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Section 5
Personal and Social Development and Health Education The main objective of any school's health education programme must be to meet the learning needs of pupils. Within any class, pupils have differing levels of maturity, confidence, experience and physical condition. These differences affect pupils' readiness to take responsibility for learning about and looking after their health. Although schools will plan provision in different ways to address pupils' needs, in most schools health education will find its main focus as part of the personal and social development (PSD) programme.
An effective programme for PSD with health education forming an important part will offer pupils opportunities to develop their self-awareness and self-esteem, recognise their uniqueness, explore attitudes and values, develop personal and interpersonal skills and increase their knowledge and understanding about a range of lifestyles and health issues. Such programmes will also draw on contexts that relate to the needs, interests, circumstances and experiences of pupils. Of particular importance is the need to allow pupils opportunities to explore their feelings and emotions, share and reflect on experiences and discuss issues that are relevant to them and appropriate for their maturity.
Some aspects of health education may be best addressed in the teaching of other curriculum areas. There are clear links, both in the content and general approach, to religious and moral education, in particular to links between aspects of personal search and the strands of emotional health. Science and physical education offer opportunities to look at physical health; social subjects can look at issues in social health and home economics has an important role to play in matters of nutrition and hygiene.
Whatever the approach taken by a school, the challenge is to ensure that there is coherence across the range of contexts for health education.
The following examples show how schools can locate health education within PSD and other programmes of study. Section 1: Planning for Health Education also provides advice on health education within PSD programmes. [RETURN TO 5-14 ONLINE] [BACK] [INDEX] [NEXT] |