Item 3 on the agenda is a statement by the Minister for Education on the curriculum for Wales framework. I call on the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Today, I am publishing the refined curriculum for Wales guidance. This sets out: guidelines for every school to develop their curriculum; expectations around assessment arrangements to support learner progression; and the proposed legislative requirements to secure a consistency of approach for learners across the country.

Improving education is our national mission. Nothing is so essential as universal access to the experiences, knowledge and skills that our young people need for employment, for lifelong learning and active citizenship. Our new guidance is a clear statement of what is important in delivering a broad and balanced curriculum and education. The four purposes are the shared vision and aspiration for every child and young person. And, in fulfilling these, we set high expectations for all, promote individual and national well-being, tackle ignorance and misinformation, and encourage critical and civic engagement.

Our guidance is the product of a prolonged process of co-construction, involving practitioners from schools across Wales. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those practitioners for their commitment over the last three years in jointly drafting this guidance. I would also like to thank the individuals and organisations who engaged during the feedback phase last year, after the draft guidance was released. The quality and detail of these contributions has helped to make significant improvements. In the autumn, I published the analysis of this feedback; today, I am also publishing a response to that feedback, alongside the guidance.

Over the autumn, practitioners and officials have worked to refine the guidance in response to that feedback, and in particular to: simplify and reduce the volume of guidance; clarify which parts of the new curriculum framework will be mandatory to ensure equity across schools; and provide greater clarity and detail where practitioners require more support, giving them guidance on designing their own curriculum. This feedback, together with the process of co-construction, has been critical: guidance made by practitioners, for practitioners, through an ongoing dialogue with the whole of our education system.

Seeing all practitioners as curriculum designers represents a fundamental shift for education in Wales. The new guidance does not give a prescriptive programme that can simply be delivered. Instead, it is about empowering practitioners to decide what will help their learners to become ambitious and capable, ethical and informed, enterprising and creative, and healthy and confident. 

The new guidance focuses on a more integrated approach to learning. The six areas of learning and experience bring together familiar disciplines and encourage strong and meaningful links across them. While disciplines remain important, this new approach supports learners to build connections across their learning, helping them understand not only what they learn, but why they learn it.

Our new guidance also places learner progression at its heart, with assessment playing a fundamental part in supporting this. The guidance has been fully informed by international evidence of progression. This will enable every learner to make progress throughout their education, in every area and discipline, rather than simply doing more and more of the acquiring of facts. Today's publication also includes specific guidance on developing assessment arrangements to support learner progression and enable every learner to make progress by ensuring that they are both supported and challenged.

Beyond the emphasis on co-construction, these changes are distinct from many of the similar types of reforms that we see elsewhere in three key respects. The learning outcomes in our guidance are based on robust evidence and methodology to sustaining learning over three-year periods. Outcomes elsewhere are often very narrow or vague, providing insufficient direction to practitioners. Our guidance is focused on schools designing their own curriculum. Reforms elsewhere often leave this entirely implicit. The 'Designing your Curriculum' section will help practitioners to develop a high-quality curriculum.

And we are working with our partners to ensure that schools are fully supported to realise the curriculum in their school within the framework that we have set out. International evidence makes clear that this next stage—implementation of our reforms—is the biggest challenge. After Easter, I will publish our curriculum implementation plan based on where schools should focus their efforts at different points up to 2022, and how we and the middle tier will support them in that process.

The feedback phase made clear that additional, specific guidance will be required to support practitioners in specific areas. To this end, Deputy Presiding Officer, in the next 18 months I will also publish a framework for religion, values and ethics to inform the development of the agreed syllabuses in each local authority; guidance for relationships and sexuality education; guidance on careers and work-related experiences; enabling steps to support learners at the very beginning of the learning continuum; a curriculum for funded non-maintained nursery settings to adopt; and guidance on developing a curriculum for pupil referral units and for those responsible for the provision of education other than at school.

