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 400-year-old castle in the former mill town of Menstrie at the foot of the Ochil Hills is part of the Clackmannanshire Tower Trail.

The ground floor houses a fascinating slice of Scottish-Canadian history in a museum dedicated to the founding of Nova Scotia by Sir William Alexander, who was born here in 1577.

Roman Legionary Fortress and British Tribal City

VIROCONIVM CORNOVIORVM

Stratford's premier cinema.

A grand country house near Glasgow city centre, Pollok House is Scotland's answer to Downton Abbey and gives a real taste of upstairs/downstairs life in the 1930s.

Children can learn through activity what it was like to live in the House and be a servant in Victorian times. Cost £2 per head (or £1 per child if your school has an educational membership of the Trust).

Ever wanted to see behind the scenes at the home of Stoke City Football Club? Well now you can!

Tours of the Britannia Stadium are available throughout the week and give supporters full access to rooms and suites that most will have never seen before.

Set in the peaceful Wiltshire countryside beside a lake, Old Wardour Castle, near Tisbury was once one of the most daring and innovative homes in Britain. It was built in the 14th century as a lightly fortified luxury residence for comfortable living and lavish entertainment. Today the castle ruin provides a relaxed, romantic day out for couples, families and budding historians alike.

Oystermouth Castle sits majestically on the hill in Mumbles with stunning views overlooking Swansea Bay.

Come and explore parts of the castle that have been hidden away for centuries, and learn about the castle's exciting history.

Beauty and genius in the Surrey Hills

An atmospheric house set within Leith Hill with panoramic views across the Surrey countryside, Leith Hill Place was the childhood home of one of England's greatest composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who gave it to the National Trust in 1944. 

Step back to the early 1900s and enjoy a grand day out, Edwardian-style! Play our hickory lawn game and a spot of croquet, try your hand at billiards, outwit your chums in fun parlour games and more.

As well as concerts, exhibitions and sporting events the O2 plays host to bowling, you can watch a film, find out how to make a TV programme at the Sky Studios and you can even climb on our famous domed roof to catch the fabulous view across London.

 

Tucked away behind stone walls in the charming village of Inveresk, this delightful hillside garden offers an oasis of calm and a year-round feast for the senses.

School visits are arranged through the ranger service.

A fascinating treasure house of Swansea life

Swansea Museum is a real treasure house of the ordinary and the extraordinary from Swansea past and present, and is a focus for the future of the city and its people, as well as providing a visitor experience that we hope you find enjoyable. You are able to visit Swansea Museum at four locations - the Museum itself on Oystermouth Road, the Tramshed in Dylan Thomas Square in the Marina, the Muse

A wilderness of tranquility set against Brunel's famous suspension bridge

Explore the beautiful and diverse broadleaf woodland on the plateau above the famous Avon Gorge, boasting superb views across the city to downland beyond. Leigh Woods has been an intrinsic part of Bristolian life for centuries.

The Tenement House provides a rare glimpse into life in Glasgow in the early 20th century, in the faithfully restored four-room house lived in by Miss Agnes Toward for over half a century.

School visits must be booked in advance by telephoning the property. Weekday mornings (March to October) are available for visits by school groups and other large parties.

Located at the western tip of the Ardmeanach peninsula on the island of Mull, this nature reserce is recognised as a National Scenic Area and a Special Area of Conservation, but is probably best known for being home to MacCulloch's fossil tree. Ranger-led activities to meet curriculum requirements can be organised by arrangement.

Stunning views from the top of the barrow

Coldrum Longbarrow is the least-damaged megalithic longbarrow in Kent and takes its name from the now demolished Coldrum Lodge Farm.

The site provides Insight into rural Scottish life 200 years ago. Housing one of Scotland's finest folk collections, this museum shows exactly how the country's rural workforce used to live. Children can experience a Victorian classroom, see how people lived and worked, and dress up in traditional costumes. Groups will be split into small groups of no more than 10 pupils.

Witness two opposing kings - Robert the Bruce and Edward II - whose tactics in 1314 changed the path of Scotland's history, forever.

Shirehall Museum is in a 16th century building that was built as a hostel for important visitors to the Augustinian priory next door. In the 1770s it became Walsingham’s court house and the court room, which was in use until 1971, is still intact. 

Windsor Castle, an official residence of The Queen and one of her favourite homes, is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. Since the building of a wooden fortress here at the time of William the Conqueror, the Castle has been transformed over the centuries into a splendid palace, while still retaining much evidence of its turbulent past.

Rainton Meadows is a nature reserve just to the east of East Rainton, Sunderland.

Powderham Castle is located in a unique, picturesque setting just outside Exeter, beside the Exe estuary. Six hundred years of history are contained within the walls of one of England's oldest family homes. Sir Philip Courtenay began building it in 1391 and it has remained in the same family to this day, currently home to the 18th Earl & Countess of Devon. 

High sandstone ridge and hill fort overlooking dramatic red sandstone rock houses

Kinver's woodland sandstone ridge offers dramatic views across surrounding counties and miles of heathland walking country. The famous Holy Austin Rock Houses, which were inhabited until the 1950s, are open to visitors at selected times.

Learning

It was in this house that Thomas Carlyle, the great Scottish social historian and one of Britain's most influential writers and thinkers, was born in 1795.

Many of Carlyle's belongings are still in situ, along with domestic items of the time, providing an authentic glimpse into Victorian life and a fascinating insight into Thomas Carlyle's early years.

Guarding Dartmouth for over 600 years!

One of the most beautifully located fortresses in England. For over 600 years Dartmouth Castle has guarded the narrow entrance to the Dart Estuary and the busy, vibrant port of Dartmouth. It offers stunning views of the estuary and out to sea and offers a great family day out, whatever the weather.   

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