everything curriculum | April 2019 A new era for PSHE education?
The government has committed to compulsory Relationships Education in all primary schools, compulsory ‘Relationships and Sex Education’ (RSE) in all secondary schools and compulsory Health Education from 2020 across all schools – a major development that should help schools prioritise PSHE curriculum time and raise standardsii
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As the national body for PSHE education we’ve campaigned for statutory PSHE for over 10 years. These changes should go a long way towards ensuring every child in the country benefits from high quality provision.
What about the new statutory guidance? outlines what schools must cover from 2020,
The new statutory health and relationships education/RSE guidanceiii
but not all that schools should cover to ensure their PSHE fully prepares young people for the world we live in. That said, the guidance – though not perfect – is impressively broad in scope.
Keeping children safe is presented as its primary aim and it states that all schools and colleges “should ensure children are taught about safeguarding, including how to stay safe online, as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum”.
There’s too much detail to get into here – but regarding health, we welcome emphasis on the importance of mental health and emotional wellbeing, including when (and how) to get help. Physical health topics such as the importance of sleep, first aid, cancer education and diet are covered, and it’s great to see the links between physical and mental health outlined, including how one can affect the other.
Drugs and alcohol are included as you’d expect, though it’s important to go beyond the facts and knowledge about drug types and the law, and (as with all aspects of PSHE) to ensure young people are equipped with skills and strategies to deploy when faced with potentially risky situations.
The guidance of course explores healthy, safe relationships – and stresses that pupils should understand consent as well as the importance of staying safe from online harm (a welcome update considering existing government guidance on SRE is now 19 years old).
We welcome clearer wording on LGBT+ inclusivity in this latest version of the guidance, including where it says that schools “should ensure that this content is fully integrated into their programmes of study for this area of the curriculum rather than delivered as a stand–alone unit or lesson”.
At the end of the day, this guidance provides a basic framework, which many schools will already be exceeding through their PSHE provision. Schools shouldn’t ‘teach to the guidance’ but incorporate it into their broader PSHE programmes in order to do everything they can to teach children and young people to be safe, healthy and prepared for the modern world.
Do busy schools now have to add ‘new subjects’ to the curriculum? (short answer: no!)
Schools may also be confused by reference in the government guidance to ‘new subjects’ to describe something they’re teaching already! However, they should be assured that the health and RSE requirements simply outline which parts of PSHE will be compulsory for all schools.
The last thing we or the Department for Education want is for schools to unpick what they’re doing well already or create extra workload. When introducing the guidance, the DfE clearly stated that “All elements of PSHE are important and the government continues to recommend PSHE be taught in schools”. Therefore, schools should continue to teach health and relationships education through broader PSHE, which also covers elements of economic wellbeing and careers. We’ve published a guide for schools on how to incorporate the guidance into their PSHE programmes.iv
(
www.pshe–
association.org.uk/mapping) Conclusion
The statutory changes present a great opportunity to level–up PSHE standards across all schools. Improvements won’t happen overnight, but we look forward to supporting schools with new resources, training and support to ensure their Health Education, Relationships Education and RSE meet the new requirements in time for 2020 and – more importantly – go beyond them, to provide all pupils with the comprehensive PSHE education programme they need to thrive.
The PSHE Association is the national body for PSHE education. A charity and membership organisation, the Association works to improve PSHE education standards by supporting a national network of teachers and schools with advice, training and resources. Schools can find out more about the benefits of PSHE Association membership and sign–up here:
www.pshe–
association.org.uk/membership
i.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/687010/Teacher_Voice_report_Summer_2017.pdf ii.
https://www.pshe–
association.org.uk/news/compulsory–health–and–relationships–education–%E2%80%93–0 iii.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/781150/Draft_guidance_Relationships_Education__Relationships_and_Sex_ Education__RSE__and_Health_Education2.pdf iv.
www.pshe–
association.org.uk/mapping
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