PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)

PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)

Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) can mean all things to all people, but in a positive way. It enables schools to analyse what they offer to students and to use PSHE programmes to provide the final rounded curriculum. This is not easy as PSHE is not so much a ‘subject’ as a group of learning experiences that need careful binding together lest they become amorphous.

PSHE at its best brings emotional literacy, social skills and healthy attitudes to the core studies of the history, economic state and social make-up of the local and wider community

Ofsted has praised some schools’ multi-faceted approaches to creating a caring and coherent school and reaching out to the local communities, and some schools for delivering sex and relations programmes effectively, and some for their commitment to equality and diversity. Visits and activities outside the classroom can act not only as focal points for a school’s work but as catalysts to reinforce the messages contained in the courses.

In some ways it does not matter where the visit is to. The importance is how well they are planned, the matching of the experiences to the aim, and the enthusiasm staff and students bring to it.

So, typically learning for PSHE takes place whilst undertaking other activities. Here we list a range of ideas which the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom suggest as activities which can engender excellent experiences to benefit students in this area.

Attitudes and values

  • Talking about an object in a museum, or visiting a place of worship can give insight into issues, other cultures or periods of history.
  • Creating your own work of art can give rise to explorations and understandings about the world and our place in it
  • A visit to a farm can stimulate debate about animal husbandry and food production, and provide a context for designing a Fairtrade enterprise.
  • Adventure education can provide opportunities to show different skills, such as leadership or teamwork.
  • Seeing a play on the stage can bring a text alive and stimulate conversations about the values and actions of the characters.
  • A residential can provide a different setting for conversations about what we believe and what we think is important.

Confidence and resilience

  • Learning a new skill, such as map-reading or how to look at a painting, builds independence and confidence.
  • Adventure education enables young people to test themselves in various ways and develop new aptitudes and dispositions.
  • For young people with disabilities, a residential trip can foster independence and give them a rare opportunity to build close relationships outside the family.
  • Planning their own experience or activity helps young people to gain confidence in a wide range of project planning skills.  It can develop resilience in dealing with conflicting opinions, and in finding solutions to project challenges.

Communication and social skills

  • A drama workshop requires teamwork and helps, to strengthen friendship groups.
  • A residential experience enables staff to get to know young people, and young people get to know each other, discovering different aspects of each others’ personalities.
  • An experience, such as visiting a power station, stimulates discussion and encourages young people to share ideas and opinions.
  • A musical performance gives young people a feeling of achievement and a sense of personal success.
  • Young people planning their own programme or activities gives them voice and choice and ensures their active involvement.
  • Undertaking voluntary work in the community gives young people a sense of making a positive contribution.

Knowledge of the world beyond the classroom

  • Young people who live in the country may encounter a town or city for the first time or vice versa.
  • Environmentalists, town planners, artists, curators, scientists, politicians, musicians, dancers and actors can all act as new and powerful role models.
  • Going to an arts venue can encourage young people to try the experience again.
  • Recording the reminiscences of older people gives young people new insight into their community, and brings historical events alive.
  • Going to a local civic institution like a town hall builds knowledge of how communities function.
  • A school or youth council enables young people to learn about and participate in democratic processes
  • Visiting the library enables young people to find out what they have to offer – apart from lending books.
  • Children and young people with profound learning difficulties and disabilities may not often experience visits to galleries, concerts or the countryside because of the difficulties of transport and personal care which parents have to consider and cannot always manage alone. Educational visits may provide the only means for these young people to have such experiences.

Physical development and well-being

  • Visiting a park, field studies centre or making a school garden all provide physical activity and develop an interest in the environment.
  • Participating in recreational activities help to develop physical well-being and the growth of confidence.
  • Many learning outside the classroom activities can also provide attractive alternatives to competitive sports and can lead to a lifelong interest in healthy physical recreation.

Emotional spiritual and moral development

  • An integrated dance workshop with able bodied and disabled participants can help young people empathise and develop awareness of disability.
  • Activities in the natural environment can encourage a feeling of awe and wonder, and an appreciation of silence and solitude.
  • Visiting a place of worship develops an understanding of religion, reflection and spirituality.
  • Engaging with young people in conversations about values and beliefs, right and wrong, good and bad supports their moral development.

Main organisations:

PSHE Association

National Centre for Citizenship and the Law

Inclusion: NASEN

Venues for this Curriculum

Totnes Fashions and Textiles Museum houses the Devonshire Collection of Period Costume, which contains clothing for men, women and children from the eighteenth century to the twentyfirst century.

A themed exhibition, which is changed annually, is displayed in the most intact Tudor Merchant's House in Totnes.

Come and enjoy Spetchley, one of Britain's best kept secrets! Just three miles east of the beautiful cathedral city of Worcester and surrounded by glorious countryside, is the beautiful and romantic garden of Spetchley Park.

Tamworth Snowdome is a real indoor ski slope welcoming schools and families.

The 170 metre main slope and the two Snow Academy areas (separate 30 metre and 25 metre teaching slopes) offer a wide variety of skiing and snowboarding lessons and sessions.

You can also ice skate or even toboggan or tube!

