Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including self-defence on the curriculum in secondary schools.

The updated relationships sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance, which all schools will be following from this term, is clear that secondary pupils should learn how to develop key social and emotional skills that will increase pupils’ safety from involvement in conflict and violence. These include skills to support self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and responsible decision making, relationship skills, and skills to recognise and manage peer pressure, that collectively keep young people safe.

Schools may choose to provide self-defence or martial arts within their wider curriculum, but neither is prescribed by the national curriculum.