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

A series of striking and individual mosaics to act as way-markers on a pleasant 2 mile trail. Keeps kids running about between looking for the next one and giving that pleasure of discovery.

We have used exclusively recycled materials, many of them donated by local people, and hope that the creation of these way-markers will inspire visitors. 

With heathlands, woodlands and ponds, Yateley Common offers a variety of experiences to visitors. You can walk, cycle and horse ride through 193 hectares of varied and wildlife rich surroundings. The Common also offers visitors the opportunity to fish, bird watch, and get involved in practical conservation through volunteering.

For a fun-filled day out for all the family, or simply to enjoy the peace and quiet of acres of natural surroundings, take a fascinating journey of discovery through the living world of Plantasia & Mazeworld.   

Adventure playground, nature trails, accessible paths, sculpture trail and nature viewing platform. Plus excellent Discovery Packs for hire from the friendly visitor centre including a pond dipping kit and binoculars!

Welcome to The Nature Discovery centre, a visitor centre with beautiful lakes that adjoins Thatcham Reedbeds SSSI nature reserve. Children can  explore Cold Ash stream, follow a lakeside walk and enjoy close up experiences with many species of resident and migrating birds.

Considered by many to be the most beautiful lake in Wales, Lake Vyrnwy is tucked away in a landscape of rolling meadows, towering crags, rushing waterfalls, mysterious forest and moorland.

Rheilfford Mynydd Brycheiniog

Travel with smoke and steam in splendid Wales.

The line runs from Pant, near Merthyr Tydfil. Travel in one of our all-weather Observation Carriages, behind a vintage steam locomotive, into the Brecon Beacons National Park to see stunning views of the peaks of the Beacons across the Taf Fechan reservoir.

A scheduled ancient monument rich in domestic nostalgia

Before the discovery of natural gas in the North Sea, Britain’s gas was made from coal. Fakenham’s gas museum combines industrial archaeology with social and cultural history. It charts the first steps to light up homes and cities at night and to provide heating and domestic appliances. It also pays homage to an industry that between 1800 and 1970 employed over a million people.  

Known as the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, is one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court.

Founded in memory of the British film-maker Bill Douglas in 1994, this museum on Exeter University campus contains an enormous collection relating to the history of film and optical entertainment. 

Woodlands Outdoor Education Centre is located in the Wye valley on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park and the Black Mountains. The Centre offers a high standard of accommodation and is set within 10 acres of grounds which are developed for a range of activities. Th

The Royal Mint is a national treasure, making beautifully crafted coins and medals for countries all over the world. Over a thousand years of craftsmanship and artistry ensures every piece we strike is a long lasting piece of history.

Set in over 500 acres of historic deer park, Wollaton Hall is a spectacular Tudor building home to the city's Natural History Museum.

Also see the Industrial Museum, Steam Engine House, Wollaton Visitor Centre and the Yard Gallery, plus exhibitions exploring art and the environment.

A story-telling walking tour all about ghosts! Where they haunt, why they haunt, a bit of gore, some heritage and history - and you might even spot the real ghost who haunts our tours!

Great local museum which celebrates the culture and social history of the people of Lincolnshire from 1750 to the present day. There are a number of exhibits, which illustrate commercial, agricultural, industrial, and domestic life.

The Natural World Centre is a state of the art sustainably designed visitor centre within the beautiful 375 acre Whisby Nature Park, just to the south of Lincoln. 

This Iron Age settlement was originally occupied almost 2,000 years ago and is one of the finest examples of such in the country.

Maritime Museum

If you would like to discover more about Hull’s maritime heritage, come and enjoy free admission to the city’s Maritime Museum.

Find out all about St Neots in this small but fascinating museum. Free entry for local residents.

There is an interesting selction of photographs and objects, plus a number of hands on activities, which the kids will love.

The Historic Dockyard, Chatham is a fully accredited museum and partner in Renaissance South East, the South East Museum hub.

We collect, preserve, study and exhibit objects and material connected with the history of:

  • The people who worked in, or were associated with, Chatham Dockyard

This ruin of a 12th century castle in the grounds of a mansion, was built as a fortified palace and was in the ownership of the Church until the 16th century. Now a romantic ruin, in the grounds of the New Sherborne Castle, it is a great day out for all ages.

The tour of Stamford Bridge is not to be missed. Home of the incredible Chelsea Football Club, it’s a fun, informative and unforgettable experience enjoyed by sports fans of all ages from all over the world.

The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the University's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge.

The Dorset History Centre is the archives service and local studies library for Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole. We house Dorset's local archives - from council records to personal collections. Our online catalogue gives access to over 150,000 catalogue entries, with more being added all the time.

Learn all about how cheese is made through a guided tour of a working dairy, and get to try some of it too. Cheese Experience Days offered for those who want to have a go themselves.

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