PERSONAL AND SOCIAL EDUCATION

Our aims in PSE are closely allied to the overall aims of the school itself and are concerned about every aspect of pupil life namely the personal, social and intellectual development of all its pupils. All pupils in S1 to S6 have a timetabled period of PSE and this includes health education, communication and study skills, citizenship, caring for others, advice on subject choice and careers.

Throughout the session, Guidance staff arrange for experts such as the Police and School Nurse to talk to the pupils to highlight issues such as drugs awareness, health and safety matters etc. Videos, some of which are filmed and produced in school, are also shown to pupils to raise awareness of these and other subjects.

As part of our strategy to raise achievement, new PSE materials have been introduced in S1-4 to highlight aspects of teaching and learning, for example, planning and organising homework, how to revise and plan for assessments and so on.

Overall, the PSE programme is designed to provide relevant and useful information in a course which we hope is stimulating and enjoyable for both staff and pupils and which will be useful to them when they leave school.

Recently we undertook to liaise more closely with parents and pupils regarding the relevance of the PSE courses and we issued questionnaires to the parents of senior pupils to evaluate the usefulness and interest of the course from the parents' and pupils' points of view. Last session, we consulted with all parents, pupils and staff regarding the contents of our sex education programme and information regarding this is being posted out to parents and carers throughout the session. In the meantime, further information on any aspect of our PSE courses can be obtained from Mrs Teale, Head of Guidance.