Torpoint Community College
Healthy Schools Plus Case Study
Developing an effective and creative programme of
Personal Social Health and Economics Education (PSHEe)
Background to the College
Torpoint Community College is a mixed secondary school in South East Cornwall. There are 779 students on roll. Our last Ofsted inspection in November 2012 described the College as a good school. Information about Torpoint Community College (taken from the Ofsted inspection report 2012):
The school is below average size: the roll has fallen in recent years owing to a declining population of secondary-age students in the locality.
The school serves the town of Torpoint in south east Cornwall. Most of its students live within the town or the surrounding Rame Peninsula area, though a small proportion cross the river and county boundary from the neighbouring city of Plymouth.
The proportion of students known to be eligible for the pupil premium, which provides additional funding for students in the care of the local authority and for students known to be eligible for free school meals, is below the national average.
Almost all students are of White British heritage and speak English as their first language.
The proportion of students who have a statement of special educational needs, or who are supported at school action plus, is above average. The number of students supported at school action is below the national average.
There is a strong community dimension to the school and the on-site sports facilities are used extensively by the local community outside of school hours.
The school meets the government’s current floor standards, which set minimum expectations for students’ attainment and progress. A small number of students study courses at other locations, ensuring that they leave school with recognised qualifications.
I joined the College in September 2005 as a teacher of Science and ICT. In 2009-10 I completed the PSHEe Certification Programme and became PSHEe Lead in February 2010 and Healthy Schools Coordinator in September 2012.
Priority Areas
There are many local health priorities in the Torpoint Area, for example, according to the Cornwall Health Profile, health concerns for the local area are smoking and smoking during pregnancy. National and local concerns include rising levels of obesity in young people and alcohol related hospital stays. In the past Torpoint has been in an area of higher teenage pregnancy rates and recently there have been a few more cases of teenage pregnancy. Some students attend the College from areas of Plymouth such as Devonport where wards have higher levels of deprivation and unemployment. There are also higher numbers of road traffic accidents in the local area. The programme of PSHEe that we have developed over the last few years aims to address these priorities and other student needs as they arise in terms of local and national statistics and information as well as evaluations and concerns that arise from students, parents and staff and our community.
What we have done:
The Journey towards a Coherent Programme of PSHEe: Gaining Curriculum Time
When I started at the College in 2005, PSHEe including Relationships and Sex Education was taught within a weekly tutor time session to tutor groups by their tutors. This often led to negative feedback, especially from staff who voiced complaints such as feeling the subject was dumped on them and that they didn’t always feel they had the necessary training or knowledge to teach some of the subjects that came up, particularly with reference to relationships and sex education. PSHEe was delivered by non-specialist teaching staff and I don’t think it had much status.
In 2009-10 a vertical pastoral system of tutor groups was introduced. It was decided that it would be too difficult to teach PSHEe to mixed age groups, especially considering Relationships and Sex education would have to be taught by non-specialist staff to mixed age groups of students. A discrete programme of PSHEe was therefore introduced in 2009-10, with Key Stage 3 classes receiving an hour of PSHEe a week. PSHEe was delivered to Key Stage 4 students using off timetable drop-down days, called ‘Learning for Life’ days.
In 2011-12, students in year 7 and 8 had one lesson of PSHE a week. Year 9 students received PSHEe lessons on a rota basis and completed PSHEe activities during Learning for Life (drop down days). Year 10 students were able to opt to complete the Personal Social Development (PSD) level 2 ASDAN qualification (equivalent to a GCSE Grade B), with 2 PSD lessons a week and all year 10 and 11 students completed PSHEe activities during the drop-down off timetable Learning for Life days.
In 2012-13, all students in years 7, 8 and 9 had timetabled PSHE lessons, with year 7 and 8 students receiving 2 a fortnight and year 9 students one lesson a fortnight. For the first time there were discrete timetabled lessons at Key Stage 4, with year 10 students receiving one lesson of PSHEe every fortnight, as well as activities, such as contributions from outside speakers on the drop-down days (rebranded as Skills To Achieve My Potential, STAMP days). Year 11 students were put into separate year 11 tutor groups and a programme of PSHEe was written for tutors to use with these students in tutor sessions. This allowed tutors to focus on issues relevant to year 11 students, such as preparing for the world of work; writing CVs, exploring post-16 pathways and so on.
In 2013-14, for the first time, all year groups will have discrete timetabled PSHEe lessons, with year 7 and 8 students receiving 2 lessons a fortnight and students in years 9, 10 and 11 receiving one PSHEe lesson a fortnight. The PSD qualification is not running again as the qualification lost equivalency points. The course required a large amount of coursework and it was felt that it was better to keep qualifications away from PSHEe as it is something that all students should cover to help develop skills such as discussion skills and being able to find advice, help and support. All students at Key Stage 3 and 4 will have a timetabled programme of PSHEe in 2013-14.
