All of us at the PSHE Association hope you and your loved ones are getting by in these challenging and unsettling times. We’re following Government advice by working remotely but are adapting well, and we’re in a strong position to support you, your school and your pupils, now and into the future. We’re still at the end of a call or email should you need us.
We wanted to flag a few things to help you and your pupils now, and in the event of schools needing to shut. We are also busy planning remote training webinars and other solutions to give you the advice and support you need, when you need it. And with statutory Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education coming in September, we wanted to highlight the new ‘statutory changes’ section on our website.
New hub to support you and your pupils during the Coronavirus period
We’ve set up a new hub on our site to host guidance and resources to help you and your pupils meet the challenges the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak poses. We will build on this over the coming weeks until things return to normal, but for now we’ve added the following:
- Teaching PSHE remotely: Teachers may be asked to teach PSHE remotely, and we’re here to help you to do so safely and effectively. Our online support hub will be updated regularly with tips and ideas for suitable activities to give to home-based pupils (and topics that should not be addressed remotely or through home learning), lessons that can be delivered online, guidance documents and support for using school closures to plan ahead for September. We’ve already added a ‘guide for PSHE leads in the event of school closures’ overview.
- Guidance for talking to children and young people about Coronavirus: As PSHE educators, you play a vital role in providing a safe environment to explore concerns and questions around crises such as the current pandemic. And with various rumours doing the rounds, your pupils will need advice on where to access accurate information, how to look after themselves and others, and where to seek help if necessary. Our guidance will support you in this task, and we will be publishing an updated version with additional information later this week.
Preparing for statutory changes and ‘tools for the job’
Of course whether working from school or home PSHE leads will be thinking about how best to prepare for statutory Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education from September. Our dedicated statutory changes pages present you with a selection of resources and guidance that provide ‘tools for the job’ at hand. We also have a rundown of how we got to statutory status and what it will mean in practice.
Let us know how you're doing
We would also value hearing from you about the support we can offer you during this period and beyond, and are keen to hear stories from any of you who have delivered aspects of PSHE education remotely. Community is important in this time of temporary isolation, so we looking forward to supporting you and the whole PSHE community through it and beyond.