The health, relationships (primary) and ‘relationships and sex’ aspects of PSHE education will be compulsory in all schools from 2020. We championed this government commitment to strengthening PSHE’s status when the initial announcement was made last year.
It certainly feels like the beginning of a new era for the subject, with huge potential for a levelling-up of PSHE standards across all schools, building on the fantastic work many of you are doing already.
The Department for Education has today launched its statutory guidance on health, RSE and relationships education. This sets out what schools must cover from 2020 – the guidance is marked as draft as it is awaiting final parliamentary sign-off, but we don’t expect any significant changes. We’re busy working on new resources and guidance to help you make the most of these developments, and wanted to give you a quick update.
We’ve got it covered
Tomorrow we will launch a new version of our ‘We’ve got it covered’ mapping document to reflect the latest statutory guidance. This document outlines how the Programme of Study for PSHE education covers – and goes beyond – the health, relationships and RSE guidance.
Our Programme of Study also covers economic wellbeing and careers, and though not yet compulsory like health and relationships education these have never been more important, so we remain adamant that schools should cover PSHE in its entirety. It is however good to see elements of economic wellbeing included, for example relating to gambling and online fraud.
Later this year, we will be publishing a revised version of the Programme of Study itself with added detail on what the new guidance means in each key stage, within the context of your broader PSHE programme.
Updating our guidance and lessons on teaching about mental and emotional wellbeing
It’s great to see our mental health guidance, consent guidance and Programme of Study cited in the statutory DfE guidance. We’re busy updating the mental health guidance and lessons at the moment, including working on new formats to make the lesson materials more user-friendly. More on this soon and in the meantime visit our site to access the existing materials.
Next steps
The changes to status won’t come into effect until 2020 but schools are strongly encouraged to begin preparing now. As always, we’re here to help members to make sure PSHE is as good as it can be in your school. Watch out for news of more resources, training, guidance and support from us over the coming months.
We are also looking through the new draft Ofsted framework at the moment. Early impressions suggest that there may be greater potential for using PSHE to evidence progress against new judgements. We’ll publish a more in-depth analysis soon as we work towards responding to the consultation by the April deadline.
Our annual conference events also provide an opportunity to explore these major developments, so we’d like to remind you that bookings are now open for our Leeds event on 13 June, and London event on 27 June.