It is now essential that Government, regional consortia, Estyn and local authorities work together to support every school, setting and practitioner to understand the new curriculum and to deliver it. In addition to my commitments to professional learning, officials are working with regional consortia and Estyn to establish national networks of practitioners and experts to share expertise and learning, and identify priorities for supporting the profession in readiness. Officials are working with practitioners to identify priorities for the development of resources, to ensure a range of supporting material is available by 2022 to help practitioners develop their own curriculum. Officials are also working closely with Qualifications Wales as it considers how qualifications may need to change to align with and support the new curriculum. This presents a fresh opportunity to consider the nature and role of qualifications for 14 to 16-year-olds.

Let me be clear: the publishing of this curriculum guidance is only the next step of co-construction. Government will continue to work closely with the profession to make this a success. But it is now for every practitioner to engage fully what has been published. Schools should take space and time to understand the model of the curriculum and start to discuss how their vision and values will eventually inform their own curriculum. They should not rush into trying to plan or implement it right now.

This new curriculum represents the very best of the education profession’s efforts. The next step in our reform journey is to prepare the profession to make it real in every classroom and for every learner in our nation.

Thank you very much, Minister, for a very comprehensive statement on the journey so far. Can I offer my thanks to everybody else involved in what looks like, certainly, an enormous amount of hard work? I've explained before that the Welsh Conservatives have long argued that we should let teachers teach, and some of the changes already have our in-principle support. That goes hand in hand with our heads-up, if you like, on looking for greater information on what scrutiny will look like in future accountability and measurability—aspects that I'm sure we'll come back to in some more detail on another day.

Personally, I hope that we move away from this atmosphere of having to sit 13 or 14 GCSEs, or at least year 11 exams, in order to prove your excellence. There comes a point where you can be asked to do too much, when we look at it in these terms. If we are to avoid teaching to the exam, and I hope we are all on that page, we still will need to find a way for pupils to demonstrate their attainment across this broader curriculum, and again, I suspect that's something we'll come back to.

My first question is about the point that you made, Minister, about implementation—the deliverability and what that looks like at this stage of development. We're having to wait 18 months or so for some pretty key frameworks on guidance, not least on the more sensitive areas of the curriculum, which doesn't give practitioners or the range of co-constructors—'co-producers' I still prefer to call them—time to get to grips with this by the time it gets to 2022. So I'm wondering if you can give us some steer on why you think, bearing in mind the enormous amount of work that's already gone into this, that we're having to wait quite so long for detailed frameworks and guidance on those more sensitive areas.

Populating the curriculum with material still remains, of course, a core challenge at this point of development. The guidelines, such as they are, are helpful, and I'm not saying that they're not, but inevitably existing teachers I suspect will still be relying on their body of knowledge, and even some of their resources that they already have, to decide what they're going to do when they go into school on a Monday morning and have to stand up in front of a class of year 7. I think, by the sound of it, that it's the secondary schools that are going to find this change more of a challenge, if I can put it like that.

So, just looking at the £39 million that, over some years, you've already allocated to getting teachers ready for this new curriculum, can you give us some indication of how much of that is going to go to creating time for curriculum designers—both within and among schools? What have the teachers told you so far about how they're going to be able to manage these absences or need for absences, how to create that non-contact time within the school day? I heard your exhortation not to run too quickly with this, but actually, time is running out—2022 is not that far away. And of course, we'll be looking shortly at legislation, which leaves me a little bit concerned that some of the work on this key element of deliverability implementation, if you like, remains to be completed, and so I have to ask: what will be completed by the time we're at a stage where we're being invited to table amendments to your legislation?

You talk about co-construction and practitioners extensively in your statement, and for pedagogy I completely see the purpose in that, but you didn't say anything about communities and families in this co-construction picture. I think that this is going to be essential, particularly for those more sensitive and compulsory areas of the curriculum if they're to work, and to avoid agitated families choosing home schooling for their children in protest at what looks like the loss of their right to withdraw.

