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

Here at Manor Country Park you can:

  • Meet and feed the animals on our farmyard walk
  • Help milk the cows
  • Enjoy a river walk
  • Walk through the woods
  • Play at Barnfield, our extensive play area

Education

Boasts a wide variety of animals on the farm including pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs and other small animals. Free to all.

A family run farm that offers open farm days, alpaca experiences and birthday parties. Abbots View Alpacas is an excellent place to learn about these inquistive animals and take them for a walk around the farm’s 22 acres.

There are also miniature ponies to meet, plus pigs, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs.

Court Farm and Leisure has Fishing Lakes, Farm Shop & Pick Your Own and a Mountain Board Centre.

Foxburrow Farm is a mixed arable farm with a mosaic of wildlife habitats including ponds, woodlands, meadows and an old orchard alongside the cropped fields. The education facilities are centred on the traditional farmyard and include the barn classroom, toilets, covered activity areas and wildlife garden.

Belmont Children's Farm provides fun and education and easily accommodates school visits and parties.

Come and see the animals and at specific times participate in their daily care: you won’t even have to get your feet muddy! Kids can interact with the animals either in petting sessions or helping with their care, plus tractor rides available through the hidden valley.

Whether you want to just sit and watch the world go by or indulge in activities we have something for you at Clyne Farm.

This City Farm has lots of animals to cuddle, stroke and feed, horses to ride and they are a venue for birthdays too.

We are in the heart of London with all the sights, smells, sounds and experiences of rural life.

The collection of animals includes rare breed sheep, goats, alpacas and pigs, plus ferrets, rabbits and guinea pigs all ready and waiting for cuddles.

Mudchute Park and Farm isone of the largest inner City Farms anywhere in Europe. 32 acres of countryside in the middle of the Isle of Dogs to share with friendly furry and feathered creatures. There is also an outdoor play area in Milwall Park which is adjacent.

They have a collection of British rare breeds and over 200 animals and fowl on their farm!

Amerton Farm and Craft Centre and Playbarn is a farmyard with indoor adventure play area. It has a tractor track, rope bridge and barns on stilts connected with raised walkways. There is also a soft play area for children under 3 years of age, plus fun days and farm activities.

Get up close to animals in a real farmyard setting.

Visit the famous farm for the lambing weekends and have a truly unique experience! Ride the miniature railway and enjoy homemade refreshments!

Amnerfield Railway

Including such gems as Arty Party, play areas and the Children's Farm this is easily an afternoon's worth if you have the weather.

Not only can you see a wide variety of Children's Pets such as Rabbits and Guinea Pigs, there is also a large selection of various breeds of Poultry, Pygmy Goats, Ducks and Geese, Deer, Sheep and a kune kune pig.

An all weather fun farm experience for the whole family. Indoor play areas, adventure playground, lots of animals to see and cuddle, tractor and trailer rides and demonstrations daily. Plus great for residential and day school visits.

Rand Farm Park offers a high quality “hands on” fun and learning experience both for day and residential visitors of all ages and abilities.

Hands on working farm with animals to visit and adorable petting village

See cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, goats, lots of rabbit, geese and ducks.

Education Activities

Meet the Animals is held every day at 11 am and again at 2 pm, bottle and hand feeding of lambs and kids all year round, plus feeding the pigs and cattle, egg collecting, goat and ferret walking. A wonderful hands on experience and great fun.

An urban farm in the middle of Nottingham! Free to visit and open every day, with a number of animals both big and small; which you can feed, pet and handle; play park and picnic area; plus amenities such as cafe, shop and toilets.

School Trips

Young visitors have the opportunity to get close to a wide range of farm animals from the tiniest chickens to the statuesque Shire horses, with hands-on activities and play zones.

Plus indoor Egg Splat cannons and ride on tractors as well as two adventure play areas for different age groups and the tractor trailer ride.

City Farm with lots of hands-on farming activities to get stuck in to plus events and activities held regularly to encourage volunteers and help fund this charity project.

A nice little farm where you can meet and feed a variety of animals, including sheep,goats, pigs and chickens. Indoor play barn, pedal tractors, plus tractor and trailer rides around the farm. Dedicated area for children’s parties.

Following a £530,000 redevelopment, the Brooks Farm Outdoor Learning Centre re-opened to the public on the 12 August 2014.

A working 2.2 acre city farm in the heart of London with open animal yard, bee room, cafe, working blacksmith's forge and classrooms.

We hold special activities in school holidays such as baking and crafts as well as encouraging families to help out on the farm with some hands-on work experience!

School Visits to the Farm

The ruins of the medieval castle and Tudor manor house of the Corbets are dominated by the theatrical shell of an ambitious Elizabethan mansion wing in Italianate style, which was devastated during the Civil War. Fine Corbet monuments fill the adjacent church.

Information panels illustrate the 500-year history of the castle.

One of the most complete surviving Saxon churches in England, this chapel was built in 1056 by Earl Odda, and rediscovered in 1865 subsumed into a farmhouse. Nearby is the equally famous Saxon parish church.

A rare survival of a fine domestic chapel, built for William Horne in 1366 and attached to his timber-framed manor house, which was attacked during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Viewing only by prior arrangement.

History

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