School students across England are to benefit from extra lessons on the dangers of carrying knives.

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.

Yesterday, 20,000 PSHE teachers were 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.

“Early intervention is a key part of our Serious Violence Strategy and it’s vital that we give young people the tools and resilience to keep themselves safe over the summer holidays.

I’m pleased that our current lessons on knife crime have proved successful and that we are able to strengthen them even further, and I’d like to thank every teacher who has taken the time to deliver them.“

Victoria Atkins, Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability

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.

“We are pleased to build on the popular #knifefree PSHE teaching resources we produced with the Home Office last year.

These new materials are designed to challenge inaccurate perceptions about knife crime, help young people develop the confidence to resist pressure to carry knives, and to recognise positive role models. We encourage all schools to download and deliver these free materials.“

Jonathan Baggaley, PSHE Association Chief Executive

Current lessons on knife crime that were developed by the Home Office and the PSHE Association have been downloaded over 14,000 times since they were introduced in July last year.

This action follows a recent relaunch of the #KnifeFree campaign, which aims to discourage teenagers from carrying knives through sharing real-life stories.

Help & Support

Whether you carry a knife, are thinking about carrying, or are worried about someone you know getting involved with knives – there is help and support available. It can be a tough thing to do, but support is there to help anyone join the millions of young people who live knife free.

Victim Support if you need support to move forward after being affected by crime; regardless of how long ago the crime took place, or if it has been reported or not.

Childline offer counselors for young people 24 hours a day to support any issue they are going through.

Fearless is a service which lets you pass on information about crime 100% anonymously.