Can you give us some indication at this stage of, for example, your faith, BAME, I think it's called 'community involvement group', if I'm right, whether that is going to be a central forum or whether there are going to be localised versions of that? Because I'm very keen to understand the role of the community at local level in devising that local curriculum. If there is going to be local input from the community, particularly families, who will be responsible for drawing all that local work together if, as I hope, it's not just about practitioners? What will be the role of the consortia in that particular piece of work? And perhaps just again, as a heads up—I don't expect you to be able to answer that today—but if you can give us some indication of how many withdrawals there have been and perhaps on what grounds over, say, the last five years, so that we can get some elements of early understanding about the problem that could arise as a result of removing parents' rights to withdraw.

Could you also give us an indication of how children who are already home schooled through parental choice, but also children who are educated other than at school for other reasons, how they're going to access this new curriculum, particularly as many of them rely on independent external support for the education that they're offering children? I think I've already raised concerns with you about who can access the Hwb platform, and at the moment, independent schools won't be allowed to do that. But I'd like some indication of whether you think independent education providers, other than independent schools, might be able to do that to make sure that are our education-other-than-at-school children aren't disadvantaged.

And then, on the issue of prescription, I know exactly where you stand on it. I know you don't want it. I applaud you—I have to say this—for at least referring to emergency lifesaving skills in the guidance. But I wonder if it's asking just a little bit too much. If you could nudge it a little bit further by asking schools to give reasons why they don't include it rather than merely permitting them to include it, because that's not actually moving things on from where we are now. There are so many providers and organisations prepared to do this work, it's not as if demand couldn't be easily met by schools, and I don't want them finding reasons not to do this.

I'll leave others—because I'm sure this will happen—to raise with you the issue of status and presence of what you call 'the Welsh dimension' in the curriculum. I'll leave that to somebody else.

But there is one more specific I would like to ask of you, actually, Minister. This week, of course, we're reminding ourselves of the horrors of the Holocaust. This is not just history or a point of illustration about genocide or equalities; this is something I think really has to be embedded into our collective DNA. Not just because of the Poles and the Jews and the Roma and the disabled and the LGBT victims, but precisely because it is unimaginable. There is nothing to prevent teaching about the Holocaust, and I accept everything we heard from the Deputy Minister earlier, but would you consider raising the prominence of the Holocaust within the guidance when it goes out to further consultation? Thank you.

Can I begin by thanking Suzy Davies for the points she raised and the question she asked? She firstly talked about implementation. And as I said in my statement, we will publish an implementation plan later on this term. I want practitioners and interested parties to be able to spend the next couple of weeks reading what is a quite extensive document, and beginning their thought process before, suddenly, they also have from Government an implementation plan. I want them to engage in this document, to think about what's written here, and to begin that thought process. But it is clear that then we will need to set out a series of points and pieces of work that individual schools will need to do between now and September 2022, to ensure that everybody is in the right place, and is moving along at pace in their preparedness.

What I talked about in terms of additional guidance, there has been a clear ask from people for some additional support in this area. Although you will have seen from what we've published today, we have been very detailed in each area of learning and experience, with each of the 'what matters' statements below that, and the progression steps. What we will providing in guidance is some extra, additional information, on top of what is an already very comprehensive steer as to what should be included in those areas. But, clearly, when thinking about subjects that, understandably, people feel very strongly about, with regard to religion, values and ethics, and relationship education, because of their concerns about what that might include, we want to be very explicit about what it is, and perhaps even more importantly, what it is not. And I have to say, I've been slightly concerned by some of the correspondence I have received over the last week, where there is a great misunderstanding about what is currently taught in schools, and what our expectation is that schools will teach in the future. So, to give reassurance to parents and communities about what we will expect their children's teachers to teach them, we want to be more explicit to be able to provide that confidence over what are, understandably, sensitive issues, and people want some reassurance.

To that end, the involved group will sit alongside our group of constructors that will look at that guidance, especially with regard to relationship education. But you will have seen in the document that I have produced today that we have been very clear about what we envisage will be the principles that will underpin the guidance around relationship education. They're based on the principles from the UN of what qualifies as best practice in teaching these subjects to children and young people.

