Lords Debate on Schools

Barroness Massey, who amongst her many roles is the Chair of the NTA, has been a consistent and undaunted advocate for PSHE in schools.  I don’t think she ever misses an opportunity to press for it’s inclusion as a statutory subject on the curriculum, and nor does she in this debate on schools from a week or so ago in the House of Lords.

She starts by setting out what she believes a good school is about, which includes a:

concern for the personal, social, moral and health education of its pupils.

And then she’s away:

On this last issue, may I ask the Minister when personal, social and health education will become statutory in schools? When will citizenship be statutory in primary schools? When will we really consider well-being and the social and emotional aspects of learning worthy of high importance? Earlier this week, I worked with the Parliamentary Education Unit and a group of primary school teachers to begin developing materials about Parliament for use in primary schools. It was an exciting day and promises useful results. One of the things which struck me was the teachers’ wish to link such work on Parliament to the wider issues of citizenship and PSHE and their vision of being able to translate this into geography, maths, history and English issues. Personal, social and health education and citizenship, as well as being important in their own right, give rise to wider learning.

PSHE is not just about topics such as nutrition, safety, drugs and sex education, it is about how people conduct their lives and how they develop core self-worth, which enables them to have a positive regard for others. It is about encouraging self-respect, which encourages respect for others and for the environment in its broadest sense. It is about enabling young people to feel in charge of their lives and not wafted between contradictory forces.

The school where I am a governor, which my noble friend the Minister has visited, has a strong programme of personal, social and health education, with a deliberate emphasis on fostering self-esteem in pupils so that they are confident, esteem others, communicate and learn the rules of behaviour. Each class sets its own rules and pupils monitor these themselves. Inspectors have remarked on the calm atmosphere in the school, the self-discipline of the pupils and their care for others and the environment. The school I am talking about is not an easy one. Most pupils receive free school meals, some do not speak English on entry and parents are difficult to engage. Nevertheless, the levels that pupils reach in academic achievement tests are in some cases quite remarkable. Some children move from a very low base of behaviour and achievement to good levels. I note in today’s primary school league tables for London that the English results in my school are higher than those in some schools which are above it in the league tables generally. I find that quite remarkable. I am certain that this happens because of innovative, inspiring teaching but also because of the positive ethos developed by personal, social and health education across the curriculum, and by the involvement of pupils in initiatives such as the healthy schools standard, the Sport England active mark, the UNICEF rights respecting school programme and many local and national awards.

The school’s strong policy on PSHE includes the aims of increasing self-esteem, finding ways of resolving conflict, exploring values, offering opportunity and guidance on how to learn. I believe that such aspects of learning enable children and young people to go on learning and to be self-respecting and respect others.

Yet I hear that four schools in the north-east have recently dropped PSHE in favour of something called “financial management”. Research at Manchester University indicates that PSHE in schools is being significantly reduced. Yes, efforts are being made to train teachers and a new specialist association has been set up, but there are 26,000 schools and we are training 2,000 teachers a year to deliver PSHE. Some of those trained will change job, retire, or have breaks from teaching. At this rate it will take 50 years to train teachers in PSHE, by which time the turnover will have caught up with the training. This important area of the curriculum should not be left to chance. Can the Minister offer any words of hope?

Lord Adonis replies:

My noble friend Lady Massey rightly mentioned the importance of PSHE. She never loses the opportunity to ask me when we will make it statutory. She knows that I attach great importance to PSHE—both the curriculum and the training of teachers in respect of it—and we are significantly extending the training of teachers through the certification programme; but as she knows also, I am not in a position to give the dates she seeks as to when it will be made statutory. Nor, I have to tell her, do we have any early plans to make citizenship compulsory in primary schools, although I pay tribute to the outstanding work being done in extending citizenship education into our primary schools.

So perhaps not hope, but unlike previous occasions neither is there a flat out refusal.

Filed under: PSHE , Barroness Massey of Darwen