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

No. 1 Royal Crescent is a superb example of how Bath was developed in the 18th Century. It was built to the designs of John Wood the Younger in 1767 – 1774 as the first house in the Royal Crescent, a Bath stone crescent of thirty houses with a uniform Palladian design to the principal facade.

One of the most complete surviving friaries of Dominican 'black friars' in England, later converted into a Tudor house and cloth factory. Notable features include the church and the fine scissor-braced dormitory roof.

Help us bring this special Grace II listed building back to life

Poltimore House is a significant Devon landmark, historically and architecturally. The drawing shows it as it was c.1900. The speculative reconstructions at the bottom of this page show it as it might be, once restored and back to full use. 

Huge range of activities from archery, bushcraft and fencing to high ropes, abseiling, leap of faith and adventure tunnelling plus LOADS more! For over 8s, minimum group booking is 6 people.

The Adventure Rope Course 

One of the UK's leading outdoor activity centres

Dukeshouse Wood has had a whole raft of new adventure activity features installed to become one of the country’s leading residential activity centres. The activity park in the grounds houses many of these new additions including a quad bike track, zipwire, outdoor laser, Jacob’s ladder, an outdoor climbing and abseiling tower and leap of faith.

The original purpose built Kingswood centre overlooks the picturesque beauty of the Wrekin and Clee Hills

An exciting venue for outdoor adventure and learning in a picturesque and easily accessible location, Staffordshire provides a welcoming and friendly environment

Our original Kingswood centre, where guests instantly feel at home

Particularly suited for younger students where all activities are close to the main buildings

This 'Castle of the Rock' is famous for its spectacular views, which take in no less than eight counties on a clear day.

The Brangwyn Hall at the Guildhall, Swansea is renowned as a major concert hall and conference centre,

The MCC Museum was opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 1953 and is one of the oldest sporting museums in the world.

One of Norfolk and England’s greatest heroes

The Nelson Museum celebrates the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson. Find out about his remarkable naval career, the sea battles he won, his Norfolk childhood, scandalous love life and untimely death at the Battle of Trafalgar. 

Packed with dramatic and moving details the museum also offers ships' games, family fun days and a garden for picnics.

English Touring Opera (ETO) is an opera company founded in 1979 under the name Opera 80. In 1992 the company changed to its present name. The company aims to bring high quality opera to areas of England that would not otherwise have ready access to such productions.

Located within walking distance of one of the best beaches for water sports in the area and close to Tossa de Mar, this Spanish water sports trip in Cala Llevado offers schools and youth groups an action-packed activity programme, with plenty of time on the beach!

Tree-top climbing adventure park in the Cévennes mountains in France. Fun guaranteed!!!

Open every day from 10 until 5pm, last departure at 4.30pm. Enjoy over 3 hours' worth of activities, including zip wires, climbing nets, jumps and rickety bridges strung between the trees. Also, don't miss out on canyoning in the river Ceze, a half-day activity.

Allerthorpe Lakeland Park is set in 53 acres of grounds and lakes. We offer a variety of watersports as well as a campsite, and Lakeside cafe. Why not bring your family to come and enjoy the park and all we have to offer.

Bowles is located near Tunbridge Wells on the site of a natural south facing sandstone outcrop which offers a range of outdoor adventure including superb rock climbing, a dry ski slope, orienteering, archery and the giant Leap of Faith!

Wilberforce House is the birthplace of William Wilberforce, famous campaigner against the slave trade. 

Admission to Wilberforce House is free. The museum tells the story of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its abolition, as well as dealing with contemporary slavery. Galleries also offer a fascinating glimpse into West African culture.

Come and carve the Original Iconic Concrete 70s Skatepark

ROM is one of the few groundbreaking 70s skateparks still holding its own. Many have come from wide and far to skate and ride The ROM. Bob Haro, Matt Hoffman, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain and the Bones Brigade, Scott Maylon and even Billy Mills have ripped it up at Rom. 

Most come for the world famous Pool and the unbeatable never ending lines of the Moguls.

Ardwhallan host a range of courses throughout the year including climbing, paddlesport and sailing.

Come and find out about the Scottish Parliament. We've got games, stuff to help you with coursework, posters for the walls of classrooms and lots more!

Our education programmes are run for schools, colleges and other educational groups who are interested in finding out more about the work of Parliament.

Let The Adventure Begin!

The Frank Chapman Centre is part of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Councils Residential Education Service delivering a wide range of high quality outdoor programmes and activities for the community of Sandwell and others.

Part of the Stephen Beaumont Museum, it includes a padded cell and other exhibits from the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, built in 1818.

The Mental Health Museum is a unique museum in the heart of the Fieldhead site in Wakefield. It is run by South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Set in the internationally renowned Orford Ness nature reserve, the Orford Ness Pagodas are cold war relics on a shingle spit in Suffolk, built to test Britain’s atomic bombs. Here the bombs’ detonators were put in pits and subjected to the shocks they might experience on their way to a target, to ensure they wouldn’t go off prematurely.

Pages

Login/Sign Up

Latest News

Schoolboy Falls From 60ft Cliff on School Trip

A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.