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admin
Admin
24 Posts
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 Posted -
12/04/2010
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13:56
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The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is disappointed that a plan to make PSHE education a statutory part of the National Curriculum has been shelved as legislation moves through Parliament ahead of the General Election.
Personal, social, health and economic education - of which injury prevention is a key part - is currently non-statutory, meaning that it is not a legal requirement for schools to teach all elements.
Last year, an independent review carried out by Sir Alasdair Macdonald recommended that PSHE education should become a statutory part of the National Curriculum in both primary and secondary phases in England.
But clauses related to PSHE education have now been removed from the Children, Schools and Families Bill.
Dr Jenny McWhirter, RoSPA’s risk education adviser, said: “Injury prevention is a key part of what is an extremely broad PSHE education curriculum and at RoSPA we had high hopes for this important issue to become a statutory requirement.
“A third of the young people who die each year in the UK lose their lives as a result of injuries sustained in accidents. We know that safety and risk education is a crucial way of preventing such accidents.
“Moreover, a key RoSPA principle is that life, and particularly our leisure time, should be as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. Safety and risk education is a valuable way of helping children and young people develop an understanding of this concept and how it can be achieved in reality – managing risks, for example, rather than eliminating them altogether. It can equip children with the skills to lead active lives and protect themselves while doing so.”
She added: “There is already a great deal of good work ongoing across England. The Child Safety Education Coalition, for example, is promoting high quality practical safety education for children and young people. We had hoped that teachers and schools, and the injury prevention professionals who work with them, would have had their efforts in this sphere reinforced by new legislation. We will continue to make the case for this and to offer our support to all those who are engaged in such important work.”
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STATUTORY PSHE EDUCATION IS SHELVED
