Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what the Welsh Government’s strategy is to ensure school children participate in sport?
The mandatory Health and Well-being Area of Learning and Experience in the Curriculum for Wales aims to ensure that schools build learning and support for physical activity and sport for all children and young people. The curriculum’s statutory guidance, which all schools must consider, includes clear progression in physical literacy and activity and makes clear the expectation that learners have on-going daily opportunities to be physically active and participate in sport.
Schools can select a range of sports and activities which meet the needs of their learners. It is up to individual schools to choose the sporting activities that best suit their learners and make judgements about how those are implemented.
Our Programme for Government sets out clear commitments to promote equal access to sports for everyone, and to support local sports clubs and community organisations. Our Vision for Sport in Wales is that everyone can have a lifetime enjoyment of sport. To enable this, we provide Sport Wales with the funding to deliver its strategy, which includes the objective to give every young person the skills, confidence, and motivation to enable them to enjoy and progress through sport. We are also investing in world-class sports facilities and community sports facilities such as artificial grass pitches, through Sport Wales and through Welsh Government initiatives such as the Community Facilities Programme and the Sustainable Communities for Learning scheme.
Sport Wales works with schools to provide curricular and extra-curricular sport by providing resources, conducting research and supporting programmes. Sport Wales’s School Sport Survey gives children and young people a voice on what sport and wellbeing activities they would like to see in schools and their local community, providing valuable insight to decision-makers, and that voice helps to direct funding through National Governing Bodies and national partners.
Sport Wales also host a resource, Citbag, which aims to support schools to implement physical activity and sport as part of the Curriculum for Wales, further developing learners skills, knowledge and understanding of the lifelong benefits of physical health and wellbeing.