Therefore a journey towards a coherent, planned programme of PSHEe for all students has taken place at Torpoint Community College, with PSHEe receiving an increasing amount of curriculum time. Some PSHEe activities can still take place during drop-down off-timetable days but there is less reliance on them to deliver the whole PSHEe curriculum, instead they can be used to provide valuable input from external speakers and agencies to compliment the PSHEe programme taking place in the PSHEe lessons.
The increase in curriculum time is something to be proud of as it goes against what is happening in other schools and colleges. It is also not always supported by Government policy. A review of SRE was announced by the Government in the 2007 Children’s Plan. The review was co-chaired by Jim Knight, Schools Minister; Jackie Fisher, Principal of Newcastle College; and Josh McTaggart, a member of the UK Youth Parliament. The group’s independent report included a number of recommendations to Government, designed to improve the quality and consistency of SRE in schools and was published in 2008. The steering group’s main recommendation was that PSHEe should be made statutory and be supported by a statutory programme of study to give it increased status in schools. The Macdonald Independent Review (2009) of the proposal to make PSHEe statutory agreed that making the subject statutory is the key to raising its status and improving provision. The report also found that,
“The ‘drop-down’ or themed day is currently seen as the least effective option at both primary and secondary levels when delivered in isolation because, in essence, the learning is not considered to be secure or rooted in children and young people’s wider experience of the curriculum, nor is it possible to guarantee progression. Moreover, if a pupil is absent on this day, they can miss out on the entire offer. As far back as 2005, Ofsted warned: ‘the success of these days is limited because they do not connect with pupils’ prior experiences or meet their needs…they have the potential to enrich programmes, but not to replace them”.
In the Ofsted report (2013), ‘Not yet good enough, PSHEe in Schools’, Ofsted states “The curriculum was usually more coherent in schools that offered discrete PSHE education lessons.” Therefore at Torpoint Community College we have increased the amount of PSHEe time and use drop-down days to complement the programme of PSHEe where possible.
In April 2010, during the weeklong 'wash up' period following the announcement of the 2010 general election and the dissolution of Parliament, the clauses relating to SRE and personal, social, health and economic education within the Children, Schools and Families Bill were dropped. As a result the status of PSHEe has not changed and PSHEe is still non-statutory, which is why actually getting more time for it has been a challenge over the years. The current Ofsted inspection framework promotes teaching to aid the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students and our programme of PSHEe, as well as other factors e.g. the strong pastoral system and tutor programme where students have completed work for the Rights Respecting Schools Award from Unicef, assemblies, cross-curricular work and other opportunities and interventions all help to achieve this, in turn raising the profile of PSHEe within the college.
Developing an effective programme of PSHEe
When I was made PSHEe Lead in 2010, my main aim was to make the PSHEe curriculum relevant, so that students’ needs are addressed, and as engaging and imaginative as possible. I have therefore rewritten and continually review schemes of learning and have implemented several new resources as recommended by the Healthy Schools Team.
Overview of the PSHEe curriculum 2012-13
As PSHEe often involves students exploring sensitive issues, each class devises a set of ground rules to use during discussions within lessons at the start of the year and this is when issues of confidentiality, disclosures and safeguarding are also discussed with students. It is made clear that disclosures, where there is a risk to the student or others have to be reported to a DCPO at the College. It is important that each class devises their own set of ground rules so that they have ownership of them and feel that they are relevant. The ground rules should include the use of distancing techniques by students to that they do not mention specific names of family and friends when discussing topics in lessons, this helps prevent some disclosures being made. The ground rules are displayed in the classroom and students are reminded to use them. When external agencies such as Brook work with students to develop ground rules on STAMP days and during talks in lessons, students are also familiar with using ground rules and avoiding inappropriate disclosures in front of other students.
Discrete curriculum time for PSHEe also enables relationships to develop between the students and teacher. This can be advantageous as the teacher knows more about the students, for example, when teaching about topics such as alcohol this year I adapted the way the materials were delivered, using small group work and independent work rather than a whole class discussion, because a student had told me that they were worried about the topic due to family reasons.