I know the Member shares my concern that, when it comes to these areas, we have a responsibility to ensure that our children are safe. Our children are growing up in a world that is so very, very different, Deputy Presiding Officer, in terms of access to information around relationships and sexuality. Gone are the days when we passed a copy of Judy Blume around the class so that we could learn more about periods. And when we got a little bit older, gone are the days when we had a Jackie Collins novel, which we passed around the classroom again, and that's how we found out that information. It seems incredibly tame now, doesn't it? But our children are literally a few clicks away on one of these from some terrifying images. We saw recently from experts in the field the proportion of obscene pictures of young people—the proportion of things that are actually posted by young people themselves, unaware of the damage and the danger that they can place themselves in. I believe we have a responsibility to educate our children to keep them safe, and the principles that will underpin our education in this area are the principles of best practice from the United Nations.

With regard to professional learning, you will be aware that the vast majority of that money is passed directly to headteachers and school leaders, because it is they who understand the professional learning needs of their staff. And we can't possibly know all of that from the centre. We trust in those school leaders to be able to design a professional learning programme that meets the needs of their particular staff, and that professional learning can take place in lots of different ways. The call to me from the unions was a continuation of that funding. Because you'll be aware there was funding in the previous two years; professionals were concerned that that funding would come to an end, and I'm delighted that we've been able to make a funding commitment for the new financial year. Each school will be required to publish its professional learning plan, so that we can see—or anybody who's interested can see—how that money is being used in the professional learning of staff in that particular way.

With regard to further—I think the Member referred to further consultation. This is the final version of this document—there's no further consultation on what is being published today. This is it, so we won't be going back out on this. With regard to the legislation—that legislation, which will be published after the Easter recess, will be subject to the usual scrutiny process here. This document does outline what we will use legislation—the curriculum and assessment Bill—to do, in terms of legislating for the four purposes, the areas of learning and experience, and our intention to have a code with regard to the 'what matters' statements. You will also be aware that we will need to then ensure that the legislation also takes into consideration the curriculum needs and expectations for pupil referral units, and indeed education that is received by children other than at school. And the curriculum and assessment Bill will clearly state our expectations in that regard, recognising some core elements that all providers will have to produce, but recognising that in some cases, in the best interests of the children, some aspects of the curriculum will be disallowed, because that's in the best interests of that particular learner.

The Member began her contribution by talking about children sitting 12 or 13 GCSEs. As I said in my statement, Qualifications Wales is in the first part of their consultation on what the future of qualifications will be like. And I'm sure that not only the content but also the desirability, or the necessity, of sitting 12 or 13 GCSEs will form part of that examination, because it certainly is a challenge. But that is further work to be done.

This afternoon I would like to pursue two specific issues—these issues won't be new to you; I have raised them in the past—first of all, implementing the new curriculum. Your statement today does acknowledge, of course, that implementing the change is the major challenge, and that there is international evidence that demonstrates that that has been clear in other scenarios. And the other point that I just want to discuss a little more is how do you reconcile making some issues statutory, whilst exempting others from the legislation?

Now, there's no doubt that introducing the new curriculum is going to be a major change in education in Wales, and you've told us today that schools should take time to understand the curriculum model. And so I'd like to ask you first: do you agree that understanding the new curriculum model will be more of a challenge for the secondary sector than the primary sector? Is the primary sector, particularly given the development of the foundation phase, more ready or prepared for this new vision and understanding of the curriculum model?

You mention the need for schools to co-plan and plan jointly. Now, in order to do that, schools must have the space to come together. And you say again in your statement today that schools need to make time and space to understand the curriculum model, and not to rush the process of implementing the new curriculum. Now, I would agree entirely with that, but creating that space is going to cost. You will need to employ supply teachers and so on and so forth. So, how do you see that working on a practical level, and, again, do you think it would be easier to create the space for the co-construction in the primary sector, where there are fewer children, first of all, in primary schools as compared to with the secondary sector? And to return to the international evidence that I mentioned at the outset, what lessons can be learned from this evidence in considering implementing the curriculum in the secondary sector specifically?

