Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) enables children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. Here, at Alderley Edge School for Girls, we value PSHE as one way to support children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning.
Our role in the community
We encourage our pupils to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community. In doing so, we help develop their sense of self-worth. Through the teaching of Fundamental British Values, we teach them how society is organised and governed. We ensure that they experience the process of democracy in school through participation in the school council.
Curriculum
We teach pupils about their rights and responsibilities. They learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse and multi-cultural society. Our aim is to make the learning the foundations of all that we do in and out of school not simply within the learning of single sessions. We aim to ‘live’ what is learnt and apply it to everyday situations in the school and local community. We structure the course to cover topics relevant to the age and develops over the years.
The topics discussed throughout the year will be; health and wellbeing, relationships and sex education, living in the wider world including internal focus sessions/days.
There is a weekly drop in session at lunchtime, for pupils to discuss any themes or topics that arise in lessons, in a more personal setting. To this end, PSHE sits as part of our core offer of excellent pastoral care, working alongside Heads of Year to ensure the curriculum is flexible and responsive to the needs of pupils.
We draw on the expertise of a wide variety of guest speakers, including the Red Cross, published authors, Cheshire Police, our school nurse and doctor, The Prime Agency, Rabbits Relationships Sex Education, Drug Education UK, HR Specialists, as well as resources from online platforms such as Childline, Kooth, Brook, the NSPCC and The Mix.
Lessons are interactive, upbeat and focus on practical as well as theoretical advice about how to flourish in life.' Pupils tell us that they enjoy the safe and relaxed atmosphere of lessons and having the space to discuss issues that matter to them: What are my hopes and dreams? How do I bounce back from adversity? How do I recognise and build positive relationships? How do I navigate the online world?
The PSHE department works closely with Careers to deliver the Gatsby benchmarks and the focus at KS5 is very much on higher education, the world of work and preparation for life beyond AESG.'