5. Debate on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee Report: Physical Activity of Children and Young People

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 12 June 2019.

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Photo of Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas Independent 4:44, 12 June 2019

(Translated)

If I could also mention the criticism made on the recommendations rejected, and to make it entirely clear that the reason that we have rejected these recommendations is because we believe that the way that we operate at the moment deals with what's covered within those recommendations?

For example, I believe that there is a misunderstanding here about the nature of the changes to the curriculum that the education Minister is leading on at the moment. We are not in the—and I'm old enough to have been involved with the national curriculum back in the 1980s, and I'm very pleased to see that concept disappearing from our public discourse. That is why we have rejected the recommendation on 120 minutes of physical education in schools. Because what we want to see happening is the kind of thing that I had the pleasure of seeing in Llansanffraid Glan Conwy in the county of Conwy, where I live, relatively recently, namely the way in which pupils take part in the daily mile on the school grounds, and that was done without any kind of enforcement, but it was just good practice that had developed within that school, and that happened on a daily basis. Estyn, as has been emphasised by us several times, continue to review their methods of inspection to support the new curriculum, and that will mean looking at the way in which the quality of teaching can be looked at in all areas of learning experience, including this area.