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

Originally a medieval castle but converted into a stately palace, Kimbolton Castle was the family seat of the Dukes of Manchester. It now houses Kimbolton School.

Set a mere four miles from Stonehenge, Netheravon Dovecote is a charming yet practical building - and an excellent example of an early 18th century dovecote. It still retains most of its original 700 chalk nesting boxes.

An ancient hill fort with views over the Otter Valley

An impressive Iron Age hill fort, Dumpdon sits on one of the largest and most striking hills in the beautiful Otter Valley.

The climb is well worth the effort, offering fantastic views of the surrounding area. Explore these impressive defensive earthworks before visiting the mysterious small beech forest behind.

The Foundling Museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity, and first public art gallery, and celebrates the ways in which artists of all disciplines have helped improve children’s lives for over 270 years.

A collection of perambulators; strollers; and sundry curious conveyances

What should you look for at the Pram Museum?

In a word, it's wheels! wheels! and wheels! Well . . . it's actually wheels and axles and the frame. It doesn't matter how cute the bears-and-bunnies print is if a wheel falls off in the middle of the street, or the frame collapses without warning with your 23-month-old in the stroller.

17th-century manor house with romantic, intimate gardens

Come and explore East Riddlesden Hall, home of 17th century cloth merchant James Murgatroyd.  See the changes he made and discover why his work was never completed.

For generations, this estate was a hive of farming activity; producing enough milk, cheese and bread to adequately supply the household and its workers.

13th-century monastic barn

One of Europe's oldest timber-framed buildings, it has a cathedral-like interior and is linked to a local Cistercian abbey.

Inside the barn hosts an exhibition of local woodcarving, tools and a collection of agricultural carts.

Step back to the 1770s at poet William Wordsworth’s childhood home

Wordsworth House and Garden, in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth, is the birthplace and childhood home of romantic poet William and his sister Dorothy.

It is presented as it would have been when they lived here with their parents, three brothers and servants in the 1770s.

The Deepest Nuclear Bunker in the South of England

Come and witness the three lives of the bunker starting with its role as an RAF ROTOR Station, then a brief period as a civil defence centre through to its most recent life as a Regional Government HQ.

1930s-style garden, with herbaceous borders, cottage garden and lily pond

Did you know?

Dorneywood is traditionally the country residence of a senior member of the Government, usually a Secretary of State or Minister of the Crown. It was given to us by Lord Courtauld-Thomson and it is administered by the Dorneywood Trust.

Useful information

Dorneywood is open on selected summer dates.

Chalice Well is one of Britain's most ancient wells, nestling in the Vale of Avalon between the famous Glastonbury Tor and Chalice Hill. Surrounded by beautiful gardens and orchards it is a living sanctuary in which the visitor can experience the quiet healing of this sacred place.

The museum was opened in 1875 to house the Thackeray Collection of British Birds and other collections and has been located in its present site since 1895. It now houses over 15,000 specimens, donated from the nineteenth century onwards. Initially, the museum belonged to Eton College Natural History Society and was actively curated by boys.

Honey-coloured stone house with exquisite plasterwork and fine landscaped garden

Nestled in the heart of rural Warwickshire, surrounded by elegant lakes and fine landscape gardens sits Farnborough Hall. Made from the locally quarryed Horton honey-coloured stone, this country house shimmers in the sunlight.

Unspoilt island, home to a fascinating array of wildlife amidst dramatic scenery

Undisturbed by cars, the island encompasses a small village with an inn and Victorian church, and the 13th-century Marisco Castle.

There's also a disused lighthouse to discover. Called the Old Light, it offers superb views over the north part of the island.

Explore the history of medicine. Be terrified by our death masks and find out what an amputation looked like in the 19th century! Stop at the apothecary for a cholera remedy and have a go at our mystery object game.

Houghton House today is the shell of a 17th century mansion commanding magnificent views, reputedly the inspiration for the ‘House Beautiful’ in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

Located on the site of a 17th century fort, Malone House was built in the 1820s for William Wallace Legge, a rich Belfast merchant who had inherited the surrounding land. A keen landscaper, he designed and planted most of the estate's grounds, which remain relatively unchanged today. 

Belvoir Castle stands high on a hill overlooking 16,000 acres of woodland and farmland. Visitors from all over the world are welcomed here to events in the park, weddings, our world famous pheasant and partridge Belvoir Shoot, tours of the Castle and its art collection and our recently renovated gardens. Whatever draws you to Belvoir will enable you to share the magic of this estate.

The closest you'll get to true wilderness in Essex

A remote island in the Blackwater Estuary and cut off at high tide, visiting Northey's a unique pleasure.

Northey was to become the oldest recorded battlefield in Britain when Viking raiders used the island as a base during the Battle of Maldon in AD991, an encounter also mentioned in England's earliest known poem.

Streams of lichen-rich sarsen stones

Sheltered valleys containing well developed 'boulder streams' of sarsen stones. Sarsen stones are of ecological interest for the lichens and mosses they support as well as geological importance.

The sites were purchased in 1908 following a public appeal and were our first countryside properties in Wiltshire. Prior to this, sarsen stones were removed to provide building materials.

Heather-clad moors of Kinder to the gritstone tors of Derwent Edge

The wild Pennine moorlands are of international importance for their populations of breeding birds and mosaic of habitats.

We welcome thousands of children from schools across the world to the Cathedral every year. Many hundreds visit during our annual schools’ festivals: Church Schools Festival, Infant Schools Festival, Secondary Schools Festival and Special Schools Festival and we offer schools’ tours and trails throughout the academic year.

A peaceful retreat set within the beautiful Devon countryside

There's something for everyone at Parke, found on the outskirts of the small market town of Bovey Tracey, gateway to mystical Dartmoor. You can walk from the town (about one mile) or stop off as you drive to the open moor, where the next stop is the rugged crag of Haytor.

One of the largest remaining areas of heathland in East Hampshire

Ludshott Common covers 285 ha (705 acres) and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protection Area (SPA) because of its wildlife.

In Washford lies one of the undiscovered jewels of Somerset, providing an interesting day out for families and budding historians alike. The Cistercian abbey of Cleeve is a haven of peace and tranquillity, said to contain the finest cloister buildings in England.

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