Chapter 1
Personal, social and health education:challenging practice
Sally Inman, Martin Buck and Miles Tandy
It is a warm afternoon in June. A two-day project, which involves all the Key Stage 2 (7â11) children from a small Warwickshire primary school, culminates in a performance. Teachers, teaching assistants, a midday supervisor and a governor all come to watch, but the performance is not public: the real audience is the children themselves. They represent, explore and celebrate what they have made, achieved and learned.
The work began by exploring what the children knew of the story of Tutankhamun: his life, death and burial; the discovery of his tomb by Howard Carter; stories of the âcurseâ. They discussed the events surrounding the death of Lord Carnarvon and made still images to represent photographs that might have appeared on the front page of the papers at the time. To these images they added âheadlinesâ â sensational representations of the story â all of which alluded to âthe curseâ.
Discussion then moved on to thinking about how and when Tutankhamunâs mummified body and the treasures which accompanied it were first placed in the tomb. The children speculated that it was likely the events were accompanied by some kind of ceremony: they began by experimenting with carrying a PE bench from one end of their hall to another, first as if they were just moving it, then approaching and carrying it as if they were Ancient Egyptians and the bench contained the Pharaohâs body. Though few of them had ever been to a funeral, they brought their collective knowledge of ceremony and how it functions to bear on their work. They then developed their ideas further by small groups of children miming the bringing and offering of âgiftsâ for the Pharaohâs afterlife. Their carefully choreographed movement culminated in a spoken tribute which took the form âOh mighty Pharaoh, we bring you this . . . (gift) that you might . . . (some reference to the giftâs value and purpose) in the afterlifeâ. All the groups then brought their work to assemble the ceremony: as each group moved towards the Pharaohâs tomb another group played music to accompany them. Once their offering had been made, children took up a still shape around the sarcophagus to represent statues âguardingâ the Pharaoh. Once the last gift had been offered and the last statues were in place, the âcurseâ could be spoken. The room was then plunged into darkness as the tomb was âsealed upâ.
The teacher then narrated that, âThe statues had stood guard over the Pharaoh for over three thousand years until one day there was a scratching and a scraping sound; then came a light; and behind the light came the figure of a man.â The teacher had negotiated that as she came into the space with a torch, the statutes would whisper to her as the light fell on them. The whispers ranged from âYouâre going to die!â to âBeware the curse!â to a simple âGet out!â.
Next the group developed the idea that Carter had a dream in which he dreamt himself lying where the Pharaohâs body had, surrounded by the statues. The dream was enacted by the teacher taking the role of Carter and lying in place of the sarcophagus. The âstatuesâ talked to him and tried to convince him that he should leave the tomb undisturbed. Using the unlikely idea that Carter was convinced by the dream, a meeting was enacted where Carter went to Lord Carnarvon to try to convince him of the need to leave the tomb alone. The meeting was enacted using the drama device of âforum theatreâ in which the teacher took the role of Carnarvon and one of the children played Carter. As the meeting develops the child playing Carter could stop the action and seek help from her classmates â she either continued with the role and took note of their advice or offered the role to another child to continue the action. The positions the two men took were irreconcilable: rather than be asked to choose between them, the children were invited to stand along a line which represented the two extremes of removing all the treasures and leaving the tomb undisturbed. From these positions they made statements about their thoughts and feelings.
The children also used ICT to create a representation of Carterâs dream. They planned and captured images using a digital camera, manipulated them using photo-editing software, recorded and manipulated sound files, and assembled the sounds and pictures using Microsoft PowerPoint. The result was a powerful, frightening evocation of the dream.
