Transcript Document

The Future of PSHE
Joe Hayman
October 2014
Presentation to cover:
• The current position
• The conditions for change:
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Evidence
Pupil and parent attitudes to PSHE
Growing calls for change
• The future
The current position
Section 78 of the Education Act 2002:
“every state-funded school must offer a
balanced/broadly-based curriculum which:
- promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural,
mental and physical development of pupils;
- prepares pupils for the opportunities,
responsibilities and experiences of later life”
Schools also have statutory responsibilities
in relation to:
• safeguarding and wellbeing (Children Act
2004)
• equalities (Equality Act 2010)
• community cohesion (Education Act 2006)
Added to this, in September 2013 the
Department for Education reminded schools
of their statutory obligation to publish their
school curriculum by subject, including their
provision for PSHE education.
The preamble to the new national
curriculum framework states that “all
schools should make provision for PSHE,
drawing on good practice”.
But should is not the same as must.
The Conditions for Change:
Evidence
There is growing evidence to suggest that
health education, and the skills and
attributes acquired through PSHE education
more broadly, have a significant impact not
only on health but also on pupil attainment,
employability and future life chances.
Health education, delivered as part of a
whole-school approach, has been proven to
have a significant impact on health
behaviours by a recent review of Health
Promoting Schools (Langford et al, 2014).
A recent BMJ editorial (Bonell et al, 2014)
notes that “education and health are
synergistic… students in better health do
better academically”. It identifies countries
such as Finland, Singapore and Sweden
which have better academic success than us
and a greater emphasis on pupil health.
This ‘synergistic’ relationship between
health and academic performance was
reinforced by the Chief Medical Officer in
her most recent annual report, which refers
to PSHE education as a “bridge between
education and public health”.
There is growing evidence of the links
between good health, SEL, soft skill
development and academic success:
• A DfE commissioned report (Gutman and
Vorhaus, 2012) found that pupils with
higher levels of emotional wellbeing go on
to have higher levels of academic success.
• A study of emotional resilience
programmes in 22 UK schools (Challen et al,
2011) found short-term improvement in
pupil attendance and attainment rates,
particularly amongst those eligible for FSM
and pupils who had been performing at
below national average in maths/English.
• A study by US economist James Heckman
(2008) looking at the impacts of life-long
learning in a range of educational settings
highlighted the relationship between socioemotional skills, physical development,
mental health and attainment.
A series of reports in recent years also
emphasise the importance to pupils’ life
chances of the skills and attributes PSHE
education seeks to develop:
1. The Demos ‘Forgotten Half’ report noted
that skills such as communication,
teamwork and application are as important
as academic ability in predicting future
earnings (Demos, 2011).
2. The ‘First Steps’ report from the
Confederation of British Industry (CBI, 2013)
called for a more “rounded and grounded”
education system, concluding that
“personal behaviours and attributes –
sometimes termed ‘character’ – play a
critical role in personal effectiveness”.
3. The 2013 CBI/Pearson Education and
Skills Survey identified ‘communication
skills’ and ‘self-management’ as among
employers’ top priorities from schools
(CBI/Pearson, 2013).
4. The 2014 British Chambers of Commerce
Skills and Employment Manifesto calls for
intensified efforts from schools to help
pupils to develop ‘soft employability skills’
(BCC, 2014). The BCC has just this week
reiterated this call.
There is strong evidence that these skills
can be developed through classroom
learning: an analysis of over 200 SEL
programmes by Durlak et al (2011)
demonstrated improved social and
emotional skills, attitudes, behaviour and an
11% improvement in attainment.
The Education Endowment Foundation’s
Teaching and Learning Toolkit, states that
SEL programmes have a significant impact
on attitudes to learning, social relationships
in school and attainment itself (EEF, 2014).
The Conditions for Change:
Pupil and Parent Attitudes
A YouGov survey commissioned by the PSHE
Association in May 2014 shows that 90% of
parents agree that children and young
people should receive lessons that prepare
them for life and support their health and
emotional wellbeing alongside academic
study. This number holds up for SRE.
470,000 young people were involved in
making ‘a curriculum which prepares us for
life’ the UKYP’s priority campaign in England
in 2014. The campaign calls for better PSHE
education in schools, recognising its
importance to young people.
Teachers see the importance too. 88% of
respondents to a recent NUT survey said
PSHE should be made a statutory subject.
Three major teaching unions have recently
called for statutory status and all recognise
its importance.
Leading figures/organisations see the value:
• Chief Medical Officer
• Children’s Commissioner
• Public Health England
• Campaigners
• Journalists
• Opposition parties
Conditions for change:
The evidence base and strong parent, pupil
and teacher support creates a ripe set of
circumstances for improving the status of
the subject – and politicians from across
the spectrum are getting interested
The future
This is the most exciting time for the subject
in years. But higher profile means higher
expectations, more scrutiny, new dilemmas.
It also means the likely end of ‘splendid
isolation’, the ‘amateur model’ and our
narrative of ‘potential’.
Some challenges ahead:
1. The innate value of the subject, teacher
creativity and compulsory status
2. Higher expectations and greater
accountability: accreditation for pupils
and external monitoring of delivery
3. Involvement of wider stakeholders, such
as unions, parents, academies, faith
school reps, academics, and employers
4. Greater emphasis on evidence-base,
research and pedagogy in ITT, CPD and
in the classroom
5. Greater focus on skills, attributes and
maybe values in addition to knowledge;
greater emphasis on the world of work
6. Integration with each individual schools’
curriculum design; no longer an add-on
A final message:
Welcoming new challenges and facing
them together
Joe Hayman
PSHE Association Chief Executive
020 7922 7950
[email protected]
www.pshe-association.org.uk