Arrow Valley Visitor Centre, recently refurbished to a very high standard, offers a conference facility and a large comfortable mezzanine area suitable for parties, meals, receptions and other informal functions.

The newly refurbished Harborough Museum is home to the Hallaton Treasure, discovered in 2000 and one of the most important Iron Age finds in Britain.

The museum celebrates Market Harborough’s long history as a centre of trade and industry in the heart of the Welland Valley at the crossroads between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

Housed in the magnificent Boathouse 6, Action Stations offers a wide range of interactive displays and completes the Dockyard story by bringing visitors within reach of today's modern high-tech Royal Navy.

A PAULTON'S VISIT INCLUDES…

  • The chance to visit our brand-new interactive lab
  • 60+ theme park rides and attractions
  • A choice of curriculum based workshops
  • Explore gardens, birds and animals
  • Free downloadable resources
The All-Action Theme Park

Twinlakes Park offers the very best in family entertainment jam-packed with a breath-taking variety of family Rides, Attractions, Animals and even a Waterpark!

Set in 70 acres of glorious countryside, where you'll find unlimited action and play zones, a massive 125,000sqft indoors plus rides and attractions galore. All weather action all year round!

The fine twin-towered gatehouse of this castle, built by Edward I in 1292, once defended a crossbow bolt factory which used local Forest of Dean iron. Once a prison, it is now a youth hostel in wonderful walking country.

St Briavel’s was an important royal castle on the frontier with Wales and the administrative and judicial centre of the Forest of Dean.

Unforgettable adventures ideal for upper primary, secondary and further education groups

Longtown has a superb, scenic rural setting right at the foot of the Black Mountains, and the Centre is set in sixteen acres of traditional farmland which slope down to the river Monnow.

The police museum was set up in the 1980s to explain and illustrate Northern Ireland's unique and often contentious policing history. Our collection includes police uniforms, equipment, medals and archives from the early 1800s to the present day and also weapons used against the police over the years.

Garvagh Museum is unique in Northern Ireland in that it is a rural Folk Museum in the Bann Valley. It had its origins when artefacts collected from the town and district were housed in a small building adjoining Garvagh Secondary School. When the collection out grew the space, a new building was erected by enterprise Ulster, with the generous support of local businesses and others.

The Somme Heritage Centre opened in 1994 as an educational facility and tourist attraction. It examines Ireland's role in the Great War with special reference to local cross-community involvement in the three volunteer Divisions raised in Ireland: the 10th and 16th (Irish) Divisions, and the 36th (Ulster) Division.

Our Award Winning outdoor Activity Centre awaits you. All you have to do is come out and play!

The museum is housed in a grade B+ Sovereign's House. The Eagle Takers Gallery won the Best Exhibition in Ireland in 2003. The collection contains the uniforms, medals, regalia and the two Victoria Crosses won by the Regiment. The Regimental archive and library may be viewed by appointment.

Carrickfergus is the most archaeologically explored town in Northern Ireland. The finds on display at Carrickfergus Museum provide a remarkable glimpse into life in the town from the Medieval period to more recent times.

Welcome to Ireland's leading centre for Astonomical Education

Armagh Planetarium was established by the seventh director of Armagh Observatory, Dr. Eric Mervyn Lindsay, who, after 25 years of effort, secured funding from local councils and the Ministry of Commerce of Northern Ireland in 1965. In the same year, Patrick Moore was appointed as Director of the Planetarium to oversee its construction.

Flame gasworks is Ireland's sole surviving coal gasworks and is one of only three left in the British Isles. Opened in 1855, it supplied Carrickfergus with gas until 1965 and was closed in 1987. It is now fully restored and was reopened as a visitor and educational attraction in August 2002.

The RPSI is an all-island body, run by volunteers, which preserves steam and diesel powered railway locomotives, carriages and other equipment from all over Ireland and uses them for passenger excursions on the Irish railway network. RPSI steam trains carry passengers to places as far apart as Portrush and Tralee, Rosslare and Bangor.

Explore. Engage. Enjoy.

Across four unique sites, we care for and present inspirational collections that reflect the creativity, innovation, history, culture and people of Northern Ireland.

The Live & Learn Project

Children here can play in amongst the interesting jets, Silly Showers and other interactive wet play features during summer: great idea if you are looking for summer family days out in Northamptonshire.

Super adventure playground with a seasonal paddling pool for the smaller ones. Also boasts tennis courts, a skate park and seasonal crazy golf.

Paul's Pirates is an indoor play area in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. We are a family run business with a fun filled pirate ship for children to play on - including a ball pool, 2 slides, swings ropes, mangle, stepping stones, shooting canons, rope bridge and much more!

The indoor play area consists of a giant play frame, toddler play frame,sports arena, bouncy castle and much more. Outside there is another play frame and a sandpit, with further outdoor attractions too.

The indoor play area consists of a giant play frame, toddler play frame, sports arena, bouncy castle and much more.

Fareham’s local museum, tells the story of the Borough. Set in a fabulous Georgian building, the museum is right in the heart of Fareham. There are regular exhibitions and free family activities all year round and during the school holidays.

School visits to Westbury Manor Museum

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