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Weight of responsibility
Health and wellbeing are huge issues in society, and we need to acknowledge the positive impact schools can make.
Scotland has gained an unenviable reputation as the sick man of Europe. A variety of indices and statistics indicate that our lifestyle, diet, genetics and climate all contribute to relative poor health and wellbeing.
This not only has a direct impact on the quality of life of individuals, families and communities, but also on all of us indirectly. Costs for treatment and care place a huge burden on the public purse, especially so in these times of fiscal prudence.
In the classroom, we have a responsibility that therefore stretches far beyond examination results. Our work in this area, argue some of the protagonists, can have a far-reaching impact that will permeate wider society.
The theory (Iain Ramsay Health and Wellbeing Team Leader LTS)
Aspects of health and wellbeing have been part of the Scottish curriculum for many years, supported more recently by the development of health-promoting schools, which reflect and support learning in specific aspects of health.
The new curriculum framework, which sets out the entitlement of a broad general education for all children and young people, includes health and wellbeing as one of the eight areas contributing to the experiences and outcomes. The title 'experiences and outcomes' recognises the importance of the quality and nature of the learning experience in developing attributes and capabilities, and in achieving active engagement, motivation and depth of learning. An outcome represents what is to be achieved.
Health and wellbeing, along with literacy and numeracy, is a core part of the curriculum. Learning through health and wellbeing promotes confidence, independent thinking and positive attitudes and dispositions. Because of this, it is the responsibility of every practitioner to contribute to learning and development in this area.
The experiences and outcomes for health and wellbeing are grouped under 'organisers'. Mental, emotional, social and physical health is a major focus for responsibility across learning.
Curriculum for Excellence stresses the importance of making links among these organisers, and with other curriculum areas to facilitate deeper learning. The mix of traditional curriculum areas with personal and social development demonstrates the need to be clear about the nature of experiences and outcomes within health and wellbeing.
In Scottish education there is a growing understanding of health and wellbeing's role in enabling learners to achieve their full potential. Curriculum for Excellence identifies a range of actions to improve the health and wellbeing of Scotland's people, serving as a reminder that engagement with learners should be set in the context of 'lifelong learning' and tailored appropriately for each age and stage.
To create positive outcomes for learners, partnership working among the education community is essential when developing health and wellbeing practices.
Ask any group of individuals what they understand by health and wellbeing and the responses will be many and varied, reflecting a range of perspectives. If we are to engage meaningfully with learners, a shared conceptual understanding of what health and wellbeing actually entails is essential.
The curriculum framework for health and wellbeing has 11 overarching statements describing how children and young people can expect their learning environment to support them. These statements provide a useful starting point for establishments to determine their different roles in contributing to health and wellbeing as a responsibility of all.
Good health and wellbeing is central to effective learning and preparation for successful independent living for all young people. We can only meet this aspiration through a concerted approach: schools and their partners working together closely to plan their programmes explicitly, taking account of local circumstances and individual needs.
Planning to provide and manage the many different and complementary contributions may be challenging, but it is essential and each individual practitioner must be aware of their roles and responsibilities.
Other areas of focus
The other organisers, some of which may be delivered by specialists, are:
- Planning for choices and changes
- PE, physical activity and sport
- Food and health
- Substance misuse
- Relationships, sexual health and parenthood.
The practice (Gillian Boyle Maths Teacher)
I firmly believe that health and wellbeing through PSHE in particular, but also permeating throughout the curriculum, is probably the most important advice and information we provide to our young people in schools today.
As a maths teacher who loves her subject, this is actually a painful thing to say but it's true. As a school community, it's our job to prepare these young people for life after school. Exam results are vitally important, but without knowledge of personal health and emotional wellbeing; the dangers of drugs, alcohol, inappropriate sexual activity; the rights of young people in our society and promoting tolerance of other people regardless of age, weight, colour, religion or nationality etc; we would be depriving our youngsters of the necessary skills to thrive in the adult world.
In Eastwood we recognised a need to promote health and wellbeing in an honest and frank manner. We understood that the ageing lessons where the teacher lectured on the dangers that await young people in life were just not good enough. Improvement was required to meet the needs of the young people.
Getting the message through to our youngsters was a priority and having researched many alternatives, we decided to promote PSHE health and wellbeing through an ASDAN award in middle school (S2 and S3). Here the pupils are provided with minimal teacher-led information but encouraged through task-based activity to investigate topics in depth and provide themselves with as much relative information as possible. This approach is still fairly new in our school, but is already proving popular with our youngsters and is allowing them to work on their communication and team-working skills, as well as ICT, problem solving and many other core skills required in adulthood. Success in all areas!
One of the biggest barriers to providing outstanding health and wellbeing education is a lack of appropriate staff training at the initial stages of teaching. As a maths teacher I remember well the horror I felt as a young teacher on supply when I was given my first S4 PSHE class and the dreaded drugs and sex chapters. Many of the pupils knew more about the drug world than I did (and still do) and sexual health is often a difficult topic for teachers, especially new teachers,to communicate in an open and honest manner.
University training has yet to grasp the importance of hands-on practical training for their budding secondary teachers to teach PSHE. Contrary to popular opinion, good PSHE lessons are not just a matter of common sense.
In my view...(Anne MacCorquodale, who received Professional Recognition for health and wellbeing)
Health and fitness are vital in developing well-rounded students.
It is not just the job of the physical education department, but can be incorporated into many elements of both curricular and extra-curricular activities. In the classroom, food and technology can educate on nutrition, biology on the impact of good health on your body and geography on how health can affect development in a world context to name but a few examples. It is also a great cross- curricular subject and can provide the theme for a suspended timetable activity which we started in S1 and have now incorporated into a whole school activity.