Of course, in your response you will talk about in-service training days and how that is going to help to give schools the space and time that they need, but that can only help to a certain extent. And I'm sure you will mention the additional £39 million that is being designated for INSET training, but is that enough? This is my concern. I believe that if this is going to succeed, and we all want to see it succeed, then we need a substantial injection of funding to support the implementation of the curriculum. The schools are already on their knees, and there is a great risk that in introducing such a huge change at a time of financial austerity, there is a risk that it will fail.

And therefore I ask you and ask the Government more generally—I know that you are arguing for more funding for education, but this is a question for the whole Government, if truth be told. Doesn't the Government need to have some sort of reality check here and realise that we need hundreds of millions of pounds in addition in order to make this new curriculum a success, not the relatively small sums that are being considered at the moment? We need a substantial injection of funding to generate the success that we all want to see.

And just to discuss this second point—I know we've discussed it in the past, but I'm still trying to understand how you reconcile making certain issues a statutory part of the curriculum, whilst not doing so with other aspects in the legislation. I think you're entirely right in including sex and healthy relationship education and religious education, or whatever the new terminology is in that particular area now. I think it's very important that those are a statutory part of the experience of every young person. But how do you reconcile including those, but not including two hours of physical education, issues related to mental well-being, the history of Wales? Now, those aren't going to be a statutory part of the curriculum, so where is the consistency in making one section a requirement, whilst others aren't?

Now, we've had this conversation on a number of occasions in the past, and I know that we will get the same response again today, perhaps, but we are agreed that these issues are important, and I know that you strongly believe that Welsh identity and the history of Wales, or the histories of Wales are important, but is there another way, therefore, rather than including them in the curriculum—is there another way of ensuring that they are taught in every school without the force of legislation underpinning them? That's the crucial question, I suppose, as we are agreed that these issues do need to be taught. How are we going to achieve that unless they're included in the legislation?

Thank you very much to Siân for her contribution. Firstly, we talked about the space and the time to prepare. Those are important considerations. That's why I took a decision to, first of all, delay the introduction of the curriculum to give us more time, and I took the decision to alter the way in which the curriculum would be implemented by having a phased roll-out approach in the secondary sector, rather than a big-bang approach that had been originally advised to me. Because Siân Gwenllian is correct: a move to the new curriculum does present, in many ways, a bigger challenge to our colleagues in the secondary sector than it does in the primary sector, where what we're seeing is a natural extension to many of the pedagogical principles that have underpinned our foundation phase. That's why, therefore, it has been especially important to be able to have a phased roll-out in the secondary sector, to allow for greater time for adjustment and for professional learning and for preparedness.

Siân Gwenllian is right to say that I'm going to mention the additional INSET day; if she had seen some of the responses to the consultation on that INSET day, she will have seen that, in some sectors, that is not a popular thing to have done. But it is a necessary thing to increase, once again, the time available to schools. We've been very clear in the document that we've published today about the need to collaborate not only within a school, but with networks of schools, whether that be in a locality, whether that be across phase with regards to primary talking to secondary talking to FE colleges, or whether that needs to be in a subject specialism or an AoLE specialism.

Of course, that additional day that we have made available over a number of years isn't the only day that schools have; they have the existing INSET provisions that they can use to utilise this. And of course, some of our best professional learning happens when children are in school, so we need a mixed approach. That's why we're devolving the resources that we have for professional learning.

The money that has been made available for the last two years, and will be made available again, represents the largest single investment in the teaching profession since devolution started, and rightly so, Deputy Presiding Officer—and rightly so. Those resources are also being complemented by investment by this Government in new national networks to support pedagogy and practice, and that is coming at a time when there is still not an insignificant squeeze on this Welsh Government's budget, but we have been able to deliver increases to our local authorities. I hope that those local authorities will be as good as their word in the commitments that they gave to myself, the finance Minister and the Minister for local government, where they all want to prioritise education spending.

