PSHE: our most important subject?

A confession if I may: I love my job! And one of the parts I love most is my responsibility for the provision of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) in the Senior School, both through a scheme of work taught in form times and via a diverse schedule of visiting expert speakers. PSHE, in case unfamiliar, is the long-used UK term for school lessons giving information and facilitating debate around real-life issues such as drugs awareness, mental health, e-safety, body image and the all-important Sex and Relationships Education (SRE). It is delivered in the hope that our pupils might learn to make (mostly!) good decisions across the environments and interactions they encounter, prioritising their own health and that of themselves and their friends. In short, I love PSHE because it has the capacity to truly make a difference.

Whether or not you found it so in your own experience (my own school PSHE seemed to consist entirely of role plays in which we, with increasing sarcasm, rehearsed the myriad ways by which we might resist peer pressure to smoke), there is even an argument to be made that PSHE is the most important subject of all. Others are of course vital in ensuring that pupils develop a range of skills and, yes, that they pass the key exams looming large in their lives. However, above and beyond this, PSHE teaches pupils to flourish – to thrive in their communities and to maintain the wellbeing so important to every stage of life. Former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan was right to state in 2015 that ‘schools have a critical role to play in turning out rounded, resilient young people that can face the challenges of the modern world with confidence’ and that, in order to have any chance of achieving this, they must put ‘high-quality PSHE at the heart of their curriculum’.

There is a debate to be had around how PSHE can and should best be delivered. For us, it is not currently a timetabled senior subject with a specified separate department and staff. Perhaps one day… However, this year’s senior form tutor team has, more than ever before, been recruited, trained and assembled with their role in providing a morning a week of PSHE in mind. We are well aware that PSHE badly done will remain the butt of playground jokes. However, we strive to do it well. We need to, because it is difficult to dispute that our children need to be knowledgeable and empowered to make good choices. This generation, for all its advantages, must navigate societal pressures, unceasing social media and a sexualised culture perhaps beyond any that have gone before. Furthermore, here in West London, they will have access to an alluring party scene which, rather than simply denying or demonising, we want to help educate them to deal with wisely and on their own well-informed terms.

To be clear, parents and families must always retain the primary role in raising children and in forming their characters… but if at school we want truly to educate them, particularly if claiming to educate ‘the whole child’ (it’s on the front page of this website!) then we must get involved in life beyond academia. Indeed, our academia can only benefit as a result of any success PSHE achieves. I would urge you therefore always to ask what your children have learned that week in PSHE and to continue those conversations at home.

As a closing thought, it is worth noting that the government is currently debating whether or not to make the teaching of PSHE compulsory in all schools from 2019, something they have already decided about Sex and Relationship Education (Hooray! Blog post to follow!). You will be unsurprised to know that I strongly hope they decide indeed to do so. Feel free to lobby in any way you see fit if you love PSHE too! But, whichever way the verdict goes, know that we at Harrodian will continue to fly the flag for this most important of subjects. It’s too important not to…

To read Andy Woodward's previous post on the Growth Mindset click here