Jersey Youth Parliament closing report - Education Reform (R.142/2022): Response Of The Minister For Children And Education

Recommendations

To

Response

Comments

1

Standardise  the  PSHE curriculum  and  delivery across all schools

MC ED

 Agree  to consult with schools

Headteachers  and  teachers  have  a responsibility  to  provide  a  curriculum  that meets the needs of their pupils. These needs can be very different for every school.

A very standardised PSHE curriculum would make it difficult for staff to respond to any current issues affecting their pupils. Examples of  this  might  include  issues  raised  by  the Jersey Children and Young People's Survey.

However, we do agree that there are some topics and issues that every child has a right to receive information and education about. We intend to listen to children and schools to work out what these core topics should be and to what level of detail.

We also agree that it is necessary to secure a more consistent quality and delivery of the curriculum across all schools.

Recommendations

To

Response

Comments

We will consult with schools to seek ways to do this through:

• developing  teachers'  understanding of the curriculum

• providing high quality guidance and resources

using the Jersey School's Review Framework to  check  for  quality  and  consistency  of delivery.

2

Ensure  that  the  PSHE curriculum  is  concise, meaningful and engaging

MC ED

Agree

The  Jersey  Schools  Review  Framework offers high levels of challenge to schools. It requires headteachers and teachers to ensure that the curriculum is relevant, meaningful, and engaging. During the pandemic CYPES had to pause the school review process. This has now re-started. All of the reviews are published on gov.je

We will start this work over the next few months:

• CYPES  will  use  the  Jersey  Youth

Parliament (JYP) report to develop guidance  for  schools.  It  offers  the chance to focus on the importance of pupil voice. It highlights many wider providers  in  the  Island  who  have resources that schools can use.

• CYPES will develop a version of the curriculum for young people that is easy to understand and meaningful.

• CYPES will commit to include the PSHE  content  in  the  report framework suggested by the JYP

• Set up a working party of teachers to develop resources and to share the best ways of teaching PSHE.

 Ensure school reviews include the quality and accountability of the PSHE curriculum in schools.

3

Update the curriculum so that it meets the need of young  people  living  in the  island  today  so  that

MC ED

Agree  to consult with JYP

See Recommendation 2 above

CYPES  officers  will  commit  to  regular consultation  with  JYP  members  to  discuss

Recommendations

To

Response

Comments

they can grow up to be informed global citizens

their perceptions of what young people need from the PSHE curriculum.

In addition, the Jersey School Review process requires  reviewers  to  consult  with  children and young people to hear their views.

It is further agreed to make better use of the Children and Young People's Survey data to highlight current issues both for each school and  across  the  Island.  CYPES  will  then support  schools  by  providing  resources  for teachers to help them to address these issues.

4

Embed  Life  Skills  into the  curriculum  such  as self-defence,  first  aid, budgeting,  cooking, stress management

MC ED

Agree

We  accept  this  recommendation.  These aspects are already included within the Jersey Curriculum (either in PSHE or in subject areas such as DT and mathematics). Therefore, we will investigate whether the teaching of these areas are meeting the needs of children, and seek to make improvements based on what is in  their best  interests.  Self-defence will  be added to the guidance document for teachers as a recommendation to support young people regarding how to keep themselves safe.

5

Ring  fence  the  PSHE lessons  so  that  they  are not  used  for  other purposes

MC ED

Agree

The Jersey Curriculum for PSHE including Citizenship  and  Careers  are  a  statutory entitlement for all pupils and we agree that time should be ring-fenced for certain aspects of  delivery.  Other  areas  are  continuously developed through the culture and ethos of the school.

The Jersey School Review Framework will indicate  how  well  schools  put  their  PSHE curriculum into practice.

Jersey  Curriculum  Council  has  recently agreed  in  their  meeting  09.11.22  to recommend  that  PSHE  lessons  should  be safeguarded across the key stages.

6

Broad  representation  of the  different  types  of

MC ED

Agree

CYPES  will  engage  with  Liberate  to  offer teachers support and updated training to better

Recommendations

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Response

Comments

human  relationships  as well  as  up  to  date LGBTQ+  education  to represent all members of our community

equip them in this area curriculum provision. It is hoped that this can commence in 2023. A budget will need to be secured.

7

Anti-discriminatory education  to  include learning  about  different global  cultures  and religions

MC ED

Agree

CYPES agrees that this is an important area of the PSHE curriculum and acknowledges that this could be further developed.

This  area  is  already  included  within  the statutory  Religious  Education  and  PSHE curriculums.

Currently  CYPES  are  purchasing  a  new scheme of work for all schools to support the delivery  of  Religious  Education  across  the island. This will include different cultures.

8

Improve  political education  and  expand resources  to  deliver  the topic

MC ED

Agree

Political education is already detailed within the  Citizenship  curriculum.  However,  we agree that new resources are required.

The Greffe now has a new Education Officer and CYPES are liaising with them to support the development of new teaching resources to be shared with schools.

9

Critical  thinking  skills, fact  checking  and reliability of sources to be taught

MC ED

Agree

Critical thinking skills, fact-checking and the reliability  of  sources  are  already  a  key component of the Jersey curriculum, so we agree with this recommendation.

Within this JYP report these skills are related to the concept of fake news and issues around internet  safety.  These  specific  aspects  are addressed by the computing curriculum.

From a wider perspective, the development of these skills also underpins areas of the Jersey Curriculum  for  other  subjects  such  as mathematics, science and history.

10

Educate  young  people what to do when things do go wrong rather than

MC ED

Agree  to consult with JYP

We  agree  that  this  is  an  important recommendation.

Recommendations

To

Response

Comments

focusing  only  on prevention. What options do young people have?

CYPES  commits  to  exploring  this recommendation  further  with  JYP  to determine how this may be achieved to meet the needs of young people.

11

Ensure that the intended curriculum  is  actually received by young people

MC ED

Agree

We  agree  this  is  vitally  important  to  help young people to be prepared for their future lives.  Quality  assurance through  the Jersey School Review Framework will support this.