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Teaching about consent in PSHE education - our new guidance, conference & campaigning

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13 March 2021

We know that teaching pupils about consent and healthy relationships is a priority for our members so we hope the launch of our new guidance today will support you in doing this. A reminder too that we will also cover consent and healthy relationships at our annual conference, which you can read about below along with the latest on our campaign for statutory PSHE - a vital step to ensuring all pupils receive this learning in school.

Launch of PSHE Association consent guidance

As widely reported in the media earlier in the week, we are now delighted to bring you our guidance on teaching about consent in PSHE education at key stages 3 and 4.

We are very grateful that the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary have provided a joint foreword for the guidance in which they describe it as:

“an excellent resource which will help teachers provide pupils with the skills and knowledge to keep themselves and others informed, healthy and safe”.  

Consent at our annual conference 'Safeguarding through PSHE Education'

Our annual conference will include a workshop from our subject specialists on teaching about consent, an important aspect of safeguarding through PSHE – the overall theme of the day. We’re running this event in London on 25 June and Leeds on 2 July, and places are selling fast.

 

Campaigning for every child to be taught about consent and healthy relationships through statutory PSHE

As you know, we won’t stop campaigning until every child receives the same high quality learning about issues like consent and healthy relationships as part of statutory PSHE education. Only statutory status will guarantee that the subject is on every school’s curriculum and taught by well-supported and well-trained teachers.

Our recent campaigning includes a letter printed in yesterday’s Times signed by leading child safety experts including the Children’s Commissioner and leading Parliamentarians including two former education secretaries, calling for Government to make PSHE statutory as a means to help keep children safe. We have also been featured this week in a number of media outlets including the Telegraph, Guardian and the BBC.

As you’ll see from the coverage, while we welcome Nicky Morgan’s recent statements of support for PSHE including a piece in the Sunday Times this week - we remain clear that nothing short of a commitment to statutory status can ensure that all children receive the learning they need to keep healthy, safe and prepared  for life in modern Britain. Our campaigning will continue until we achieve this goal.

 

Please note that this news article is archived content from our old website and some internal links may not be working. If you need help finding information please get in touch with us at info@pshe-association.org.uk.