The Importance of PSHE

It seems that during Lockdown, some of the most overlooked subjects before the pandemic like PE, Music and PHSE have now become the most important. Nadine shares how she will keep this up when we return to school.

Over the years that I’ve been teaching I’ve often noticed that PSHE is a subject which is often put off during the week with comments such as “We ran out of time today,” “I’ve put it on Friday afternoon because it’s a nice way to end the week,” or “The PPA teacher does mine.” I even have to admit that I’ve said something similar to these at some point in my career yet right now I believe that PSHE is going to be one of the vital components our children need as we come through this pandemic and reopen schools. 
The children we dedicate so much of our time and effort to each day no longer have parts of their normal life. The long term impact of Covid-19 is unknown but children in our care may well feel repercussions of it through loss of family members, seeing people they love fall dangerously ill, financial hardship as the economy is struggling and countless other reasons, each of which has an impact upon them.
I’ve seen from my own children that they are really struggling with their emotions. We’re a household that talks about a lot of things, the children know they can share their thoughts and feelings whenever they need to but their emotions are on a rollercoaster and they don’t know how to deal with that. This makes me worry about the children who are in families that don’t talk or share. How must they be coping? What damage is this lockdown causing? How can I help them?
PSHE is going to feature highly in my teaching, however that may look. The children are going to need opportunities to talk, strategies to deal with spiralling emotions, techniques of calming their minds and having a moment or two of peace and this is something that I am planning to interweave in every day. 

The author

Nadine Finlay

Nadine has worked with children for 17 years having originally trained as an International Montessori Directress and then moving into state schools by completing a GTP. Nadine is passionate about making the most out of every day, either at school or with her two young children. She has previously written articles that have been published in various magazines including the TES.