Personal, Social and Health Education
Making sense of PSHE is a challenge for all schools and in order to make sense of it all, schools need a comprehensive and co-ordinated whole school approach to pupils’ personal, social and emotional development. At Summer Fields we believe we achieve this goal and recent inspection reports from both the Independent Schools Inspectorate (2009) and from Ofsted (2007) support this claim. Every member of staff assists with the delivery of PSHE and this is overseen by the Senior Master, Mr Paul Cheater.
What is PSHE?
In the past there has been some confusion as to exactly what PSHE is. There have been a number of terms used by schools to describe this area of the curriculum such as ‘personal and social education’, ‘health education’, ‘life skills’, ‘personal, social and moral education’ etc. Fundamental to all of these is the concern for the personal, social and emotional development of children and young people.
Why is PSHE so important?
Education has a major role to play in influencing the kind of society we want to be. It is therefore important that the school curriculum is underpinned by a set of common goals and values. PSHE and citizenship support these values and are central to the school curriculum. In the National Curriculum Handbook these values and the work of schools are described as follows:
Foremost is a belief in education, at home and at school, as a route to the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and mental development, and thus the well-being, of the individual. Education is also a route to equality of opportunity for all, a healthy and just democracy, a productive economy, and sustainable development. Education should reflect the enduring values that contribute to these ends. These include valuing ourselves, our families and other relationships, the wider groups to which we belong, the diversity in our society and the environment in which we live. Education should also reaffirm our commitment to the virtues of truth, justice, honesty, trust and a sense of duty.
This is what we are setting out to achieve. We believe that our PSHE syllabus is structured for all boys to set the firmest of foundations in their lives.
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