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 powerful thick-walled round keep dating from around 1200, characteristic of the Welsh Borders, on a large earthen mound within a stonewalled bailey. Set in the beautiful Olchon valley, with magnificent views of the Black Mountains.

A Wonderful Wetland

Britain's largest dune loch is a joy to visit any time of year. In winter, thousands of wild geese, swans and ducks fly in, including 20 per cent of the world's population of pink-footed geese – it's a sight you'll never forget.

Saltaire Village is near Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill, known as Salts Mill and this village on the River Aire.

Designed by architects, Lockwood and Mawson, Salts Mill was opened on Sir Titus Salt's 50th birthday, 20 September 1853.

HMS Warrior, launched in 1860, was the pride of Queen Victoria's fleet. Powered by steam and sail, she was Britain's first iron-hulled, armoured warship and the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her day. Warrior was, in her time, the ultimate deterrent, yet within a few years became obsolete.

The trust has its headquarters in Thorn Park Lodge, Thorn Park, Plymouth. At the lodge is a pharmaceutical library, a collection of materia medica (used in the past for making pharmaceutical preparations) an extensive collection of artefacts and old fashioned proprietary goods.

Wayland's Smithy is an atmospheric historic site situated approximately 2km along the Ridgeway from the Uffington White Horse. A Neolithic chambered long barrow, it was once believed to have been the habitation of the Saxon smith-god Wayland.

The London Film Museum is now the venue for the Bond in Motion Collection, including the famous Lotus Esprit (as a submarine!). This is a chance for movie (and car) fans young and old to see some of the most iconic film vehicles of all time.

Remote late 17th-century Baptist chapel at Gunby Hall Estate

Built in a time of dissent and persecution, this unique secluded chapel was designed to look like a farmyard barn in order to avoid being discovered. Built in 1701 and refurbished in 1840, the chapel has a modest interior and a rare open air baptistry in its grounds.

The Home of Seahenge

This recently re-furbished town museum tells the story of Kings Lynn and west Norfolk. Gleaming display cases are packed with objects from the area’s colourful past including collections of pilgrim’s badges, maritime treasures and a fantastic hoard of Iceni gold coins. 

From the tiny clockwork Musical Box to the self playing ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’, the collection embraces an impressive and fascinating array that will enchant most children.

Wide-ranging displays of aircraft, aviation archaeology and more from World War I to the Falklands and Iraq wars.

A most unusual living museum, where amongst other things you can watch troopers working with horses in the original 18th century stables through a huge glass partition.

Through a large glazed partition you can see troopers working with horses in the original 18th century stables.

Explore London's connections with the rest of the world through an epic 2,000-year story of trade, expansion and immigration.

A place to come and unleash (or even discover) your creative talents

Choose from our wide range of plain bisque shapes to paint and create your own pottery masterpiece to be treasured.

This charming well-house, built about 1500, stands over an ancient spring, believed to cure whooping cough.

Built by the Augustinian canons of nearby St Germans priory, it houses the remains of an immersion pool for cure-seekers.

White Castle is the best preserved of the Three Castles, namely, White, Skenfrith and Grosmont. The heart of this castle is surrounded by powerful round towers.

The Three Castles are usually grouped together because for a large part of their history they were part of a block of territory under the control of a single lord, Hubert de Burgh.

Coldharbour Mill, built in 1799 as the first Spinning Mill in the South West, preserves a collection of Victorian Spinning Frames for the Worsted process & Hattersley Looms, still in use to produce Knitting Yarns, Tartan Cloth and Stair Runners.

Fairytale Georgian castle in magical surroundings, with Deer Park, Lake and Arboretum, Children's Adventure Playground and Assault Course, Knight's Maze and Burma Bridge Tree Top Walkway.

Inside this family home you'll find richly decorated Gothic interiors, Fine Art, Armour and much more.

Time really does stand still at Brodsworth Hall, one of the most unusual visitor attractions in South Yorkshire.

The ruins of a substantial early medieval moated manor house, built in local flint: a rare surviving example of a grand 12th century manor house, and a typical example of an East Anglian 'great house'.

The Priory Theatre is a community-run theatre in Kenilworth, Warwickshire producing our own in-house shows. From drama to comedy, crime thrillers, musicals and pantomimes, there's something for everyone to enjoy.

Life at Crich Tramway Village is rich and varied and is illustrated by the wide range of events and special occasions we hold throughout the year.

Our recreations of the 1940s and Edwardian Era all add their own unique atmosphere to Crich Tramway Village, as you are transported back in time.

Crownhill Fort was built in 1872 as the centrepiece of Plymouth's North Eastern Defences. Designed to protect the Dockyard from a landward invasion, advances in artillery soon made the Fort obsolete. 

Now owned by The Landmark Trust, the Fort is home to 15 small businesses, a holiday apartment, event spaces and an Education Centre. 

Step back in time in and uncover a way of life from 100 years ago. Discover cottages, farms, schools and shops as you wander through the beautiful parkland of the Folk Museum chatting to costumed visitor guides demonstrating traditional crafts.

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