Top PDF House of Commons Library: Briefing paper: Number 07303, 2 March 2017: Personal, social, health and economic education in schools (England)

What is most baffling about this decision is that the Government has a range of objectives it seeks to achieve through PSHE education, including teaching pupils to stay safe online, promoting children and young people’s mental health and preventing radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls. Its decision not to address a status quo in which these issues are addressed by untrained teachers in inadequate curriculum time – or left off the curriculum altogether – is self-defeating and leaves vulnerable young people at risk. 37

There have been regular calls for PSHE to be made statutory, often driven by the belief that this greater priority would improve PSHE provision. The Education Committee published a report recommending this change in February 2015, and Private Members’ Bills have been tabled for all or part of PSHE to become statutory. The last Labour Government had planned to make PSHE statutory, but the measures were not passed ahead of the 2010 General Election. The former shadow Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, stated that a Labour Government would make PSHE statutory in all state schools. Campaigns for PSHE to be made statutory have met with resistance, particularly from groups who believe that the topics covered in PSHE are primarily the responsibility of parents.

leadership, governance, administration arrangements and admissions policies across the school. The school intends to bring all year sevens together for at least half a day a week, and that will extend to all five-year groups as the extended site fills up. There will be a range of cross-site curricular activities, including in personal, social, health and economic education, languages and music, reflecting the integrated split-site school. In addition, the school will continue to operate a house system that will apply to students regardless of their site location, and this will further secure regular, cross-site learning. New staff contracts will make it clear that staff are expected to work on both sites.

leadership, governance, administration arrangements and admissions policies across the school. The school intends to bring all year sevens together for at least half a day a week, and that will extend to all five-year groups as the extended site fills up. There will be a range of cross-site curricular activities, including in personal, social, health and economic education, languages and music, reflecting the integrated split-site school. In addition, the school will continue to operate a house system that will apply to students regardless of their site location, and this will further secure regular, cross-site learning. New staff contracts will make it clear that staff are expected to work on both sites.

What is most baffling about this decision is that the Government has a range of objectives it seeks to achieve through PSHE education, including teaching pupils to stay safe online, promoting children and young people’s mental health and preventing radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls. Its decision not to address a status quo in which these issues are addressed by untrained teachers in inadequate curriculum time – or left off the curriculum altogether – is self-defeating and leaves vulnerable young people at risk. 29

The premium has enabled schools to enhance both the quality and range of PE teaching and sports provision. As a result of this investment, schools reported a range of positive impacts on pupils including increased pupil engagement and participation in PE and sports as well as impacts on social and inter-personal skills, behaviour, and PE skills and fitness. Schools also perceived positive impacts on the skills and confidence of teachers to deliver PE. The findings of this study have also highlighted challenges for the future of PE and sport in primary schools. To sustain the impact of the premium, schools have used it to invest in training for existing staff. However, a question remains over how to maintain this investment in CPD for new teachers entering the profession, once premium funding ends. Schools also raised issues related to sourcing good quality provision in their local area, and may need further support to robustly assess the quality of the provision available. The survey also found that monitoring and evaluation of the premium was not consistent and schools may require further advice and guidance to support them to first assess impacts and then put in place strategies for continuing quality improvement. 19

There was relatively little difference in English as a first language by school type, grammar schools had a considerably higher proportion of non-white pupils than secondary moderns and above the national average. The differences in the other three categories were much greater. The proportion of pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) with statements or Education, Heath and Care (EHC) plans was less than 0.04% in grammars, 2.3% in secondary modern schools and 1.7% across all schools. The proportion of pupils with SEN, but not sufficiently severe to be statemented or have an EHC plan was 3.6% at grammar schools, 11.8% at secondary modern schools and 11.0% nationally. While one might expect many types of SEN to limit a pupil’s

extremism policy in schools, and the relevant measures it is undertaking: Extremism has no place in our schools. We will investigate quickly any evidence that suggests a school is not keeping children safe from extremist ideas, ideology or radicalisation. All schools are subject to a robust inspection regime, and we will not hesitate to take firm and swift action if pupils are in any way being placed at risk. We are tackling this problem both by taking determined action where we find areas of concern, and building resilience in the system. We have increased the capacity of our Due Diligence and Counter Extremism Group. With the leadership of a Director entirely devoted to this area, we:

Members often receive enquiries from constituents about school-related matters. Many of these can be answered from readily available information on the internet or in standard publications. Where complex issues are raised it may be more appropriate to refer the constituent to specialist bodies and organisations or to a solicitor if legal advice is sought. This note gives a very brief overview of the structure of the state-maintained school system, including an outline of the different categories of schools, as often an answer to a school-related constituency question may depend upon the type of school in question. The note provides brief background and key sources on a selection of issues that are typically raised with Members by constituents. Members who have questions on topics not covered here may contact the Social Policy Section for information.

