1. PSHE education: the big picture
The importance of our work to children and young peoples’ futures – a very personal view of ‘what’s worrying me now’ – Liverpool 2016
Nick Boddington BA (Hons) MEd MSc – Subject Lead

2. Me…in 1968 and 1969 Kubrick and Clarke’s 2001 A Space Odyssey
My grandmother, The Wright Brothers and Neil Armstrong
An unexpected direction….

3. The Education Reform Act
Under section 78 of the Education Act 2002 and the Academies Act 2010 provide a curriculum that is broadly based, balanced and meets the needs of all pupils and must
prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

4. The ‘Holy Grail of PSHEe’
‘To provide children and young people with the knowledge, language, skills, strategies shaped by a values system that they can access at the moment when they need it’
But there is a problem – accessing prior learning is about making neural connections and they are linked to context – and life ‘comes at us unexpectedly’.

5. The big question
Will the accumulation of academic qualifications alone adequately prepare young people for what is happening right now and for what is coming?
Do we provide ‘schooling’ or ‘education’? (Prof. Guy Claxton)

6. So what can we say with any certainty
We are not very good at predicting the ‘minutia’ of the future – except that computing power will continue to grow at an increasing rate
Our 5 year olds will be entering the labour market in 2034
We can’t predict with any certainty the nature of the opportunities, responsibilities or employment in their later lives
We can predict that many of our key stage one children will be alive in 2100 (possibly longer – possibly far, far longer)
We can predict that change will continue to accelerate

7. Kurzweil’s ‘Law of accelerating returns’
‘An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).’ Ray Kurzweil - Director of Engineering at Google
Even Kurzweil is 95% wrong it could still be 1000 years (imagine dropping an Anglo Saxon from 1066 into 2016.)
‘Future shock’ (Postman 1963) - ‘..the social paralysis induced by rapid technological change.’ Parents and carers are really struggling.
Change isn’t new – the pace of change is.

8. The fourth industrial revolution
– steam, water, mechanical production equipment
– division of labour, electricity, mass production
– Electronics, IT, automated production
4. Now – ‘Cyber physical’ systems
Connectivity, processing power, storage capacity and access to knowledge amplified through…
AI and robotics, ‘The Internet of Things’, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy storage. (The rise of ‘dark factories’)

9. The fourth industrial revolution – for example
35% of jobs in the UK could be susceptible to computerisation or automation in the next two decades – increasingly in cognitive areas of work.
Low-skill workers will reallocate to tasks that are non-susceptible to computerisation – i.e., tasks requiring creative and social intelligence. For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills.
Frey and Osborne 2013 The future of employment Oxford University

10. If we can’t predict the ‘knowledge’ – how about the skills?
Leadership – being able to foster collaboration, work towards common goals and act as a leader in any role they assume
Digital literacy – locate, critically review, utilise and create new information – especially being able to separate ‘fact’, ‘opinion’ and ‘rumour’ and being ‘digitally hygienic’
Communication – openly, honestly and safely share information in a way that creates mutual understanding across cultures, most fundamental - ‘active listening’
Curiosity and imagination – knowing the questions to ask

11. Cont…
Emotional intelligence – intra (understanding and managing myself) and interpersonal skills (understanding others and managing my relationships)
Initiative, entrepreneurship and ‘intra-preneurship’ – creativity, drive, innovation, passion
Global citizenship – if you do business online – you are an international business.
Critical thinking, problem solving (including risk management) and team working
Managing change – agility, adaptability and resilience

12. Cont…
Skilled at learning; have a love of learning; take personal responsibility for learning and be open to new ways of learning
To be ‘open minded to new ideas’ but also having the ‘filters’ that enables you to be a ‘critical consumer of information’

15. But doesn’t the whole curriculum build these?
Yes – but PSHE education is different from other subjects - we explicitly develop these within the context of pupils’ ‘real lives’
Developing these skills are our core business.

16. For example
Pupils work in teams in all subjects butin most cases it is the focus is on the product of their
In PSHEe we ask ‘How did you work well together; what behaviours helped you; what got in the way; what could people say and do differently next time you work together’ We focus on the process.

17. ‘PSHE education underpins academic attainment’
‘Soft skills’ help to boost academic success and career progression: they increase academic performance by 11% (Society for Research in Child Development 2011) and are as important as academic ability in predicting earnings at age 30 (Demos 2011).
Neil Carberry, CBI’s director for employment and skills (Jan 2015) puts it: “Developing the right attitudes and attributes in people – such as resilience, respect, enthusiasm and creativity – is just as important as academic and technical skills.’
All 10 of the ‘outstanding schools’ we case studied (2015) stated their investment in high quality PSHE education had significantly contributed to their overall judgement.

18. Final thoughts… ‘Soft skills’ contribute £88 billion to the UK economy
by 2020 over ½ million UK workers will be significantly held back by a lack of ‘soft skills’
97% of UK businesses believe ‘soft skills’ are critical.
PSHE can be timeless: keeping children healthy and safe long beyond 2015.

19. A sense of perspective www.pshe-association.org.uk

20. A sense of perspective www.pshe-association.org.uk

21. And one to take away
By 2034 there will be 8.7 billion human beings living together on that pale blue dot.
They will all need to work together to manage the challenges that are coming.
We in PSHE education located within healthy schools have never had more important role to play in preparing our children for their ‘future lives’.