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

Funland Amusement Park offers the whole family a great day out with a wide range of fantastic attractions for young and old, both inside and out.

Skegness is a lovely traditional coastal town in Lincolnshire. This is where Butlins all started back in 1936 but a lot has changed since then! You’ll find some lovely restaurants and a beautiful blue flag sandy beach right on your doorstep.

The miles of tracks offer an opportunity to explore some of Dorset's internationally important heathland and its rare wildlife.

Explore a unique Hilltop Park via a thrilling Cable Car ride. Once at the Summit enjoy going underground on tours of two Show Caverns. In the Exhibitions get to touch a dinosaur fossil and see video shows, then burn off energy on the 2 play areas!

The Guards Museum is an excellent place to take your little (and large!) military buffs, plus anyone who would like to find out about the role of Foot Guards through history.

One of a number of forts built in the 1850s and 1860s to protect Portsmouth and its vital harbour against a French invasion. Largely unaltered, the parade ground, gun ramps and moated keep can all be viewed.

Pendennis Castle is one of the finest of the mighty fortresses built by Henry VIII to defend the country against invasion. The castle has seen action in many conflicts and was one of the last royalist strongholds to fall during the English Civil War. Visitors can transport themselves back to Tudor times and right through the First and Second World Wars in a packed day out.

A charming museum where you can discover the many different aspects of the apple and what can be done with it, including the cider making process. Historical artefacts, vintage film clips, plus other memorabilia to see.

English Heritage's only Nonconformist place of worship, this atmospheric Baptist chapel displays a complete set of box-pews, galleries and pulpit dating from c. 1742 to 1809. A festival of hymns and sermons is held on the first Sunday in July.

History

The Cathedral is open every day - see the memorial stone for King Richard III, discover the ministry of the Cathedral and find out more about the story of Leicester. A trail and exhibition is provided throughout the week with regular Cathedral tours.

Among the largest sepulchral chapels attached to any English church, this cruciform mausoleum houses a remarkable sequence of 17 sculpted and effigied monuments, spanning nearly two and a half centuries (1614-1859), to the De Grey family of Wrest Park.

We offer safe, exciting and educational holidays for young people. A place where children can meet new friends, build confidence, develop social skills and gain wonderful memories. 

A place where parents and teachers can be sure their children are well cared for and are receiving high quality activities and English tuition.

Welcome to Bring Yer Wellies! We provide fun and engaging outdoor learning for school trips and children’s parties in a unique, hands-on outdoor countryside environment. 

We provide a whole range of educational visits and childrens’ parties in a unique outdoor countryside location in Hoghton, Lancashire.

One of the largest, most impressive and most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. Built in around 3650 BC, it was used for a short time as a burial chamber, nearly 50 people being buried here before the chambers were blocked. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.

Begun in about 3000 BC, the Sanctuary was originally a complex circular arrangement of timber posts, which were later replaced by stones. These components are now indicated by concrete slabs.

Torrington 1646 is an all weather educational facility for schools that makes history fun! Travel back to the 17th Century with our costumed characters and experience life in Torrington during the English Civil War. See how people lived, loved, laughed and lied their way through the English Civil War.

An 'avenue', originally of around 100 pairs of prehistoric standing stones, raised to form a winding 1 1⁄2 mile ritual link between the pre-existing monuments of Avebury and The Sanctuary. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.

The Museum of English Rural Life houses the most comprehensive national collection of objects, books and archives relating to the history of food, farming and the countryside.

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum offers fun and inspiring primary visits and outreach sessions covering literacy, history and more. Meet Kitty and Lucy the family servants, find out how books are made with Michael Johnson, handle original objects, dress up as a Georgian, join Hodge's Alphabet Hunt and make your own Dictionary!

Superb early 18th-century mansion with unique family history

Discover the story of a family who became caught up in the extraordinary events of the English Civil War. Their history is bound up in this beautiful house, which is still the home of the Carew Pole family today.

These two five-storey 16th and 17th century merchants' houses which now also house English Heritage's regional office - are fine examples of Jacobean domestic architecture.

The Surtees house is best known as the scene of the elopement of Bessie with John Scott, later Lord Chancellor of England. An exhibition illustrating the history of the houses is on the first floor.

Chiswick House is among the most glorious examples of 18th century British architecture and makes a fascinating day out in West London. The third Earl of Burlington, who designed this noble Roman-style Palladian villa, drew inspiration from his ‘grand tours’ of Italy.

This charming cottage-like 17th century conduit house, with vaulted stone-slab roof, once supplied water to Bolsover Castle.

The Cundy House was built in the early 17th century to provide a water supply for Bolsover Castle, about 300 metres (328 yards) away.

The name ‘Cundy’ is a corruption of the French word ‘conduit’, or water pipe. 

Milford House Museum is located at 57 William Street. Housing an old master paintings, beautiful furnishing and family possessions. Discover the extraordinary world of Milford House and the people who lived there. Across the street is the William McCrum Park where football's penalty kick was invented.

Mount Edgcumbe House is the former home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. Set in Grade I Cornish Gardens within 865 acres Country Park on the Rame Peninsula, South East Cornwall.

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