the majority of their time learning outdoors. This will be, as Vikki said, the UK’s first Skogsmulle-inspired kindergarten. A Swedish early years philosophy based on the benefits of learning outside, it’s already embedded itself, as Vikki said, in countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Japan. It’ll be great to have one here in Wales.

As Julie said, the experience of those children is such a positive thing, and it reminds me of the saying that my grandma used to have: that a little bit of dirt never hurt anyone, and there was no such thing as bad weather, just really poor clothes choices. The benefits of outdoor learning for children are clear. It enhances their physical and motor skills as well as their social and cognitive ones, and improves their general health and physical fitness, something that we cannot ignore in our country. I am committed to promoting the benefits and increased use of outdoor learning, which we know can help ensure that the children and young people of Wales are confident, healthy, and above all, ambitious learners. Thank you.