PSHE stands for Personal Social Health Economic education. PSHE is an essential part of all pupils' education. All schools should teach Personal Social Health and Economic education. This expectation was outlined in the new proposed PSHE curriculum. PSHE is a non-statutory subject. PSHE education covers Relationships Education at key stages 1 and 2, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) at key stages 3 and 4 and Health Education from key stage 1 to 4.
In 1999 the new Framework for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) was published. This was also when Sex Relation Education (SRE) was first introduced.
In 2000, the Government published the SRE guidance for schools and PSHE education became compulsory for all schools. This replaced a document titled Education Act 1993: Sex education in schools and before that in 1987 the Sex Education at School document.
In 2017 SRE became RSE, this was to make sure that ‘relationship’ came before ‘sex’.
The primary school PSHE curriculum includes three core themes, they are Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.
PSHE aims to help children and young people be healthy, safe, prepared for life and achieve their academic potential. PSHE is delivered implicitly and explicitly in schools. It is taught as a subject on its own, often through specific hour-long lessons, or circle times, as well as through assemblies, mentoring, other subjects and themed weeks. PSHE lessons provide teachers with the opportunity to focus on topics that are important to the cohort of children.
The PSHE Association is a membership association and charity. They support teachers and schools with resources, training, guidance and advice. They received grant funding to advise schools in developing their own PSHE curriculums.
