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

One of two farm visitor centres within Sandwell Valley Country Park. It is a working dairy farm where the main attraction is the herd of rare breed Hereford Cows.

It is a working dairy farm where the main attraction is the herd of rare breed Hereford cows.

Feeling adventurous? Enjoy the aquatube flume, Pirate Ship Fun Pool and four springboards (1 to 3m) with a 5m diving platform, as well as many other facilities. Creche also available.

Thornton Reservoir is a peaceful and picturesque location that offers a network of trails and footpaths around the reservoir and through the neighbouring woodland areas. There are also links with longer trails including the Leicester Round and various other public footpaths. This scenic reservoir also has a popular fly fishery, attracting anglers from all over the midlands.

The Royal Air Force Museum in Cosford offers a fun, entertaining day out for all the entire family. Situated next to an active airfield, this is the only place in the Midlands where you can get close to so many breathtaking aircraft for free.

Well kept parkland with play centre, light railway, splash pool, pitch and putt golf, stunning horticultural displays, a fishing lake and football pitches.

This scenic park has over 207 acres of parkland and is one of Derby's largest parks attracting over one million visitors a year making it one of the most popular parks in the East Midlands.

The Midlands' newest, most up-to-date children’s indoor soft play with a multi-tiered soft play centre, providing a safe, secure and stimulating play environment, catering for children from 0 to12 years, with dedicated play zones for babies, toddlers and juniors.

Family-size fun!

Hello and welcome to White Post Farm, one of the East Midlands’ most popular visitor attractions.

For 20 years we’ve been entertaining millions of kids and adults, giving them the chance to get up close to thousands of friendly animals, like chicks, llamas, rabbits, cows and pigs.

Newly restored to its former glory, historic Leasowes Park was designed by the poet William Shenstone beginning in 1743 and continuing until his death in 1763.

The Aeropark is both an aviation museum and a viewing area where you can study the preserved planes of yesteryear or watch the modern airliners of today taking-off and landing at a growing international passenger and cargo airport.

Planes on display include Aérospatiale Gazelle, Morane-Saulnier Rallye MS880, Hawker Hunter T.7 and an Avro Vulcan B.2.

Duston Sports Centre includes a Trilogy Health & Fitness state of the art gym, dance studio, 4 court sports hall, function room, bar and sports pitches

A large Neolithic burial mound with spectacular vistas over the Severn Valley. Its internal burial chambers are uncovered for viewing.

Nympsfield long barrow stands high on the Cotswold scarp near Frocester with spectacular views over the Severn Valley.

A wonderful place for kids to let off steam and enjoy the outdoors. Follow the streams, dodge the waterfall and find Foo Dog and the Big Buddha hidden in our arboretum and wild garden.

Known all over the world for the fascinating and astonishingly accurate model village in the Inn's garden. The inn also has children's play areas.

The Model Village is a one-ninth scale replica of the heart of the beautiful Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water, containing all the buildings from the Old Water Mill (now the Car Museum) down to the Old New Inn and the ford.

Housed in a period farmhouse, established over 25 years a spectacular Model Railway Exhibition and traditional toyshop situated right in the centre of the picturesque Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water.

Private and public hire cruise boats offering different sizes and services for every occasion. Self drive hire facilities also available. Pre booking essential.

Cotswold River Cruises operate 'Adventuress ' from The Riverside Marina Halfpenny Bridge Lechlade-on-Thames GL7 3DL, gateway to the Cotswolds.

Fun packed indoor museum covering motoring right through the 20th Century. Brum lives here and this is where he was filmed. He loves having his photo taken so don't forget your camera! Throughout the museum there are quizzes, feely boxes, building games, brass rubbings, old fashioned toys and dressing-up.

A seven mile train journey on a steam engine: great for a family day out with the kids, especially train mad ones!!

The line currently runs over a 3 and a half mile stretch along the foot of the Chiltern Hills running parallel to the Icknield Way, passing through attractive countryside with some outstanding views across the Vale of Whiteleaf.

Chiltern Pools is a leisure centre in Amersham.

Our diving pool has one, three and five metre boards. Leisure pool has flumes, fountains and a water creek! Also has sporting opportunities such as the climbing wall.

The imposing stone walls, with added towers for catapults, of a Roman 3rd century 'Saxon Shore' fort.

Panoramic views over Breydon Water, which the fourth wall collapsed into a long time ago. 

The exact date of the building of Enniskillen Castle is not recorded.

Hugh 'the Hospitable' Maguire died in 1428 after returning to Ireland from pilgrimage in Spain. The Castle must have been built before then, sometime during the 1420s. 

The earliest known reference to Enniskillen Castle occurs in the Annals of Ulster in 1439.

The riverside ruins, principally the solar tower, of a manor house progressively fortified against the Scots during the 14th century.

The Andrew Jackson Cottage highlights Carrickfergus' strong American and Ulster-Scots connections as well as telling the story of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the USA, whose parents emigrated to America from Carrickfergus in 1765. Located less than a mile from the town centre off the Larne Road, this single storey building has been restored to its original state.

Prudhoe Castle has many a story to tell so a family day out to this Northumberland fortress is truly worthwhile.

The impressive ruins of a 14th-century castle with a massive keep, inner and outer baileys, and towered curtain walls still standing.

It was built by the Abbot of Furness on the south-eastern point of Piel Island, to guard the deep-water harbour of Barrow-in-Furness against pirates and Scots raiders. 

In a picturesque setting beside the crossing of the River Eamont in Cumbria, Brougham Castle was founded in the early 13th century. This great keep largely survives, amid many later buildings - including the unusual double gatehouse and impressive 'Tower of League'.

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