I was delighted this morning to be in Pen y Fai Church in Wales Primary School in the county borough of Bridgend, and to hear from the leader of Bridgend his plans to use the extra money that's been made available to prioritise education spend. I welcome that commitment from him very much indeed. That comes on top of the increase in the education budget, which as I said is funding a range of initiatives to support implementation. But I'm not shying away from the need to examine forensically the level of education spend in Wales, and to do that on an independent basis. Luke Sibieta will report before the end of the summer term, and that is really important.

But I would say to Siân Gwenllian: I too would like hundreds of millions of pounds extra to spend on education, but when calling for that you have to tell me where we don't spend money, because that is the consequence of the situation we find ourselves in—either where we don't spend money or where you want that extra revenue raised from. 

With regard to what is statutory and what is not statutory, the rationale behind what we have published today is, first of all, it remains true to the principles and the recommendations in the original 'Successful Futures' report. It is also complemented by a recommendation by the expert group that I convened on relationship education that made a very clear recommendation to me that this also should be a statutory part of the curriculum. And I would have to say to the Member: where in this document can she point to a lack of commitment on behalf of me or this Welsh Government to the issue of mental health and well-being?

One of the most important aspects of this curriculum reform is the inclusion of an area of learning and experience that is dedicated to the health and well-being of our children. That is new to what we have had in the past. And if you read the 'what matters' statements and if you read the progression steps, you will see very clearly a strong emphasis on ensuring that children learn about emotions, learn about how those emotions can affect their well-being, how they can seek help for when they feel overwhelmed, and how they can build their resilience.

With regard to Welsh histories, and I'm glad she used the word Welsh 'histories'—it seems it's okay for some of us to use that term and maybe not for others. But I do agree with her that histories need to be taught in a pluralistic way. If she turns to page 23 of the document we've published today on the guidance that we're giving schools on how they develop their own curriculum design, it says, and I quote:

'Schools and practitioners should have a vision to develop a curriculum which: contributes to learners' realisation of the four purposes and acquisition of the integral skills which underpin them; supports the development of their learners' sense of identity in Wales'.

It then goes on, on page 30, to give explicit guidance on 'Designing a curriculum in Wales and for Wales'. And I quote again:

'The Framework reflects Wales, its cultural heritage and diversity, its languages and the values, histories and traditions of its communities and all of its people. Instilling learners with passion and pride in themselves, their communities and their country is central to the four purposes.'

We are absolutely explicit. And I have to say, confining that just to Welsh history lessons actually deprives us of the opportunity that is clearly stated in this document and the expectation that designing a curriculum in Wales and for Wales needs to cover every single area of learning and experience. If she can point to me in this document a lack of commitment to that, then I'd like to see it.

Thank you. I know it's a very important subject, but we have less than 10 minutes left and we have three speakers. So, if I could just ask Members to reflect on that. Jenny Rathbone. 

Thank you. I completely endorse your approach to relationship and sexuality education, making it compulsory, because in the context of the most advantaged, least deprived secondary school in my constituency, these phones are a major problem. Because they have the police in every single week trying to explain to young people, if they're sharing compromising photographs on their phones, it is going to come back and bite them, either financially or they're going to be sexually exploited. Unless we can get everybody to understand that, we have a major problem.

We also know that it's absolutely vital that young people are given non-judgmental guidance on what positive relationships look like, so that the child who's being asked to do inappropriate things is empowered to say 'no' and knows where to go. I find it hypocritical that organisations that have failed to safeguard children and young people adequately from predatory adults are then at the forefront of saying that this should be left to parents. Equally, it's unacceptable that a child of nine has no idea why they're bleeding between the legs because nobody's bothered to tell them about monthly periods.

Equally, I feel that the humanists association has got the wrong end of the stick in saying that religious education as a core part of the curriculum is ramming religion down children's throats, because we have to deconstruct religious values and ethics into different areas of teaching and learning so that every child knows the history of religion, which after all has been the cause of more wars than practically anything else, and we continue to have wars fought over religion. So, we need to understand all that. And in a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious world, we're not going to get very far in teaching respect for difference if we can't ensure all young people understand that people have different beliefs, and ensure that we have core values and ethics, honesty, truthfulness, kindness and empathy.

