8. How is the Welsh Government promoting healthy relationships in the school curriculum? OQ57899

There is a strong focus on developing healthy relationships within the health and well-being area of the new curriculum. Becoming healthy, confident individuals is one of the four purposes of the new curriculum, and learners will be supported to understand that healthy relationships are fundamental to our well-being.

Thank you, Minister. I also really want to thank you for your recent trip to Coychurch Primary School in Bridgend to see pupils take part in a Spectrum Cymru session to learn about feeling safe and expressing emotions. As a relatively new Member of the Senedd, one of my favourite parts of my role is visiting schools and talking to young people about their priorities, and in the last few weeks I have visited both Coychurch Primary School with you and Porthcawl Primary School, and it was a delight to hear about their projects around inclusiveness, from learning about LGBT rights to Black Lives Matter. The world is changing, and it is our job to provide the tools to enable young people to understand the world around them by celebrating difference, rather than fearing it. Understanding healthy relationships is crucial if we are to build a tolerant and inclusive Wales, and I also believe that including healthy relationships in the new curriculum can play a major role in tackling societal issues such as misogyny. From understanding what makes a healthy relationship to consent, children of all ages should be respected and made aware of boundaries. The tools we provide for our children will inevitably shape the society they grow into. Therefore, could the Minister inform us how he is working with the Minister for Social Justice to tackle these very issues, such as misogyny and consent, through the new curriculum, please? 

Yes. We strongly believe that every young person should have the right to access information, support and learning that keeps them safe from harm, and that includes—and I know that the Member has an interest in this area in particular—online safety and knowing what's right and wrong so that they can raise issues with responsible adults. On the particular point that she raises in her question, the new mandatory code for relationships and sexuality education and the guidance that goes with that underpin learners' rights to enjoy fulfilling, healthy and safe relationships throughout their lives, and contributes to the aims and objectives set out by the Minister for Social Justice in the new draft violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence strategy. I enjoyed very much the visit that we made to Coychurch Primary School, and I think it was great to see the work that Spectrum is doing, focusing on healthy relationships. I know that she shared my excitement at seeing the way in which the children really embraced and engaged with the learning that they had. And I think, as well as the boys and girls learning from it, I felt certainly that there were some things that we as grown-ups could learn from it as well. 

Good afternoon, Minister. The Welsh Government has been clear that RSE should support learners to develop the knowledge, skills and values to understand how relationships and sexuality shape their own lives and the lives of others. Learners should be equipped and enabled to seek support on issues related to RSE and to educate themselves and others. On developing healthy relationships, I would like to know how Welsh Ministers will ensure that we do more to support cultural understanding and respect, recognising the beauty of our diversity. Thank you, Minister. 

Well, I think that's a very important question, and the basis on which the relationship and sexuality education code and guidance were developed was an inclusive process, which involved a number of groups and community representatives, so that we could make certain that the code and resources, when they are in our schools, are helpful and supportive and deliver the outcomes that I know that he cares about very much as well. RSE has a positive and protective role in our young people's education, and I think, as I was saying in my answer to Sarah Murphy, when you see the kind of activities in classrooms that are there to support our learners understand the nature of their own rights, but also the importance of healthy relationships, seeing that delivered in a very inclusive way is very rewarding and very reassuring as well.

And finally, question 9, Jane Dodds. 

Thank you very much, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Minister.