Anti-knife crime school lessons ahead of summer

The Home Office has been working with the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Association and teachers to create new and improved school curriculum materials on knife crime ahead of the summer holidays.

Twenty thousand PSHE teachers have been sent new lesson plans that will further equip them to challenge myths and communicate to their pupils the realities of carrying a knife.

Aimed at children aged between 11 and 16 years old, the hour-long lessons have been created in partnership with the PSHE Association and developed based on feedback from teachers.

Lesson plans feature real-life case studies of young people from the latest #knifefree campaign along with new content on the importance of having good role models.

The lessons explore how role models can influence young people’s attitudes, decisions and behaviour in positive ways and signpost young people towards support services and the #knifefree website. They also include the true story of Dean, a teenager who was arrested for carrying a knife but managed to turn his life around through meeting James, a worker at a local support centre.

In addition to the government’s ongoing engagement with schools and youth organisations, the Home Office has appointed the charitable foundation Impetus to manage its £200 million Youth Endowment Fund to help prevent young people being drawn into a life of crime and violence.

The Home Office also has a £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales.

(Published by the Home Office: 5 June 2019)