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

Picturesque watermill with working waterwheel

A delightful piece of late Elizabethan playfulness. Built for banquets and converted into a mill in the 19th century.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum is housed in two towers of Caernarfon Castle. In it you will discover the history of over 300 years of service by Wales’s oldest infantry.

Famous for our red squirrels, wildlife and Scouting

Brownsea Island is dramatically located in Poole Harbour, with spectacular views across to the Purbeck Hills.

Rising from the east shore of Loch Lomond to a height of 974m (3,193ft), Ben Lomond offers exhilarating walking and spectacular views across Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park.

Creative fun in the countryside

​​​​​​In the heart of Pollok Country Park, this award-winning building houses a unique collection in a beautiful woodland setting. The Burrell Collection is one of the greatest ever created by one person, comprising over 8,000 objects.

Where Charles Darwin Lived and Worked

With its unique place in the history of science, Down House, the home of Victorian scientist Charles Darwin (1809–82), is one of the major visitor attractions in the South East. Down House was Darwin's home from 1842 until his death 40 years later.

Covering 100 acres of beautiful fields and woodlands in a superb clifftop location, overlooking Whitecliff Bay

Situated on the enchanting Isle of Wight, with stunning views over Whitecliff Bay and direct beach access, this centre an instant hit with students and teachers alike

Located in a Site of Special Scientific Interest, providing the perfect destination for environmental and history studies along the dramatic Jurassic Coast

A perfect environment for schools wanting to explore the great outdoors!

Located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Wales, Colomendy is the perfect environment for 7-11 year olds to explore the great outdoors

Breath-taking adventure park nestled in woodlands with a giant zipwire, climbing tower and an abundance of ropes courses

On-site watersports including canoeing, kayaking and raft-building

Home of the Wild Ennerdale project with 30 miles of traffic-free paths

Lying on the north western edge of the Lake District National Park, Ennerdale is home to some of England’s most vibrant natural environments and one of the longest running wild land restoration projects in the UK.

A museum set in a remarkable building that holds an extensive collection that covers the many aspects of life and social history in Bishop’s Castle and the surrounding area. Free to visit. Restricted opening times as run by volunteers.

Valleys of many delights

The valleys descend from the highest and wildest mountains all the way to the beautiful sandy beaches on Cumbria’s peaceful western coast. The landscape provides everything from grandeur and beauty to tranquillity and remoteness.

If you are visiting nearby Stourhead then why not walk half a mile or so to see one of the great follies of the UK.

Towering cliffs, coves and a wooded valley within Exmoor National Park

The Heddon Valley set in the West Exmoor coast was the favourite landscape of the Romantic Poets.

Beautiful wooded valley with 19th-century Gibson Mill at its heart

A beauty spot of the South Pennines with more than 160 hectares (400 acres) of unspoilt woodland.

As well as being the home of the northern hairy wood ant, there are tumbling streams, glorious waterfalls and stacks of millstone grit, all crisscrossed by more than 15 miles (24km) of footpaths.

Adventures in the Wild!

The Bushcraft Company offer residential school trips with a difference, taking students into the wild and giving them real back-to-nature experiences they will never forget. We pay meticulous attention to the details, making sure our pastoral care is second to none, our activities are both exciting and educational, and the whole experience of working with 

St Mary's Hospital is home to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum. The laboratory where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin has been restored to its cramped condition of 1928 and incorporated into a museum about the discovery and his life and work. It is open to the public from Monday to Thursday from 10am to 1pm and can be visited by appointment outside of these times.

A magnificent Tudor merchant’s house

This beautiful building has been home to merchants and mayors through the ages. A museum since 1900, its stunning Tudor and Stuart interiors now house rich furnishings and textiles that give a real feel for the day to day life of its wealthy former owners. 

The Florence Nightingale Museum is located at St Thomas's Hospital.

Neolithic and Iron Age site rich in wildlife, offering sweeping views of surrounding countryside

Discover an unusually designed Iron Age hill fort, containing a smaller central, possibly Neolithic, enclosure. Enjoy the exceptional views from the ramparts over Salisbury Plain, Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral. The ramparts also act as a refuge for unusual plants.

His place of birth, home, influence and inspiration

Welcome to Shrewsbury – the birthplace of Charles Robert Darwin: naturalist, explorer and true Salopian.

With so much to see and do, a trip to Belsay is one of the best value family days out in north-east England. Explore the medieval castle, the Grecian inspired Hall and acres of impressive gardens.

Nestled right beside the beach in a beautiful area of North Norfolk, this rural setting really gives children the opportunity to get out into the great outdoors

A spectacularly grand Manor House, steeped in history and situated in a vibrant seaside town on the North Norfolk coast, Overstrand provides a unique study environment

Specialist Environmental Field Study centre for Geography, Biology and Environmental Science, with dedicated and passionate tutors

This remarkable small museum is home to many diverse collections of items made from straw including marquetry, embroidery, straw stars, Swiss straw lace and dyed straw marquetry. 

There are also examples of other crafts such as quilling, tatting and beadwork. Owner, Ella Carstairs, will be happy to give you demonstrations of straw marquetry and quilling.

A friendly run activity centre, we are small enough to care but large enough and experienced enough to matter. A residential outdoor education programme can be an extremely powerful, meaningful and fun learning experience. We aim to provide an Outdoor Education experience that will be the highlight to any educational or youth programme.

A charming small museum with collections of agricultural and domestic tools from Lynton and Exmoor. Also maritime, railway, and natural history. Unique pictures of the Lynmouth Flood, and a Victorian dolls' house. 

Housed in Lynton's oldest surviving domestic dwelling, it even includes its own ghost!

Natural History

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