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

This traditional Highland crofting estate is a diverse mix of Scotland?s most beautiful landscapes. It encompasses croft and farm land, woodland, moorland, villages, coastline, saltmarsh, lochs and offshore islands, and offers stunning views across the water to the mountains of Skye and Applecross.

Enjoy the splash of the waterwheel and the sound and smell of grinding corn in this picturesque 19th-century working mill. There is an exhibition on the historical role of the mill and a delightful walkway alongside the mill lade. Schools are welcome by prior appointment. Please allow a minimum of 1 hour for a guided tour which will include a milling demonstration.

A farmed landscape with wonderful walks and great coastal views

There's lots of variety to explore on the Mottistone Estate which stretches from the chalk downs through rolling hedge lined farmland to the sea.

There is a car park and bus stop next to Mottistone Manor Garden which is a good place to start your visit. It's a great place to walk with many well marked paths to choose from and good expanses of open downland to wander freely over.

Framed amid typically spectacular Highland scenery at the head of Loch Shiel with sweeping glens as a backdrop, stands this poignant monument to the final Jacobite Rising.

A Visitor Centre tells the full story of the '45. Come along, take in the view and prepared to be stirred by this tumultuous chapter in Scotland's history which could well have been a global turning point.

Magnificent medieval fortress of the Welsh Marches

A stark symbol of power, Chirk Castle was completed in 1310 during the reign of the conquering Edward I to subdue the last princes of Wales. Built on an outcrop above the meeting point of the rivers Dee and Ceiriog, the imposing silhouette of the castle was a brooding statement of English intent in these disputed lands.

The Manx Museum is bursting with artefacts and treasures unique to the Isle of Man.  The Island’s 10,000 year history is presented through film, galleries and interactive displays. The perfect starting point on your journey of discovery around our Island and its Viking and Celtic past.

Our favourite resort to explore the great outdoors. Minehead is a beautiful seaside town in the heart of Exmoor in Somerset. Here’s where you’ll find our contemporary Blueskies Apartments, some lovely new restaurants and a beautiful sandy beach right on your doorstep.

Beautiful lakeside park offering, windsurfing, sailing, canoeing, water skiing, wakeboarding, cycle hire, fishing, miniature railway, mini golf and playground! Wow!

There are beginner and improver tuition sessions available for every kind of activity, plus taster days and other options so you can try your hand at several new skills before deciding which to pursue with full gusto!

Dudley Leisure Centre is a modern leisure complex centrally situated in the town of Dudley. Comprising of pools, sports halls, fitness suite, squash courts & rooms, the centre caters for sports, fitness and recreation activities. Our facilities also allow us to cater for meetings, birthday parties & functions.

Gym

A great park with a formal area, plus a wildlife conservation area. It also has a brook, duckpond, bandstand, and playgrounds with separate areas for different ages. Splashpad for kids in the summer. Free to visit.

Enjoy beautiful Stratford from the river with us at Avon Boating.

The Avon winds gently through the town, surrounded on both banks by green parkland and flower filled gardens.

Seasonal pool offering an interactive water feature in the main swim area plus learner pool for kids, plus changing with showers. Tennis, mini golf and playground nearby.

The Abbey Meadow Lido is a heated 40m outdoor pool situated in scenic surrounds on the bank of the river Thames, accessible by boat if you happen to have one, with moorings adjacent.

We are an indoor centre which provides a wide range of activities specifically suited to families - we have two swimming pools (one with flume ride and features), a large sports hall for ball games and racquet sports, and a soft play area called Jungle Junction.

Great standard swimming pool but the Tiger Pool comes complete with Octopus slide and interactive water features, waterfalls, squirty fish, water dams and tipping bucket, making it suitable for the whole family.

Grassy slopes, the lake, historic buildings, old trees and hedges recall Abbey Fields’ past, while the new play area contributes to the modern side with a fully fenced in zone for the little ones to run wild on the equipment. 

Adjacent there is also a 25-metre heated indoor pool and outdoor pool in the summer.

Big park with historical features, plus playground and fitness trail, Abington Park Museum and also features a specific garden for the blind.

Abington Park sits on the site of a medieval village, with some buildings surviving over seven centuries.

Swimming pool featuring a wave machine, giant flume ride, parent and toddler sessions and lane swimming.

Woodland, heathland, farmland, parkland and Leith Hill Place, home of composer Vaughan Williams

Leith Hill is the highest point in Southeast England and is set within the beautiful Surrey

A tree-lined riverside park for families and sport

Offers several adventure play areas with a wide range of equipment, summer paddling pool and loads of sports space including 10 all weather tennis courts, bowls and cricket, plus the half mile circuit.

Victoria Park was opened to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1899 and still fulfils a vital role in the community's recreation and leisure.

Indoor Lagoon themed swimming pool with pirate ship play feature for under 8s, 3 giant water slide, wave machine, watercannon and hydroslide.

Under its distinctive dome, the Oasis leisure pool recreates a tropical environment for swimming and water play suited to the whole family.

Cusworth Hall has been described as the jewel in Doncaster’s crown. The beautiful grade 1 listed building is set in acres of historic parkland with lakes, plantations and pleasure ground with dramatic views across the town.

One of the finest surviving medieval halls which contains the legendary Round Table.

Round Table

The Round Table has been famous for centuries for its links with the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Queen Eleanor's Garden

A re-creation of an enclosed medieval garden.

Schools

20 acres of peaceful parkland located in the heart of Potters Bar

The story of Morven Park begins as early as the 14th century. The medieval town of Potters Bar - on the edge of Hertfordshire - was the site of a toll along the Great North Road. The remains of this original settlement; the toll house and the old Great North Road are buried beneath Morven’s grounds.

Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester is home to the Lancashire County Cricket Club Museum.

Lancashire cricket history dates back to the Manchester Cricket Club, set up in the early 19th century. The county side was established in 1864.

With the timeline wall, habitat and church trails, adventure play areas and wide open country side, if you've got kids that like to run and run this one is for you!

The area was originally a gravel works, but has now been transformed into an attractive parkland setting covering 200 acres which is welcoming to visitors and encourages peace and relaxation.

Pages

Login/Sign Up

Latest News

Schoolboy Falls From 60ft Cliff on School Trip

A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.