Today – 15 July – Government will publish new statutory guidance on RSHE. Preliminary details of the guidance are described in reporting by the Daily Mail and Guardian.
The PSHE Assciciation has published a ‘watch this space’ page on its web site.
We are expecting the full guidance to be available after midday. The reporting so far indicates:
- The scrapping of age-ratings which had been proposed in draft guidance and instead allowing teachers to respond to issues raised by pupils
- New content on AI, deepfakes and how pornography links to misogyny at secondary
- A strong focus on teaching starting early and addressing attitudes
- Schools must proactively engage with parents
- Flexibility for primary schools to respond to issues such as sharing naked images and pornography if their pupils have seen it
- Conception, birth and puberty to be taught in Year 5 or Year 6 (but not compulsory)
- Secondary schools to have new content including
– incel culture
-Sexual ethics beyond consent and awareness of power dynamics
- Schools to have links with mental health professionals on how to discuss suicide prevention in an age-appropriate way
There will be a one year implementation period for this guidance; schools do not need to try to be ready to incorporate new content from September, but can start following it from September this year if they wish to.
