This past week it has been good to be out and about around
Mid-Cornwall, among other things catching up with the National Trust to learn
about their important work conserving Dodman Point, visiting local farmers to
talk about how I can support them, and coming along to the St Austell Fire
Station open day this past Saturday.
While Parliament is not sitting at the moment, Government
business continues as usual.
I am delighted that last week the Government announced plans
to teach children about good physical and mental health and the importance of
healthy relationships, and have launched a consultation to seek the views of
parents, teachers and community leaders.
As announced by the Health Secretary Damian Hinds, all
pupils will study compulsory Health Education as well as newly reformed
Relationships Education in primary school and Relationships and Sex Education
in secondary school. The current statutory guidance on sex and relationship
education, last updated in 2000, will be replaced by the proposed new guidance.
Schools will be strongly encouraged to teach the updated subjects from
September 2019 and will be required to do so from September 2020.
These proposals will teach pupils their freedoms and
responsibilities under the law and equality and respect for different types of
relationships, and allow teachers to deliver the new content in an
age-appropriate manner. They will also provide flexibility for schools to
design their own curriculum – building on the content that they are already
delivering through existing programmes – and endorse the positive role which
parents, local communities, faith communities including religious schools can
play in educating our children.
I am especially pleased to see these proposals give timely
and proper recognition to the importance of teaching children about the value
of positive and safe relationships – a key foundation of our society. At a time
when family breakdowns are becoming more common and young people are
increasingly using the internet as a social platform, it is vitally important
that our future generations understand the need for healthy and stable
relationships, on and offline.
The new proposals will also give parents the right to
request withdrawal from RSE for their children. Unless there are exceptional
circumstances, these requests will be granted by head teachers until three
terms before the pupil turns 16.
Another issue of concern to my constituents and I is our
children’s future physical and mental wellbeing. Cornwall has significantly higher
rates of adult and child obesity than England, and ONS figures published last
year showed that Cornwall has one of the highest rates of suicide in the UK. By
making Health Education compulsory for primary and secondary school pupils, the
new guidance will ensure that our children are taught from a young age about
the benefits of a healthier lifestyle, prevention of health problems, how to
build mental resilience and wellbeing, and learn how to recognise when they and
others are struggling with mental health and how to respond.
I am a strong believer that education has to be about much
more than passing exams and should include the importance of young people
serving and engaging with the community, and I am pleased that the guidance
will also encourage them to play an active role in community life and educate
them about the positive influence it has on their mental wellbeing.
These proposals will give our children the knowledge and
help they need to build healthier relationships, lead physically and mentally
healthier lives, and be safe and happy in our communities.
A consultation exercise on these proposals is open until 7
November 2018. You can take part in this by visiting http://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education