Suzy Davies mentioned the lessons learned from the Holocaust. Well, Dr Martin Stern, who spoke at city hall yesterday, was really clear that what we have to learn from all these 50 genocides that have occurred since the second world war is an understanding that ordinary people can become monsters. He talked about his Bosnian friend who was interrogated by his former science teacher, who had made the transition from being a pedagogue to a murderer. So, all these things; it is vital that we are building up the core curriculum to ensure that we have a civilised society that everybody understands.

Can I thank Jenny Rathbone for her support with regard to these two very important parts of the curriculum? I would point all Members to page 38 of the document, where we explain in some detail that:

'Children begin to learn about relationships long before they start school. As soon as they enter the social world they will be encountering and interacting with complex and often contradictory messages'.

Just think about the messages that both young men and young women are bombarded with about how they should look, how they should act in a relationship. I think it was last week or the week before last we had a very powerful debate in this very Chamber about rape and instances of rape. It's absolutely vital that we teach all of our children about principles of consent and how to be a loving, respectful partner in a relationship.

We have long debated the scourge of domestic violence in our society. Again, we need to teach our children about what a healthy relationship looks like. This Government is doing a lot of work with its 'This is Not Love' campaign, but it is a damning condemnation of us as a society that we need to do that. If we're to radically change some of these issues that are facing women and men in our community, then our best hope of doing that is via education, and ensuring that our children, from the youngest age, understand their role, their rights and their responsibilities as part of a relationship.

Now, clearly, that has to be done in an age-appropriate way. How you will talk about these issues with a primary school child is very different to how you will talk about these issues to a 16-year-old. But if we don't, and if we don't provide this space and this opportunity for young people, they will find other ways of finding this information out—or should I say other ways of finding out disinformation; information that can frighten and confuse them, information that can make them feel unsafe and unworthy. Like the young man who spoke to me about his addiction to porn and how that made him feel as a young man and what he thought was expected of him as a young man. If we're concerned about our children's mental health, if we're concerned about our children's well-being, then we have to do these lessons. And all children have a fundamental right to access the full curriculum, and I believe that very, very strongly.

Now, you're right: we're changing religious studies to religion, values and ethics, to better reflect the nature of that part of the curriculum. But if we're to have ethical, informed citizens of the world, how can we not teach children about religion? How can we not teach them about the right to hold religious views and to be respectful of that, even if your views are different? The Member makes a very good point, the horror of the Holocaust and the horror of Srebrenica are perfect examples of how we can work across the curriculum. Not learning about that simply in a history lesson, but learning it in a lesson about religion, values and ethics; learning about it in literature as well as in humanities; expressing the horror of that through our expressive arts: drama, dance, art itself. Those topics are perfect enablers and symbols and important points in the history of the world where we can reinforce that importance of rights, human rights and respect, which again runs through the entirety of the curriculum.

Can I thank the Minister for the way in which she has sought to reassure parents, and indeed educators, about the approach that she wants to take in this new curriculum, particularly to sex and relationships education, and indeed to religious education? I speak as a person of faith with an interest in faith and who partners with faith groups of all different types on all sorts of different matters, and I know that a lot of what you've said will chime very much with them.

But there is, of course, one challenge, if you like, which has been laid at the Welsh Government's door by those people who fundamentally believe that it is a parent's responsibility to educate their child. And, as you will know and be aware, it's a parent's right, if they want to, to withdraw their child from state education altogether and to home educate their children, because of that fundamental position of a parent having the primary responsibility for education. So, I do think that the concerns that have been expressed about the withdrawal of parental rights to be able to take a child out of a classroom for certain elements of education that people feel uncomfortable about, that parents might feel uncomfortable about, is an important right that has been something that I think has been appreciated by parents for many, many years, and your previous commitments to maintaining that right were very much appreciated.