So on that June afternoon the work all comes together. The children stand in two lines down the sides of their darkened school hall. One by one groups run into the space and take up their stills representing the newspaper front pages; they shout their headlines over and over again until the sound is like a room full of competing street newspaper sellers. The sound reaches a crescendo and stops. The children return to their places and enact their burial ceremony. Rather than walk into the space, the teachers shine torches into the tomb from the four corners of the hall with an effect reminiscent of searchlights penetrating the darkness of the tomb. The whispers begin. Then comes the PowerPoint dream: as the work was developing the projector had accidentally projected the image onto the ceiling, the extreme âkeystoneâ effect leaving an almost coffin shaped image. The children decided to keep that for their performance. When the dream is over the children move out of their statue shapes and take up positions to make statements about the rights and wrongs of disturbing the tomb. These final statements are a moving tribute to the depth of thought that the children brought to their work and the understanding they took from it.
But where in the curriculum does such work belong? Was it history? There can be no doubt that considerable liberties were taken with historical accuracy both in the enactment of the ceremony and the events surrounding the discovery of the tomb. Drama, then? Performance was certainly the key to the way in which these children were affected by the issues that surround archaeology. ICT perhaps? The childrenâs skills developed markedly as they made their representations of the dream, but it was not part of a planned ICT curriculum.
The work took an unashamedly cross-curricular approach. But this approach not only exploited links between subjects; the personal and social development of those children was a core purpose of the teachers who planned it. These young people were invited to engage with âbig questionsâ surrounding the rights and wrongs of disturbing the Pharaohâs tomb, and given the chance to be affected by these issues through a multiplicity of media and modes of expression. Throughout they needed to work collaboratively and put their work into a collective âwholeâ. Their comments during and after the performance indicated that many of them were deeply affected not only by the issues that the work had raised, but also by the high quality and power of their own work.
This example of primary practice raises some important pedagogical issues that have implications, not just for how we might teach lessons as part of a Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) curriculum, but for how a school committed to the personal and social development (PSD) of young people might approach any teaching and learning. The approach is essentially collaborative. There is a strong sense of teacher and learners engaged in a common endeavour to explore and understand something of importance to them all. The views and contributions of all are welcomed and valued and teacher and learners feel safe to make them. The learners are subtly yet deliberately engaged with the subject matter, then encouraged to enquire further and more deeply. The learners are given time to reflect on their learning, not only through talk, but by having access to a range of other media. They use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (and develop their ICT skills considerably) in context to support and deepen their learning. The work has a question of deep human significance â a moral question, at its heart, and the teacher uses a number of devices to make that question relevant, accessible and discussible for the young people involved. The teacher does not set out to teach the children that archaeology is right or wrong, rather to explore some questions that surround it. There are abstract concepts such as respect and justice at the heart of the work, but they are explored within contexts that are meaningful and relevant for the learners, even though those contexts are well beyond their daily experiences. The work is carefully designed to allow for a range of abilities and learning styles, allowing all the learners to begin to access the ideas at its heart. The teacher has expertise: specific skills and knowledge are needed at different times to inform and extend the learning. But she also goes through a learning process herself. She expects to be part of the learning process and recognises the complexities of the issues she raises, enjoying the experience of having her own understandings challenged and extended. We would contend that such pedagogy is essential for the effective teaching of a PSHE curriculum. But should pedagogy belong to the PSHE curriculum alone? If a school puts the personal and social development of young people at the heart of its purpose, should not all teaching and learning have these ingredients?
How do we describe the work? Is it PSHE? Is it cross-curricular work that is used to promote the childrenâs personal and social development? Why does the question matter? You might say that as long as young people get opportunities to engage in work like this, it doesnât matter what we call it and how we place it in the curriculum. But the reality may be that many young people get few, if any, such opportunities. What we call it, how teachers understand and teach it, how it is planned for within the curriculum, what resources are directed towards it â all these matters will have a profound effect on the extent and quality of such work.
National Curriculum 2000
The revised National Curriculum (NC 2000) marks an important change for schools and teachers that are committed to making the personal and social development of their young people central to the educational purpose. For the first time in England we have, at a national level, an explicit rationale and aims for the school curriculum; moreover one in which the personal and social development of young people would seem to have the centre stage. The section in the National Curriculum handbook that describes the values, aims and purposes of the curriculum would suggest an explicit recognition by the government that the proper purpose of education is very centrally to do with the PSD of young people.
