Personal Safety Education
Schools can help children and young people to develop the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need to keep themselves safe now and in the future.
Personal safety is a key part of a programme of PSHE education, which schools can develop to meet the needs of their pupils.
Areas that may be covered include:
- Accident prevention
- Communication skills
- Drug education
- Healthy relationships
- Online safety
- Rights and responsibilities
- Problem solving, risk management and decision making
- Emotional health and resilience
- Road Safety
- Weapons and gangs
- Accessing help and support
Wiltshire's Healthy Schools programme asks schools to provide evidence of a whole school approach to health and wellbeing, which contains a range of actions and school provision to promote personal safety.
Knife Crime Awareness Videos: There are short videos the Youth and Early Intervention Team created alongside students from Wiltshire College, who provided their own insight into what knife crime awareness means to them – the complete set of videos can be viewed above and here.
Links to teaching resources
Resources for schools to teach about personal safety, as part of PSHE education:
- Resources for schools to teach about CSE (On this site. Various sources, updated 2018)
- #knifefree lesson plans KS3 & 4 (Home Office, 2017)
- Keeping Safe Out and About. Lesson plans for Year 6 pupils. (Healthy Schools Islington, 2011) Lesson plans to support teaching about the risks of participating in anti-social behaviour, gangs and gang related behaviour and keeping safe in the local area.
- Run Hide and Tell resource packs for KS3&4 (ACT/PSHE Association, 2017) This resource pack was produced by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), as part of their ACT for YOUTH campaign to inform 11-16 year olds of how best to react to a gun or knife terror attack.
- The Ben Kinsella Trust Lesson plans that explore the real, lived experience of people affected by knife crime (KS2-4)
- An increase in knife crime. (Red Cross, 2018) Teaching materials to discuss how to defuse tension and avoid conflict, and the first aid for someone with a heavy bleed. (Ages 11-19).
- Neighbourhood Watch Serious Violence Campaign Toolkit A compilation of free campaign materials on a range of topics, which will help parents and other adults raise the subject with children, to try to stop them from carrying knives or other weapons.
Useful Links
British Values and Prevent (on this site)
Wiltshire Council Road Safety Education Services
Wiltshire Council Drug and Alcohol Misuse pages
Wiltshire Police: PSHE support
Home Office: County lines - protecting vulnerable people from exploitation: posters (2017)
Lives Not Knives - national campaign
Neighbourhood Watch - Building Safe Neighbourhoods
Rise Above pages for young people on smoking. alcohol and other drugs