Secondary curriculum 

Handout version [word doc.]
Presentation version [powerpoint doc.]

Regional Subject Briefing presentation- PSHE Education (powerpoint)

The new secondary curriculum, being phased in from Sept. 2008, is aims led, flexible and coherent. For the first time the curriculum definition includes all the planned learning experiences in the school and beyond so that learning outside the classroom takes on a new importance.

The aims place personal development and the acquisition of personal, learning and thinking skills at the heart of the curriculum and reflect the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes stating that the curriculum should enable all young people to become:

• successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
• confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives
• responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society

Increased personalisation and scope for local determination enables schools to develop their curriculum to meet the needs of their pupils and in response to local priorities and circumstances. Whole curriculum design should link learning to life outside school and make connections between subjects and cross-curricular themes and dimensions.

Three questions are used for curriculum design, development and implementation:

• what are we trying to achieve?
• how do we organise learning?
• how well are we achieving our aims?

The cross curricular dimensions reflect some of the major ideas and challenges that face society and have significance for individuals in the 21^st century. These can provide unifying themes to give learning relevance and help young people make sense of the world.

• identity and cultural diversity
• healthy lifestyles
• community participation
• enterprise
• sustainable futures and the global dimension
• technology and the media
• creativity and critical thinking

In the new curriculum PSHE assumes greater importance and prominence than previously. PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) education is described in two new programmes of study:

• personal wellbeing 
• economic wellbeing and financial capability

These programmes of study make a draw together, in a coherent way, personal, social and health education, including sex education, the social and emotional aspects of learning, careers education, enterprise, financial capability and work-related learning. PSHE education makes a significant contribution to pupils’ personal development alongside the contribution of all other subjects and curriculum experiences. PSHE education is essential to achieving the curriculum aims and makes an explicit contribution to all seven of the cross curricular dimensions.

The programmes of study for PSHE education are designed in exactly the same way as those for other subjects all of which have as their main focus key concepts and processes rather than content. Each programme of study includes:

• an importance statement describing why the subject matters and how it contributes to the aims
  
• key concepts that define the big ideas that underpin the subject
  
• key processes - the essential skills of the subject
  
• range and content setting out the breadth of subject matter from which teachers should draw to develop the key concepts and skills
  
• curriculum opportunities that enhance and enrich learning, increasing its relevance and making links to the wider curriculum.

The key concepts for PSHE education in personal wellbeing are:

• personal identities
• healthy lifestyles
• risk
• relationships
• diversity

and in economic wellbeing and financial capability are:

• career
• capability
• risk
• economic understanding.

The key processes for PSHE education in personal wellbeing are:

• critical reflection
• decision-making and managing risk
• developing relationships and working with others

and in economic wellbeing and financial capability

• self-development
• exploration
• enterprise
• financial capability.

The two programmes of study can support each other not only through the common concept of risk but also through further exploration of the concepts and processes. 

Understanding risk in both positive and negative terms and the ability to manage risk in relation to relationships, health, finance, enterprise and career choices requires planning across the two programmes of study. However other links are important, for example, between the concept of personal identities and that of career in which developing a sense of personal identity is essential for career progression. Both require an understanding of personal qualities, attitudes and skills will help to create the coherent and relevant learning experiences for which the curriculum has been designed.

However, it is by making links right across the curriculum that true coherence will be achieved. Identity and cultural diversity – an essential theme for 21^st century living – is a recurring theme in a  range of subjects. Healthy lifestyles, traditionally addressed mainly through PSHE and physical education requires a whole curriculum approach to adequately achieve the curriculum aims.

It will be as schools develop their own responses to the new curriculum that examples of really rich learning experiences will emerge. PSHE education, with its history of whole school planning, cross curricular approaches and learning beyond the classroom has an enormous contribution to make.  The PSHE Association will develop support materials to help with the process and will also collect from its members examples of effective practice that will support the whole school community as well as developing the subject as one of high status and significance.

Information for primary schools

What has changed and why? Link to National Curriculum website on the new secondary curriulum