4. Will the Minister make a statement on the promotion of touch rugby in schools? OAQ(5)0048(EDU).

I want all young people to have the opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity. Schools can provide a safe and structured environment for playing rugby and touch rugby is a good way to introduce new players to the game.

Thanks. The Wales Touch Association are the junior European champions; they won at the championship in the summer. The under-18s have won the championship three years running, which is amazing. It’s a great sport to improve handling skills; and it’s big in the southern hemisphere. My question, really, is about the WJEC, and I’m wondering if you could possibly help out. Touch rugby is being taken out of the subjects that pupils can choose for GCSE, and it doesn’t seem to make sense. I had the privilege, actually, of playing a game of touch recently with the kids, and it’s great, you’ve got girls and boys mixing in, a great standard, a lot of fun, and it really should be a sport available for GCSE, in my opinion. If you could look into it, I’d be very grateful.

Can I join with the Member in congratulating the success of the teams? I know the Member invited the teams recently—I think last week—to the Chamber to celebrate their success. I share with you an enthusiasm for the game of rugby in all forms. Indeed, my youngest daughter competed recently in the Urdd tag rugby tournament, here in Cardiff, and she enjoyed herself immensely. The Member will be aware that qualifications are independent of Government, but we are also, as you know, developing our curriculum. The areas of experience and learning are currently being developed at this time, and I’m sure an opportunity for children to participate in this sport will form part of that.

Presiding Officer, with your indulgence, can I take this opportunity, on behalf of all Members, to wish our national team the very best for their opener in the autumn internationals against the Wallabies on Saturday, and express our condolences to Alun Wyn Jones, who had been expected to captain the side on Saturday but will not be able to do so because of the death of his father?

If I could identify myself with the comments of the Cabinet Secretary at the close of that question, I’d like to do that. As someone who still plays rugby, albeit veterans’ rugby, and is still dealing with the many letters from the traumatised individuals who saw me with my shirt off at Cardiff Arms Park—that’s too much of a frightening prospect, that is—I do take the point that rugby in any shape or form is a great leveller and, ultimately, a great way of bringing people together in a team mentality. Sadly, team sports have suffered in the field of education in recent years—in recent decades, even—and I’d be interested to know what action the Cabinet Secretary will take, working with her Cabinet colleague, the Minister for health, who has responsibility for sport, to make sure that there are the coaching programmes and there is the time within the curriculum for teachers who do want to get their coaching certificates to enable greater team participation in sports within our school environment, whether that is in primary or secondary.

Could I thank the leader of the Conservative Party for his question, although as for the image he paints, once again, about him having his shirt off, can I remind you that Halloween was on Monday, not today? [Laughter.] Over the last three years, the Welsh Government has invested, with Sport Wales, £3.7 million to deliver physical literacy programmes for Welsh schools, and the 2015 school sport survey demonstrated a significant increase in the number of pupils taking sport for the second successive survey, which I’m sure is to be welcomed. We have to recognise that, if we’re going to encourage people to participate in sport, we have to offer a whole range of sporting activities, not just team sports; some people would prefer different options. We know, for instance, that girls love to participate in street dance-based activities, perhaps, rather than a team sport. But, like you, I believe in the important life skills that young people can develop playing sport, and sport and physical education will continue to form a very important part of our new curriculum developments as we take the Donaldson review forward.