Pupil Well-being

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 17 March 2021.

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Photo of Delyth Jewell Delyth Jewell Plaid Cymru 2:57, 17 March 2021

I agree wholeheartedly with what Lynne Neagle has been saying about the importance of focusing on empowering young people and giving them hope. Young people have—. I'm trying to recalibrate the way I'm going to word this, actually, because I was going to say, 'They've missed out on so many experiences.' But, actually, young people have so many experiences that they need to regain, then, after the pandemic. Friendships and routines have been disrupted. Many young people have been suffering with isolation and loneliness. Could I ask you, Minister, when the guidance on the whole-school approach to well-being and mental health will be implemented in schools and when will young people be able to feel the benefits of that? I am particularly concerned about very young children—those who should have started school during the pandemic, but because they've got parents who are shielding, maybe they haven't been able to go into school. Those yearly years—the reception classes, the meithrin classes—are so fundamentally important to forming bonds between children. So, what support do you think could be made available to re-establish bonds between young children? And will there be particular help, particularly for children who haven't seen their friends in such a long time?