PD, or not PD, that is the question…

Ofsted has just published a handy explainer video about personal development and it’s encouraging to see such strong emphasis on how PSHE education (and within that, RSHE) helps schools to foster and demonstrate it. The explainer also helps to clarify a misunderstanding we’ve seen in some schools that personal development and PSHE education are interchangeable concepts or terms. While PSHE education is central to personal development, a sequenced, discrete PSHE curriculum is an essential and separate requirement in schools.

PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education has had a range of names in the past, and continues to be called different things in different schools even now: from Life Skills to Social Studies, and from PSHCE (where schools combine it in a single timetable slot with Citizenship) to PAL (Preparation for Adult Life).

This is further complicated by the introduction of statutory RSHE (Relationships, Sex and Health Education) – a remarkably similar acronym for content which comprises about 80% of the broader PSHE education curriculum, but not all.

If schools are providing high quality, planned, regular PSHE education then it doesn’t matter so much what it’s called, but in some cases this framing is limited and jeopardises quality and a school’s ability to demonstrate how they’re meeting requirements. There is a particular concern at the moment with how some schools conflate personal development with PSHE education, and we’ll explain why.

As Ofsted’s explainer makes clear, ‘Personal Development’ is a holistic term and judging provision for pupils’ personal development involves looking at a range of curriculum subject areas and other whole school provisions. Under the Ofsted framework, ‘Personal Development’ includes curriculum subjects such as PSHE education (and statutory RSHE within it) and Citizenship, while also exploring broader ways in which a school develops pupils’ ‘character’; SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) development; British values; inclusion; extra-curricular opportunities; and – in secondary settings – Careers Information Education Advice and Guidance (CEIAG).

PSHE education and personal development are therefore not one and the same. Although as Ofsted makes clear (see 4 minutes into their explainer video) learning within PSHE education is central to a school’s outcome for the ‘Personal Development’ judgement, personal development is everyone’s business – from the PE department organising extra-curricular sports, to the pastoral team with an assembly rota that contributes to pupils’ SMSC development.

So while it might sound trivial, referring to PSHE education as ‘Personal Development’ has a number of worrying implications, including:

• It can mean PSHE education gets confused, and sometimes mixed with, other subjects – Citizenship, Religious Education, Sociology, and so on – under the wider personal development umbrella, when each of these subjects has its own importance and remit.
• Any lumping together of subject areas can mean less time for PSHE education on the curriculum, thereby reversing hard-won gains achieved when RSHE became statutory in September 2020, and resulting in children and young people being less prepared to lead safe, happy and healthy lives.
• Without regular, discrete and sequenced PSHE education, schools will really struggle to meet their statutory RSHE and safeguarding responsibilities. Ofsted says as much in its sexual harassment guidance, stating that ‘The RSHE curriculum should be carefully sequenced’ and the statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance also outlines the importance of ‘a planned programme of evidence-based RSHE delivered in regularly timetabled lessons and reinforced throughout the whole curriculum’.
• It can increase the burden on PSHE leads, feeling they have to become responsible for all elements of personal development, particularly in relation to inspection evidence. And finally:
• It can lead to a blurring between the planned, taught curriculum and pastoral elements of whole school life, such as extra-curricular opportunities, one-to-one careers guidance and pupils’ SMSC development.

For these reasons we strongly urge schools to maintain the subject’s identity and integrity. This way pupils are guaranteed all of PSHE education’s benefits and schools can clearly demonstrate its effectiveness, while differentiating all of the various aspects of curriculum and school life that contribute to each pupil’s personal development.