Answering member: Ben Gummer | Department: Department of Health On the 11 February 2016 my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State made an oral statement, Official Report, columns 1763-1765 in which he announced that he would proceed with the introduction of a new national contract for doctors in training, following advice that there was no realistic prospect of reaching agreement with the British Medical Association.

community’s perceived need and develop a sense of ownership. Mainstream services: Even though one of the most widely implemented strategies has been the ‘dedicated health visitor’, this should not necessarily be seen as an example of best practice. In fact, Travellers do not want dedicated services, but would much rather be able to access the same high quality services as everyone else, which will also reduce ‘singling out’ (PCC Framework, 2009). Poor living conditions and environmental factors are the single most influential contributing factor to the poor health status of Gypsies and Travellers, including stress. This makes partnership working between the different agencies, including the NHS, Local Authorities Social Services, Housing and Environmental Health, and voluntary sector organisations, even more important to provide a coordinated response to these inter-related issues. 94

Today’s announcement is perfectly welcome as far as it goes, but, to be frank, even for this Government it is pretty undercooked. What was the bidding process for the new company receiving £1.6 million of taxpayers’ money? What will the company actually do? What are its costs? What is its strategy? How will it stimulate “more and better activity”? What will its relationships with employers be? This is a piecemeal, scattergun approach. Astonishingly—it is very good see the Business Secretary in his place—the statement does not even mention local enterprise partnerships. If we are to have joined-up government on careers advice, I would have thought that at least the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills could talk to each other.

It would neither be practical or desirable to artificially curb the sale of school playing fields, when such disposals may represent the most effective use of public assets. Often changes are made to education provision, such as school closures or mergers, which mean it is no longer necessary to retain playing fields for school use. In such cases it is only right that local communities are able to benefit from space that otherwise would not be used. Converting surplus or unwanted assets to invest in school grounds has benefits that extend far beyond the school gates. No operating school has disposed of its entire playing field.

Therefore we can look at what has happened for earnings for a particular cohort over time. Analysis by the Resolution Foundation (an economic think tank) shows that the millennial age group departs from the usual pattern of younger cohorts earning more in real terms than older cohorts did at the same age (which arises because in ‘normal’ times growth in earnings exceeds inflation), as can be seen in the chart below. 21

The Secretary of State writes to HEFCE around the turn of each year to set out funding, priorities, student numbers and related matters for the following financial year. Occasionally these letters cover more than one year and sometimes revised versions are published. The most recent full funding letter was published at the end of February 2017. It covered funding in 2017-18 and gave indicative allocations for the following year. All these funding letters from the mid-1990s onwards can be found at: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/funding/annallocns/Archive/ The following table summarises HEFCE funding

experiences and inspiration to young people. It will focus initially on mapping what is out there, because people have to know that before they can start offering guidance. It will then focus on Lord Young’s excellent idea, in his report to the Prime Minister, of appointing an enterprise adviser. That person will be a current or recently retired local executive from the public or private sector, who will be attached to a school and whose role will be to help it identify local businesses and employers that can come in to the school and provide work experience, and resources relating to programmes relevant for the school. A school will identify that local enterprise adviser with the help of their local economic partnership. 46

We should acknowledge that the curriculum always involves trade-offs: more time on one subject means less time on others. Over the years, I’ve been asked to add scores of subjects - from intellectual property, to Esperanto, to den building - to the national curriculum. Many of these are important and interesting. The question, though, is always whether they are sufficiently important to justify reducing the time available for the existing subjects in the curriculum, and I make no apology for protecting space for the English Baccalaureate subjects wherever possible. That is not to say, of course, that subjects outside the English Baccalaureate have no place in schools. The EBacc is a specific, limited measure consisting of only 5 subject areas and up to 8 GCSEs. Whilst this means that there are several valuable subjects which are not included, it also means that there is time for most pupils to study other subjects in addition to the EBacc, including vocational and technical disciplines which are also vital to future economic growth.

No. The new measure is just one piece of information in the achievement and attainment tables. We will continue to publish existing measures, including on the achievement of 5 or more GCSEs at A*-C grade, and we will introduce other measures over time to meet our White Paper commitment to make as much information available to parents and tax payers as possible on the performance of every school. We want the English Baccalaureate to encourage schools to offer the subjects included in it to their pupils but neither we, nor Ofsted, will take action with respect to schools on the basis of their performance against that measure. Is the English Baccalaureate compulsory?

recommend therefore that all primary schools should have a sex education programme tailored to the age and the physical and emotional maturity of the pupils. It should ensure that both boys and girls are prepared for the changes adolescence brings and – drawing on knowledge of the human life cycle set out in the national curriculum for science - how a baby is conceived and born. As well as consulting parents more generally about the school’s overall policy, primary schools should consult with parents before final year of primary school about the detailed content of what will be taught. (p18)

one intimate relationships; that all aspects of health can be affected by choices they make in sex and relationships, positively or negatively; the facts about reproductive health; managing sexual pressure, including understanding peer pressure; choice to delay sex or to enjoy intimacy without sex; contraception; facts around pregnancy including miscarriage; choices in relation to pregnancy (with medically and legally accurate, impartial information on all options, including keeping the baby, adoption, abortion and where to get further help); information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including risk reduction and testing; how the use of alcohol and drugs can lead to risky sexual behaviour; how to get further advice, including how and where to access confidential sexual and reproductive health advice and treatment.