Ofsted: Schools failing on personal and social education
The teaching of personal, social and health education (PSHE) is poor in many schools and non-existent in others.
That is the damming conclusion of a new OFSTED report into PSHE teaching in secondary schools. PSHE encompasses important subjects such as sex, drugs and alcohol education.
Some schools do not teach the subject at all, using the time allocated for academically accredited lessons.
The OFSTED report also found that too many schools made no attempt to judge whether the teaching of the subject had any impact on pupils’ attitudes, and considered achievement only in factual subject knowledge.
In addition, though many schools defended the use of form teachers to take the lessons, the overall quality of teaching was unsatisfactory in twice as many of these lessons as in those taught by specialist teachers.
Chief Inspector of Schools David Bell said high quality PSHE was “vital to young people’s development in and out of the classroom. It is important that both schools and parents take this role seriously in order to ensure that our young people are prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences they will face in later life.
“Therefore I do not condone any schools deciding not to teach PSHE.”
He said that whilst some schools had been successful in developing links to other support services, such as nurses and community police officers, such good practice was not widespread.
Mr Bell added that confidentiality continued to be a problem, saying: “Pupils rarely understand the boundaries of confidentiality in lessons and too few schools have a policy or framework that ensures its provision when needed.”
Key recommendations in the report include a move towards specialist PSHE teaching scheme – and greater training for any non-specialist teachers – and clearer guidance on confidentiality procedures.
Over 60 schools were personally visited to draw up the report, and additional evidence was gathered from more than 100 school inspection reports.
