Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:56 pm on 22 May 2018.
Thank you, Darren, for that series of questions. If I didn't make it clear, Presiding Officer, in my initial statement, let me say it again: I have no intention of teachers in our schools teaching children this topic that they are not developmentally—I can't even say the word—that they are not ready to learn [Laughter.] It's age appropriate and I've got no intention of doing that and I've made that very, very clear.
Yesterday, I was at a school in Newport, and from the very earliest age, that school is teaching their children about the concept of difference—that we're all human beings, but each one of us is an individual and that's just fine, and you need to celebrate who you are. They don't talk about it in any other way, but they start from the very youngest age, saying, 'We're all different, but essentially, we're all the same as well.' And as they go through the school, they learn about other issues. So, I was talking to young girls yesterday who were expressing their frustration that, because they are girls, they're supposed to dress in dresses and they're supposed to like pink. I talked to primary school aged boys who, already, at that age, feel the pressure to be strong and not to show their emotions. Those are the types of issues that we're talking about teaching our children at the very youngest age—how they conform, healthy relationships and respectful relationships with their family members and with their friends, and how they can keep themselves safe and secure. So, I want to be absolutely clear that this will be delivered in a sensitive way that is age appropriate for children.
Your point about online, Darren, is so well made. And this is precisely why we have to up our game in this regard in our schools. Because, where children are getting their information from now is they are Googling it; they are Snapchatting it; they're WhatsApping it; they're Facebooking it and they are living in that world. Now, we, as adults, maybe don't like that world, but we can't dream about—. We can't go back. We are where we are and we need to give our children the information that they need. And when they come across this material online, they can keep themselves well and they can keep themselves safe. Because if we create a vacuum in our schools and we don't address this, children will look for this information in some other way and that won't necessarily be in a reputable way or in a way that gives them a real picture, a proper picture, about what a healthy relationship looks like.
I met a young man recently who had been severely disturbed by viewing pornography online, how that had affected him, how that had coloured his view of what a sexual relationship was like, what he, as a man, was supposed to be about and how he was supposed to treat a woman in a sexual relationship. We need to give these children a more realistic and holistic and true picture of relationships, not just leave them to the mercy of what is online. That's why we've got to change it, and that's why the Government, as you know, is producing a new online safety programme to address some of these issues, because, at the moment, in too many cases, we're leaving our children to flounder out there, Darren, in a digital world that is not pleasant.
We will have new guidance for the new curriculum in the new year. So, we're starting that process now. You're right; there's a job of work to do, but we're kickstarting it by having training sessions before the summer to identify what the learning needs are, and by refreshing the guidance. So, we can't just wait until the new curriculum comes along; we need to up our game at the moment. With regard to inspection, well, Estyn already look at well-being in the current inspection framework that they have. And, of course, in our new curriculum, one of the areas of learning and experience is health and well-being, and we would expect RSE to sit within that AoLE, and when Estyn is making a judgment on the quality of education within that school then that would be addressed via that mechanism.