In year 7 and 8 students explore a different topic over each half term. Students start by discussing ground rules, the first topic then explores the transition from primary to secondary school and gives students the opportunity to discuss their feelings and think about how things like their friendships are affected, they also explore sources of help within the college. The rest of the topics in year 7 are: Staying Safe; this includes personal safety, firework safety, safety on the beach and e-safety – where students are asked to check their privacy settings on social networking sites, Healthy Living; where students think about healthy lifestyles and healthy eating; Coping with Change; all about puberty and growing up; Managing Your Money; with an introduction to bank accounts; Learning to Learn; with a few lessons to explore effective learning strategies and to explore learning styles research, including a questionnaire to determine students’ learning styles; and lessons focusing on Drugs.
In year 8 again students have a sequence of lessons on a particular topic that lasts for a half term. The topics in year 8 include: setting ground rules, exploring healthy relationships; drugs, alcohol and tobacco; First Aid; Finding Out About; which include lessons looking at bereavement, cancer, eating disorders; Differences, diversity and prejudice and lessons about Managing Money.
In year 9 lessons focus on ground rules, human rights, careers education, more about alcohol, tobacco and drugs, Relationships and Sex Education, work on body image and the effect of the media, discrimination and prejudice, first aid and finances. Year 10 students focus on careers education, RSE, alcohol and drugs, where to get help, advice and support and mental health issues and finances. There are long term plans and schemes of learning for each year group in PSHEe to support all staff teaching PSHEe.
New initiatives: Heartstart
In 2012-13 several new initiatives have taken place to enhance the PSHEe curriculum on the recommendation of Healthy Schools Cornwall. For example, the First Aid topic for year 8 has been improved by affiliating with the British Heart Foundation Heartstart scheme and this year all year 8 students will have completed the Heartstart course using the Heartstart resources within PSHEe lessons.
Back in 2011 I heard about the scheme through the Healthy Schools website. I knew that the First Aid unit needed to be improved in terms of resources. Low levels of Emergency Life Support (ELS) skills within society are often highlighted in the press and there is a proven benefit of ELS training inbuilding confidence and self-esteem The aim of introducing Heartstart was to increase the number of young people at the college who would know what to do in the case of an emergency, and to increase the confidence and self-esteem of young people as well as ensuring that more young people has access to learn ELS – rather than just the students that attend extra-curricular activities such as Scouts, Guides, Cadets or St. John’s. I attended the Heartstart instructors training as did a colleague who teaches PSHEe as well as PE and Healthy and Social Care. We then affiliated to BHF and received the resources to use in the classroom and first aid manikins. This year all year 8 classes, approximately 129 students, will have received a minimum of 6 lessons using the Heartstart resources in a half term block. More young people now know what to do in an emergency and are more confident to carry out ELS. One of the other year 8 PSHEe teachers wrote an assessment with both written and practical tasks so that students could demonstrate the skills they have learnt and this has been shared with all the PSHEe team of teachers. The school nurse also came into some PSHEe lessons to support the class teacher; this was really useful as she could work with small groups of students on CPR.
Photographs showing year 8 students working in a Heartstart lesson about CPR, and a class of year 8 students receiving their Heartstart certificates after the Heartstart lessons.
New initiatives: Christopher Winter Project RSE resource
Historically Torpoint has been in an area of high teenage pregnancy, therefore RSE needs to be as effective as possible. The team of teachers teaching PSHEe this year are all fairly confident in delivering RSE, but I wanted a resource that was proven to be age appropriate, ready to be used in College and the Christopher Winter Project SRE resource fitted this bill. I heard about the resource in the summer term of 2012 after taking part in the CWP Drugs Pilot and attended a training session at Healthy Schools in Pool. This gave me the confidence to bring back the resource and get my colleagues within PSHEe using the resources in 2012-13. The lesson plans are written into our schemes of learning. Outcomes of using this resource are positive responses from students on evaluations, an increase in student’s knowledge and understanding, with increased confidence and self-esteem. I updated the RSE Policy in February 2013, this included information about how the new resource was being used in PSHEe.
New initiatives: Stop Stigma
I attended the launch of the Stop Stigma resource in Newquay in July 2012. I was very impressed with the resource as it tackles issues surrounding mental health in a positive way for students, making it relevant. It also felt like a trustworthy and informative resource to be able to use in the classroom, as this can be a sensitive and difficult topic to teach. I wrote the resource into the scheme of learning for year 10 students for 2012-13 so all students in year 10 have benefitted from this resource.
New initiatives: Positive? Awareness of and Attitudes to HIV
I attended a day’s training organised by Brook about awareness and understanding of HIV in June 2013 and was shown a new resource called Positive? There are even iPhone and iPad apps to use with students. In my efforts to continually try to use up to date and trustworthy resources I plan to incorporate this resource into the PSHEe schemes of learning for 2013-14.