Schools should be providing all young people with a curriculum that equips them for success in adult life. Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), relationships education, and PSHE are subjects designed to ensure pupils are taught the knowledge and life skills they will need to stay safe and develop healthy and supportive relationships.
The national curriculum makes it clear that all schools should teach PSHE, drawing on good practice to enable children to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. To allow teachers the flexibility to deliver high-quality PSHE education, it is currently a non-statutory subject, and there is no specified programme of study. However, I am pleased that the Government has introduced new clauses to the Children and Social Work Bill that would allow PSHE to be made a mandatory subject in all state-funded schools in England if this is considered appropriate in the future. Independent schools are already required to teach PSHE.