Sir Michael Wilshaw presented to the House of Commons’ Education Select Committee on the purpose of education, citing the role of PSHE education. The Ofsted Chief stated that good schools teach PSHE education well and that “a good school is not only about promoting the core curriculum. It’s about making sure that youngsters do understand about personal relationships, do understand about sex education, do understand about careers.”
The session can be watched back here and a TES article highlighting key points can be read here.
Sutton Trust report demonstrates that UK’s most prestigious jobs are disproportionately filled by people who have attended independent schools. The ‘Leading People 2016’ report outlines a number of factors that contribute to this disparity, including independent school pupils’ greater access to a range of opportunities in relation to aspirations, non-cognitive skills, extracurricular activities and academic attainment. Responding to the report, PSHE Association Chief Executive, Joe Hayman said “In recognition of the importance of these skills and attributes, independent schools standards set an expectation that they will provide high-quality PSHE education; a similar expectation for state schools could help to narrow the life chances gap.”
Read the Sutton report here and the PSHE Association’s response in full here.
Sex Education Forum survey finds 1 in 4 girls start their periods before learning about it at school. A survey of over 2000 young people conducted by the Sex Education Forum, has found that nearly a quarter (24%) of girls start having periods before the subject is covered in PSHE education classes at school and almost 15% of young people said they were taught nothing at school about menstruation.
You can read more about the survey here. The PSHE Association will be publishing a joint briefing with the Association for Science Education next week on teaching about reproduction and human development at primary level. An existing PSHE Association resource on teaching about puberty can be found here.
Public Health England has stated a strong commitment to PSHE in their action plan on sexual and reproductive health and HIV. In the PHE strategic action plan for 2016-2019 on ‘Health promotion for sexual and reproductive health and HIV’ they stated that “delivering a universal entitlement to high quality personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) and sex and relationships education (SRE) will help to ensure that all children and young people acquire age-appropriate knowledge, understanding and skills.”
Read the full action plan here.
The PSHE Association has launched a new website. In response to member feedback we have overhauled the appearance, navigation and content of the site and members should also notice improvements to how membership applications and event bookings are processed.
A blog post introducing users to the new site can be read here.
Disclaimer: The above does not necessarily reflect the views of the PSHE Association. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or quality of the external sites linked here.