PSHE

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE)

 

PSHE lessons teach students about the real-life challenges and opportunities they might face both in adolescence and adulthood, equipping them with the knowledge and skills that will help them to keep themselves safe and to thrive in their personal lives and careers. 

All schools in England, including independent schools, are required by law to teach PSHE. Furthermore, certain topics such as Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) within PSHE are mandated by the government.  

 

The College believes in equipping our students to become safe, confident and well-informed young people and adults. PSHE is an important way in which we can prepare them to cope with the complexities of adult life in the modern world. 

PSHE lessons impart valuable knowledge and help students learn to apply their critical thinking skills to real life situations. Learning addresses issues that might be faced not only in their own lives but in the lives of people they meet. In this way PSHE helps students to be safer and more aware in their own decisions, and to be more empathetic and better friends and neighbours as they go through life. 

As an international community, Concord recognises that some PSHE topics and content, data protection for example, might be different in other countries and we remind students that laws and customs vary around the world. We are aware that the prior knowledge and expectations of these lessons varies greatly between students, and teachers are always conscious of cultural and social needs being different within a group. 

Lower School


In the Lower School, students have one PSHE lesson each week, taught by their tutor in their tutor group. Tutors know their students well, seeing them every weekday in tutor time and are therefore well placed to support students through the PSHE content.

The PSHE programme for Lower School includes the statutory RSE curriculum. If you would like more information on the required content of RSE curriculum, the Department for Education have produced a guide for parents. Concord’s PSHE policy document can be found on our policies web page.

Sixth Form


In the Sixth Form, dedicated PSHE lessons happen fortnightly, taught by tutors. The subject content includes revisiting some of the topics from Lower School and also focusing more on future career and university decisions and experiences.

Classroom lessons in all year groups are also supplemented by regular specialist workshops or whole year-group sessions.


PSHE is not an examined subject and there are no formal PSHE qualifications.


Topics


Topics covered in PSHE are incredibly varied, they include:

Friendships – covering building positive friendships, recognising unhealthy ones and bullying. Puberty, mental health, personal hygiene, polarisation and radicalisation, internet safety and citizenship, romantic and sexual relationships, future options (careers and education) and RSE.

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