I've heard your assurances, I understand your assurances, and I know that they will be accepted by a great many parents across the country. I believe very much that the sensitive way that you're trying to map out the future of these very important subjects is to be applauded, in my view. But I do think that the opportunity to withdraw a child from any part of the curriculum should still be there for parents, and I would urge you to just reconsider your position on that and how you might be able to enable parents to withdraw their children from elements of the lesson where there's a clear intention to teach about certain subjects. I'm sure that there are ways that these things can be done and work-arounds that can be put into place, and I just ask that—. You've been very much in listening mode during the creation of this curriculum, and I ask that you would continue to be in listening mode, particularly around parental concerns, about the erosion of that right to withdraw children in the future.

Can I thank Darren Millar for the points that he made? I absolutely accept the point about the rights of parents to educate their children, and nothing that we are proposing here takes away from that. I'm sure all of us would agree that the vast majority of parents are in a position to do that successfully, but not all of our children are so lucky, Darren; not all of our children are so lucky to have parents who can do this for them for a whole variety of reasons.

Darren, you've spent a great deal of time talking about the rights of parents, which I don't want to undermine, but my perspective comes from the right of a child; the right of a child to receive a broad and balanced education and to be able to access every single part of the curriculum. I understand the sensitivities associated with this and they're often coming—. I understand.

We are committed to working hard over the next two and a half years before there are changes to the right to withdraw to reassure parents and communities about the nature of the curriculum. And as I said earlier, I think it's really important that all children, when thinking about relationship and sexuality education, have lessons with regard to rights and equity, learning about relationships, learning about sex and gender, learning about bodies and body image, as well as sexual health and well-being, and violence, safety and support. And those will be the principles that underpin our approach to RSE, and I'm not aware of any child who doesn't need to learn about those things if they're to grow up to fulfil one of the purposes of our curriculum, which is to be happy, confident individuals. Relationships are fundamental to us as human beings, and we need to ensure that our children are educated so they can form successful and happy ones.

And finally, Lynne Neagle.

Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement and add my thanks to you, your officials and the many, many people who, on the ground, have worked really, really hard to deliver this?

I was at a conference yesterday looking at the whole-school approach, where some teachers were presenting on the health and well-being AoLE, and the enthusiasm that teachers have for this on the ground is palpable, and that is very much to be welcomed.

I also wanted to give a very warm welcome to your decision to remove the parental right to withdraw. I've just come now from a cross-party group on suicide prevention where we've had a presentation on the review of deaths of young people by suicide, and a significant proportion of those deaths were linked to sexual abuse. So, I wonder whether you would agree with me that it is absolutely crucial that all young people have access to relationship education that teaches them about consent. Also, around the issues of equality, I wonder whether you would agree with me that the young people who most need equality-based relationship education are precisely those young people who do not get this education at home. This is, as you say, a fundamental mental health issue but also, absolutely, a children's right issue.

I thank Lynne Neagle for her comments, and I'm delighted to hear that there were practitioners yesterday talking in such warm terms about the health and well-being AoLE. You and I were both in the ministerial task and finish group yesterday, and we heard from the primary school headteacher representative about the opportunity that the new curriculum gives them, and she was very excited about it.

The health and well-being AoLE looks to, specifically in terms of what matters, develop children's understanding that physical health and well-being have lifelong benefits; that how we process and respond to experiences affects our mental health and our emotional well-being; and also that our emotional decision-making impacts on the quality of our lives and on the lives of others; and that how we engage with social influences shapes who we are and affects our health and well-being; and, lastly, that healthy relationships are fundamental to our well-being as human beings.

Those are the 'what matters' statements that underpin our health and well-being AoLE, and they chime precisely with the need for all children to access that to address good mental health and well-being in the way that you have just described, Lynne. To have this on an equal path with traditional subjects of education gives us a real opportunity to address some of the social problems that this parliament spends a lot of time talking about, and responds to what children and young people themselves are crying out for.   

Thank you very much, Minister.