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

Includes slides, ball pool, tunnels, climbing and seating area for parents. Suitable for up to eight years old. Attached to a leisure centre.

Bring the kids and get creating, in a super pottery studio and cafe with many activity options and a milkshake menu!

Small indoor adventure soft play facility within the garden centre, so you can tire them out having fun and exercise rendering them passive for shopping!

Combine an educational day out with a fun-filled trip to Gulliver’s World Theme Park!

Who says learning can’t be fun? We have put together some brilliant education packs that will show you how to create a fantastic educational experience at Gulliver's.

Take the lesson out of the classroom and onto the theme park. We have topics and ideas that will really engage your group.

The Axe Valley and Seaton museum has many varied collections concentrating on the history and events of the local area, with many photographs, from Victorian times, of Seaton, Beer and Axmouth.

A magnificent Georgian mansion and tranquil garden lie at the heart of this historic parkland

Saltram stands high above the River Plym in a rolling and wooded landscaped park that now provides precious green space on the outskirts of Plymouth. The House with its magnificent decoration and original contents was largely created between the 1740’s and 1820’s by three generations of the Parker family.

Energise is rated as 'Excellent' by Quest, which is Sport England's continuous improvement scheme to ensure quality-run leisure facilities. Only 30 centres out of over 650 in the UK hold this prestigious level.

The family chapel of the Roman Catholic Bodenham family. The originally simple medieval building has a fine Elizabethan timber roof, a rebuilt 18th century tower, and striking Victorian interior decoration and furnishings by the Pugins.

Make and paint your own ceramic creations, with help from friendly, experienced staff.

Combat play activities for older children. Paintball site minimum age is 12 years old. Laser Tag site is 8.

AJ Activities also known as Herefordshire Paintball offers paint balling for the over 12s, and Laser Tag, the bruise-less, mess-less version for over 8s.

These activities are played across varied terrain and incorporating a wide selection of game scenarios.

You can have lots of fun painting your own designs onto pottery, making it personal to you and your family creating a unique gift for you to use everyday or to keep as a treasured memento.

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery, housed in a spectacular Victorian gothic building, has been exhibiting artefacts and works of fine and decorative art connected with the local area since 1874. Although the exterior of the building has changed very little the museum and gallery have kept up with the times.

​Keyhunter is an entertaining puzzle-based live escape game; a new form of entertainment where you must escape from a room you are trapped in by finding hints and clues that point you to the right direction to solve various puzzles.

200 years of prison life

Visit us and learn about ‘life inside’ one of the world’s most famous and notorious jails. Our museum attracts more than 35,000 visitors every year from all over the world.

Visiting the Station in steam will provide a unique and unforgettable learning environment

Historic Victorian industrial building with many rare original engines and boilers. Children’s trail to follow, plus a Visitor Centre and mini museum to explore. Steaming Days held throughout the year.

Claymills Victorian Pumping Station will transport you and the kids more than 120 years into the past, when steam powered engines were being used in all aspects of Victorian life.

Foxhunting, Stilton Cheese and pork pies, local history, sporting art and much, much more!

Melton Carnegie Museum re-opened fully in late 2010 following a major building project which has created a new state-of-the-art gallery, study area and community space for museum activities, schools, volunteers and community groups.

Unique adventure playground and assault course, plus a stunning indoor play facility, scenic active adventure trail, fishing, cycle hire, plus big sand and water play, with small stream and water wheels, plus a climbing tower and giant slide.

The house is surrounded by a moat which is a big success with any kid to start! Plus follow the nature trail and spot wildlife from the bird-hide, have fun in the natural play area and discover new areas of the estate on their 3 orienteering courses!

If you are looking for something new to do with kids then why not try a self guided, themed Treasure Trail! They offer an imaginative and fun way to explore, and learn about, the great outdoors.

The answers to the clues are located on existing monuments, buildings and structures: some are easy to find, some are a little bit trickier! 

Extensive forest paths lead walkers through vast areas of mixed coniferous and broadleaf woodland. Path side vegetation management has provided the favoured habitats for butterflies and other flora and fauna. Follow the yellow waymarked path on an hour and a half walk around the forest to discover the variety.

Two million years of human history
One million artefacts
Countless astonishing stories

Archaeology and Anthropology are ways of knowing people past and present.

Exploration into science: Discover the story of planet Earth's coldest, driest, windiest, highest and deadliest places…

The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge, located on Trumpington Street in central Cambridge, England. It receives around 470,000 visitors annually.

Our collections include:

Classworks is a performing arts organisation committed to working with young people and the wider community. Drawing on a range of expertise and our extensive costume collection we produce projects and performances involving participants in every aspect of the creative process within a professional, safe and supportive environment.

Welcome to the Cambridge University Botanic Garden where you can discover plants from all over the world in 40 acres of beautiful gardens and glasshouses.

The Garden opens daily at 10am.

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