7 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) a foundation subject in all primary and secondary schools in England and Wales."
Details of Petition:
"PSHE promotes the emotional, social and health development of children and young people. Evidence shows that PSHE helps young people’s academic learning and helps them develop skills for employment, promotes health, well-being and safety, and promotes inclusion and community cohesion. However, some schools are not prioritising PSHE as it is not a foundation subject. As a result, many children in this country are not being given the opportunity to acquire information on a range of health issues such as sex and relationships education, diet and exercise, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; nor are schools prioritising the development of children and young people’s emotional and social skills; nor are students being offered the chance to explore and clarify values and beliefs including respect, morality and an understanding of cultural diversity. Please lend your name to this petition to help ensure all young people are given the skills they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives."
Read the Government’s response
The Government is committed to the provision of Personal Social, Health Education (PSHE) in schools and recognises its valuable contribution to the personal, social and moral development of pupils. High quality PSHE is also key to meeting the five Every Child Matters national outcomes for children
In England, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is already taught through the non-statutory framework at Key Stages 1 to 4. In addition, many aspects of PSHE, including sex and relationship education drug education and careers education, have a statutory basis within the curriculum. Furthermore, there are a number of requirements on schools which support PSHE, including the new duty to promote wellbeing introduced in September 2007, and the requirements for policies on bullying and child protection.
Currently there are no plans to change the statutory status of PSHE. The Government does not believe that making PSHE a foundation subject will automatically lead to improvements in its teaching and learning. Such a move would also run counter to the recently announced reforms to the secondary curriculum introduced to give schools greater flexibilities.
A number of steps are being taken to improve the effectiveness of what is taught through PSHE. These include: ensuring teachers have access to high quality continuing professional development (CPD) through the National PSHE CPD accredited programme; continuing to expand the National Healthy Schools Programme which requires schools to have high quality PSHE programmes; providing schools with additional guidance; and, supporting the recently established PSHE Subject Association to provide advice to PSHE practitioners.
Educational matters for Wales are dealt with by the Welsh Assembly Government. Personal and social education forms part of the basic curriculum at Key Stages 1 to 4 and by law all schools must teach it. In addition, there is a compulsory requirement to teach sex education at Key Stages 3 and 4.