Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 17 March 2021.
Thank you very much, Lynne. I, too, am absolutely delighted that the framework has now been published and will be there to support schools in this really, really important aspect of their work, because if we think about the interruption to education that we have all witnessed and our children and young people have experienced, we're not going to be able to move forward from that unless we address well-being, because we know that learning cannot stick without that. And I couldn't agree with you more that a constant reference to a deficit model will help no-one. In fact, it will just add additional stress to the teaching profession. It will add additional stress to our children and young people. So, learning interrupted, yes, but learning lost, never. I understand why parents are concerned, and I understand why older children and students would be concerned. But, as we've demonstrated, with the investment that we're already making, we have an education system and professionals who stand ready to ensure that they can move forward with real confidence in the next steps of their education. And if we engage continually in that mantra of despair, as you have described, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, because children become what they are told, and therefore we need to change the dialogue and work with our educational professionals to help our children move forward with confidence.