News updates
This week was Body Confidence Week and there were a variety of activities from the Be Real Body Confidence Campaign, formed in response the All Party Parliamentary Group for Body Image ‘Reflections on Body Image’ report.
Dr Pooky Knightsmith represented the PSHE Association at a roundtable for Be Real campaign. The roundtable included campaign supporters Radio 1 DJ Jameela Jamil, Mumsnet and others. Participants discussed the need to introduce body confidence lessons into the school curriculum. (15 October) Read the Daily Mail article here
Commenting in the Telegraph, Caroline Nokes MP – chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Body Image – stressed that the there needs to be a mechanism in schools for embedding a sense of self esteem and body confidence in pupils, and that “PSHE lessons are the obvious place”. Read the Telegraph article here
To assist our PSHE teachers in this task we recommended that they use resources from the Dove Self Esteem Project, which have recently achieved our Quality Mark. View the resources here
Parliamentary business
Caroline Lucas MP introduced an adjournment debate a debate on education policy in which she made the case for statutory PSHE, quoting supportive statements made by teachers about the subject. Education Minister Nick Gibb said he agreed PSHE was important and said the government had outlined their expectations in the introduction to the framework to the new national curriculum. (14 October)
Deputy Children’s Commissioner Sue Berelowitz recommended school involvement, including compulsory PSHE education, as a key preventative measure, during the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into violence against women and girls. (15 October)
PSHE education was mentioned during a question to the Home Office on protecting the online privacy of children in light of recent social media hacking. Lord Storey commented that young people should be made aware of the dangers in school, through PSHE education and Baroness Mcintosh of Hudnall asked whether Lord Bates could say with confidence that the current PSHE syllabus is robust enough to take online privacy into account. Lord Bates responded that it is a matter which needs to be constantly under review and that the NCA and CEOP website Thinkuknow is aimed at keeping young people safe. (16 October)
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.