And yet today I'm unsure whether or not I will actually be able to support this motion, because I do believe that it may ill-thought-through. I will listen intently to the comments of the Minister on this matter before making my decision, but I want to pick up on the most obvious point. It's a very delicate point, but a point that really does need to be made.

The motion states that the history of Wales should be taught to every school pupil in Wales without exception. This is clearly a blanket proposal that views young people as a homogenous mass, and I believe that that is actually unrealistic. It overlooks the fact that we have some pupils within our special school system, not all of them, but a number, with very complex learning disabilities. Take, for example, a pupil who may be both blind and deaf, learning disabilities that are so complex that the delivery of basic literacy and numeracy skills may be a significant challenge for them. For some, their education is quite rightly focused on basic life skills. Are we really, as a group of politicians, nearly all of us lacking in expertise in the delivery of education, going to say that we know how best to educate those pupils with the most complex learning needs? Have we consulted with experts as to whether this approach would be possible or indeed beneficial? I think the answer is that we have not, but I will listen intently to what the Minister says, and I hope that she'll be able to make a comment about that specific point.

That is, of course, not to say that the teaching of Welsh history should only be the preserve of a certain cohort, and I would strongly argue that this has never been the case. Welsh history has always been firmly embedded in the national curriculum throughout the key stages, and in all my years of teaching I have never met a teacher who failed to make full use of Welsh history topics and case studies in all of their lessons. These were very often the ones that were most popular amongst students, too. So I do object to the comments made by Siân Gwenllian when she said that thousands of pupils leave school every year without a full understanding of Welsh history, and I wonder what evidence she's used for those comments when we know that Estyn has never raised any systematic criticisms of the teaching of Welsh history in our schools.

I do think it's important also to note the role of our teacher training institutions in this area. I spent many years working with Swansea University, with Cardiff Met and with Trinity St David's as a mentor for history PGCE students. What I saw was consistent good practice, with very many hours of university classroom time being devoted to ensuring that PGCE students, especially those from outside Wales, completed their course with a very thorough grounding in Welsh history, having been assessed rigorously in the classroom for their delivery of that too. There's absolutely no reason to suggest that any of that will change with the roll-out of the new curriculum, 'Successful Futures', even for the most cynical observer, and unfortunately we appear to have some of those in the Chamber today.

It is a long-held truth that teachers will teach the topics that their students will be assessed on. Welsh history has always been firmly embedded in history GCSE, and it is a relatively strong feature in A-level syllabuses too, although I do agree that more could be done to make it a more prominent feature here. The revised course content for GCSE, AS and A-level all still require the development of a Welsh perspective, at times through individual Welsh history modules and at other times by linking Welsh history to a national or international perspective. As long as Welsh history remains on the syllabus for exam-level classes you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be taught, and taught well—not just at key stage 4 and key stage 5, but also at earlier key stages as teachers prepare their pupils for the future.

However, I would also argue very strongly that the natural love and enthusiasm for Welsh history amongst those in the teaching profession is its greatest asset, and we do teachers a terrible disservice in implying that that enthusiasm or the skills to research and deliver lessons on perhaps unfamiliar topics are not there. Local history examples are the very best way to get students engaged in a topic. Teachers know this, they're inspired by this, and they work very hard to deliver lessons based around this too. So, let's trust our professionals, let's trust our exam system, and let's trust in our young people too.