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

17th-century town hall with no town but a fascinating history

Tucked away in a tiny hamlet adjoining the National Nature Reserve, the 17th-century Old Town Hall is the only remaining evidence of Newtown's former importance.

It's hard to believe that this tranquil corner of the island once held often turbulent elections before sending two Members to Parliament.

Late Medieval merchant's house in Worcester city centre

Built in 1480, with early 17th and 18th century additions, this fine timber-framed house was rescued from demolition after the Second World War and has been carefully restored and refurbished.

An archway leads through to a delightful walled garden.

A family home, delightful gardens and an idyllic setting

An intimate family home and peaceful estate set in the rolling hills of the Chilterns.

This picturesque 16th-century mansion and tranquil gardens were home to the Brunner family until recent years. The house exudes a welcoming atmosphere with a well-stocked kitchen and homely living rooms.  The series of walled gardens is a colourful patchwork of interest set amid medieval ruins.

Clent Castle is a mock ruin castellated folly in the grounds of Clent Grove (now the Sunfield Special School and Children's Home).

It was built in the late 18th century by Thomas Liell and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.

The remains of a medieval castle crucial to Anglo-Scottish warfare, superseded by the most complete and breathtakingly impressive bastioned town defences in England, mainly Elizabethan but updated in the 17th and 18th centuries. Surrounding the whole historic town, their entire circuit can be walked.

Large medieval threshing barn

Beautifully constructed 14th-century barn made from local Cotswold stone. Dramatic aisled interior and unusual stone chimney cowling are notable.

The Fisherman's hospital is situated on the Market Square in Great Yarmouth.

The Corporation of Great Yarmouth founded the hospital in 1702. It was set up as Almshouses for 'decayed' fishermen: providing housing for twenty fishermen and their wives aged sixty and over who could no longer provide for themselves.

Set on a headland high over the popular seaside town, Whitby Abbey is the perfect choice for a great value day trip in Yorkshire. It's easy to see how Bram Stoker was inspired by its gothic splendour when writing Dracula. This is one of the most atmospheric visitor attractions on the Yorkshire coast.

Nestling beneath thickly wooded hills alongside the River Tay, Dunkeld has an air of timeless tranquillity. In Cathedral Square and The Cross, the Trust has restored 20 houses, some dating from the rebuilding of the town after the Battle of Dunkeld in 1689.

Grey Friar’s Chapel is the 13-15th century tower of Kings Lynn’s Franciscan friary. It is one of only three surviving Franciscan monastery towers in England and is considered to be the finest.

Standing within an attractive village setting, not far from the fantastic Lullingstone Roman Villa, is Eynsford Castle - a very early Norman 'enclosure castle' whose substantial stone walls present a rare survival of this striking and impressive style.

An atmospheric Neolithic burial chamber made of great stone slabs, in the hills above Herefordshire's Golden Valley.

Legend has it that King Arthur slayed a giant at this location. An atmospheric Neolithic burial chamber, made of nine great stone slabs in the hills above Herefordshire's Golden Valley.

The flint-walled 13th-century chapel and hall of a 'Commandery' of Knights Hospitallers, later converted into a farmhouse. It has a remarkable medieval crown post roof and 16th-century ceilings with moulded beams.

A glimpse into England's rural past

Step inside this simply furnished, timber-framed cottage and travel back in time. Lived in continually right up until the mid-1980s, today this 16th-century labourer's dwelling has been restored to bring four hundred years of uninterrupted occupation to life.

Among England's finest country houses, big and stately Apethorpe Palace was begun in the late 15th century. It contains one of the country's most complete Jacobean interiors.

This classical building designed and built in 1725 by Francis Smith, contains a fine Georgian Ballroom. 

It was constructed on a site given by Robert Dudley, in exchange for the buildings now forming the Lord Leycester Hospital. 

The building is now the home of Warwick Town Council, the Tourist Information Centre and the Warwickshire Yeomanry Museum.

The romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes. Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War, becoming a favourite residence of the ageing king.

The remarkable story of an enduring spirit

Nearly 350 years ago the community village of Eyam made the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the spread of the deadly plague – their own lives.

To help you explore some of these stories we’ve created a number of walks starting from Eyam Hall.  Choose from The Two Survivors, The Three Decisions, The Lone Mother or The Lovers and explore Eyam and the surrounding countryside.

The fine 15th-century gatehouse of a vanished riverside manor house, with a beautiful oriel window. The monuments of the manor's Marmion family owners grace the adjacent church.

Marmion Tower is the entrance to, and the only significant remaining part of, a former manorial complex.

The remains of one of England's largest 13th-century castles

In 1266 King Henry III destroyed one of England’s largest medieval castles. Today, all that remains of Duffield Castle are the foundations, the view and its stories.

The tiny 1 hectare site, nestled within the village of Duffield, Derbyshire is now bounded on all sides by housing and roads, but it is still a place to enjoy, relax in and soak up the history.  

Discover more about England's heritage from the English Heritage Archive. We hold over 12 million photographs, plans, drawings, reports and publications on architecture, archaeology, historic buildings and social history.

Touch History at The Hive

Come to Explore the Past at The Hive and touch history on our multi-touch table which showcases the resources we have for you to research and enjoy in the building and which highlights heritage sites throughout Worcestershire.

A three-mile section of the great earthwork boundary dyke built along the Anglo-Welsh border by Offa, King of Mercia, probably during the 780s. This especially impressive wooded stretch includes the Devil's Pulpit, with fine views of Tintern Abbey.

Enjoy a family guided tour around this historic castle built by Henry VIII. Camber Castle lies between Rye and Winchelsea. The ruin of an unusually unaltered artillery fort designed to guard the port of Rye, and near Battle Abbey.

There are monthly guided walks round Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, including the castle and local farm.

This 15th-century tower, sole surviving part of the manor house of the Wybergh family, was plundered by Jacobites in 1745 before the Battle of Clifton Moor, the last battle fought on English soil.

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