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

Down County Museum is located in the restored eighteenth century County Gaol of Down. The museum collects, conserves and interprets those objects which best illustrate the history, culture and environment of County Down.

The Downpatrick and County Down Railway runs through the drumlin countryside of County Down - St. Patrick's Country - over the River Quoile and under the graceful Down Cathedral. With a mix of steam and diesel trains, and vintage carriages, there's plenty for train fans of all ages - from wee kids to "big kids".

Wayahead Training is here to enable and teach. We provide safe, fully accredited expeditions, and outdoor learning and leadership programmes.

The Museum of the Iron Age tells the story of Danebury Hill Fort which lies to the south west of Andover. The hill fort was excavated by Professor Barry Cunliffe between 1969 and 1988 and is one of the best studied sites of the British Iron Age.

The Dell Stadium is Dudley council's premier outdoor sports venue. It boasts a range of facilities that can accommodate local and regional events.

The most hugely impressive Iron Age hillfort on the Welsh Borders, covering 40 acres, with formidable multiple ramparts. Old Oswestry was built by Iron Age people nearly 3,000 years ago and is one of the best preserved hillforts in Britain.

Information panels tell you about the hillfort and its inhabitants.

Something for everyone...

Enjoy a great day out at Trentham. Visit the award-winning Trentham Gardens, for shopping and eating out, peace and quiet, fun and action!

Haden Hill Park is an historical Victorian landscape with a Victorian Mansion and Tudor Hall. The landscape offers stunning views of the surrounding area. The park is a popular venue for historical local events and environmental activities. It has childrens play areas, bowling greens, ornamental lakes and formal garden areas.

The classic Neolithic 'causewayed enclosure', with three concentric but intermittent ditches. Large quantities of animal bones found here indicate feasting, animal trading or rituals, or perhaps all three. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.

Our magnificent historic home and garden is a venue for all seasons. The surroundings are magical, punctuated with an array of eye-catching mystical follies, temples and lakes.

The house has a timeless elegance, whether you choose to bring a picnic and attend an outdoor theatre production, or merely come to stroll through the wonderful gardens.

Sentry Hill is a 19th century farmhouse in the Parish of Carnmoney, County Antrim. The house and its contents provide a rare insight into life in rural Ulster during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

A day out at Marble Hill is a real treat as this beautiful Palladian villa is set in 66 acres of outstanding riverside parkland near Richmond  in West London. 

Spend the day exploring Brocks Hill Country Park. The children will love playing in sandpits, climbing castles and whizzing down the the large 'wiggly' slide! Take a walk around the park and stop off and enjoy a picnic.

Environment Centre

Hill Holt Wood is a 14 hectare sustainably managed ancient woodland situated on the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire border. It's a wonderful and enriching place to visit with facilities ranging from permaculture gardens, environmental sculpture, woodland walks, computer facilities, workshops and composting loos!

Ride our extensive twin track Miniature Railway supporting all gauges and boasting a fleet of cute miniature locomotives! Broomy Hill Station has a great hands on railway for the kids to play with and a museum too.

Entirely hand built by a local society since 1962, the Broomy Hill Miniature Railway is a charming treat for your little trainspotters, provided you can find an open day!

Established in 1980 Britain’s most experienced summer holiday operator for children and teenagers aged 3-17 years. With a host of exciting and adventurous activities to choose from.

Nesscliffe hill is a sandstone escarpment & is now a country park with various footpaths through the woods. To the north of the hill the ramparts of an old hill fort are present. An old sandstone quarry face forms a spectacular cliff, popular for rock climbing. Cut into the cliff face is a cave reputedly the hideaway of the highwayman Humphrey Kynaston & his horse.

Iron Age hill fort with far-reaching views and spectacular wildflowers

Hambledon Hill is one of the most iconic sites in Dorset, rising steeply to 190 metres above the Blackmore Vale and the river Stour with fantastic views into the neighbouring counties of Wiltshire and Somerset. The site is of exceptional archaeological and ecological value and provides important accesss opportunities as well as being of nationally important landscape value.

Segedunum Roman Fort is the last outpost of Hadrian’s Wall. Home for 300 years to 600 soldiers guarding the furthest reaches of the Empire. Today it has an interactive museum, viewing tower, excavated remains and reconstructions.

Set immediately north of the Tower of London, right in the heart of Tower Hill, stands one of the most substantial and impressive surviving sections of the London Wall. Built c. AD 200, the Roman wall not only provided defence and security to the citizens of London, but also represented the status of the city itself.

Visit this 'tower' mill and discover how the windmill works.

The Windmill is currently closed for restoration.

Please join us in November for our grand re-opening and our 200th birthday celebrations.

An emporium of vintage, retro, antiques, artisans, crafts, gallery, gifts and a programme of quirky workshops.

The remains of one of a network of signal towers predating Hadrian's Wall, Pike Hill was later joined to the Wall at an angle of 45 degrees.

Stands alongside the route of Hadrian's National Cycle Network cyclepath.

The largest man-made mound in Europe, mysterious Silbury Hill compares in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Probably completed in around 2400 BC, it apparently contains no burial. Though clearly important in itself, its purpose and significance remain unknown. There is no access to the hill itself.

Danebury Iron Age hill fort is in Hampshire, north west of Stockbridge and close to Nether Wallop.

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