Foremost is a belief in education, at home and at school, as a route to 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.
(NC 2000)
The school curriculum should promote pupilsâ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and, in particular, develop principles for distinguishing between right and wrong. It should develop their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of their own and different beliefs and cultures, and how these influence individuals and societies. The school curriculum should pass on enduring values, develop pupilsâ integrity and autonomy and help them to be responsible and caring citizens capable of contributing to the development of a just society. It should promote equal opportunities and enable pupils to challenge discrimination and stereotyping. It should develop their awareness and understanding of, and respect for the environments in which they live, and secure their commitment to sustainable development at a personal, local, national and global level.
(NC 2000)
These are bold and complex aims and purposes; to realise them in practice will be challenging for all schools. The fact that the basic structure of NC 2000 was not underpinned by such aims and purposes but added later have made this challenge more difficult, even for those schools with a central commitment to the personal and social development of the young people in their care.
The National Curriculum 2000 includes two ânewâ elements or subjects in the curriculum: Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship. There is, for the first time, a national framework for PSHE Key Stages 1â4, albeit non-statutory. Citizenship is made a statutory subject from Key Stage 3. This potentially gives PSHE a status and role within the curriculum that it has not achieved before. As the reader will be aware, the history of PSHE has largely been one of low status, especially in secondary schools, with occasional moments of prominence due largely to prevailing moral panics at any one time. We must ensure that the current prominence does not turn out to be once again a temporary response to current moral panics to do with, for example, the level of teenage pregnancies, the lack of interest in mainstream politics amongst young people, or their levels of drug use. The current national importance given to PSHE makes it critical that we, as it were, âseize the momentâ and develop a curriculum and practice that makes a real and lasting contribution to the PSD of young people.
PSHE and PSD
This book is concerned with the theory and practice of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in primary and secondary schools. However, it is not just concerned with the practice of PSHE as constituted within the taught curriculum but how such practice supports and contributes to the overall personal and social development (PSD) of young people. We believe that it is important to distinguish between PSHE and PSD. In our view the term PSHE is best used to describe that element of explicit and often discrete curriculum provision that schools construct as a specific contribution to PSD; the latter is essentially whole school and therefore the responsibility of all members of the school community. Why is the distinction so important? For us it is not just a question of terminology but is to do with how we most effectively conceptualise and organise schools so as to make young peopleâs personal and social development central to our purpose. For us, PSHE is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient in a schoolâs provision for PSD.
The distinction between PSHE and PSD has been often blurred in national policy and guidelines. There is a history of confusion and mixed messages around the terms. As a result national policy and guidance has often been less than helpful to schools and teachers as the terms are used with varying meanings and often as if they were interchangeable. For example, in the late 1980s during the development of the first National Curriculum HMI produced a document as part of their series Curriculum Matters (HMI 1989). This was entitled Personal and Social Education from 5 to 16. The paper set out a definition of what HMI called PSE.
In this paper personal and social education refers to those aspects of a schoolâs thinking, planning, teaching and organisation explicitly designed to promote the personal and social development of pupils.
. . . Personal and social education is concerned with qualities and attitudes, knowledge and understanding, and abilities and skills in relation to oneself and others, social responsibilities and morality. It helps pupils be considerate and enterprising in the present, while it prepares them for an informed and active involvement in family, social, economic, and civic life. It plays an important part in bringing relevance, breadth and balance to the curriculum.
More recently the same confusion of terms can be seen in some of the QCA guidance on PSHE and citizenship. For example, in âPersonal, social, health education and citizenship at Key Stages 1 and 2â (QCA 2000) we are given a definition of PSHE, derived from the report of the National Advisory Group on PSHE (National Advisory Group on PSHE 1999). The definition states that, âPSHE comprises all aspects of schoolsâ planned provision to promote their childrenâs personal and social development, including wellbeing.â
Surely all a...