University assesses impact of PSHE programme in local schools
The University of Huddersfield is helping West Yorkshire Police (WYP) to assess educational materials that can help children and young people make better choices over safety, the law and healthy relationships.
WYP instigated a programme called Pol-Ed that has been offered to all schools in West Yorkshire to support their Personal Social Health & Economic Education (PSHE). An unassessed part of the national curriculum, PSHE features for pupils throughout their education at primary and secondary level.
Through Pol-Ed, WYP has provided learning resources to around 500 of nearly 1,000 schools in West Yorkshire, and Dr Melanie Flynn – Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Policing – has looked at Pol-Ed’s impact to see where improvements can be made and how more schools might take it up.
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“We have been commissioned to do an initial assessment of the programme to see how it has been delivered to date, to help advise WYP on the extent to which Pol-Ed has penetrated schools in the region,” says Dr Flynn. “We are looking at potential improvements that the police can make to the programme for current users, and hopefully to get more schools using it.
“We are looking at perceived impacts on teachers that use the programme and how they perceive the benefit for pupils that have gone through the programme.”
All schools in West Yorkshire that were eligible to access Pol-Ed were surveyed, including those that have not used Pol-Ed yet. Dr Flynn presented her findings at the recent Pol-Ed Conference event at Headingley Stadium in Leeds, where stakeholders from education, law enforcement and local government were impressed by the research and how Pol-Ed is working. Since then, 10 interviews have also been undertaken with educators to inform the recommendations.
“We demonstrated to users that the resources can be tailored to their needs, Pol-Ed can be used as part of the PSHE curriculum or as an add-on,” Dr Flynn adds. “There was some evidence that knowledge retention for students was greater when they had had a Pol-Ed lesson rather than a standard PSHE lesson.
“Pol-Ed also improved staff confidence in delivering important and sensitive topics because there is a quality assurance behind it because the material is from the police, and that it is accurate and correct. It helped them tackle topics they are not expert in like gang violence, knife crime and cybercrime. Some schools did not realise the Pol-Ed materials are free , and it has improved young people’s perceptions of the police.”
The success of this initial research means that Dr Flynn now hopes to take the survey a stage further into a deeper analysis of Pol-Ed.
“We are putting in a bid with WYP to carry out a full one-year evaluation starting in September. We want to measure attitudinal, knowledge, and behavioural change as a result of people going through the programme, to see if it has made a difference to their knowledge of what is legal and illegal, dangerous behaviours, how to keep themselves safe, who to go to with a problem and developing healthy relationships.”
WYP will deliver a workshop to Secondary Trainee Teachers on campus in June, Sarah Ahmed, Head of Division for Secondary Initial Teacher Education, is delighted with the impact Pol-Ed could have on the University’s trainee teachers in such a relevant, real-world scenario,
“Pol-Ed empowers trainee teachers, and although our trainees are informed on Safeguarding and Prevent policies, Pol-Ed informs them of their legal rights on issues such as when in restraint or providing advice which promotes safe choices for young people.
We’re privileged to be part of this at a grassroots level so that our trainee teachers can qualify as teachers with enriched knowledge that will empower them both inside and outside of the classroom.
“Pol-Ed delivers a range of sessions from short form-period sessions to hour-long lessons. The Pol-Ed curriculum is truly modernised and allows young people to practice with real-life scenarios so that they are well-informed on how to make safe life choices. Learning how the law affects teachers, as well as young people, allows our future teachers to become autonomous practitioners.
“Pol-Ed is not just for the teachers of PSHE, but for every adult that has a duty of care for young people.”
Superintendent Jim Troisi of West Yorkshire Police and the Pol-Ed programme adds, "Mel has been instrumental in helping to identify the learning in relation to the Police Education Programme. She has laid the foundations for future partnership working with West Yorkshire Police and I’m looking forward to the longer term study which will demonstrate impact."