Personal & Social Education
PSE Co-ordinators: Key Stage 3 Daniel Cuell

Key Stage 4 Andrew Strachan

Personal and social education (PSE) aims to enable students to understand their own personality, skills and aptitudes and encourages them to evaluate their personal progress between the ages of 11 and 16. We encourage students to be open about their attitudes and opinions so that they can place themselves within the wider community on a local, national and global scale. In particular, we focus students on understanding their relationships with those around them, their responsibilities as members of a community, and the wider role they play in the social, economic, political and environmental world in which they live.

The values that underpin PSE at Lord Williams’s mirror the aims of the school as stated by the Governing Body. In particular, we focus on self-respect and respect for others, however diverse the surrounding community may be. Our work supports the Behaviour Code and aims to enable students to carry out their responsibilities as stated in the ‘Home-School Partnership Agreement’. Across all years PSE supports the rest of the curriculum by helping students develop skills needed in their studies and social relationships; it is also an opportunity for the pastoral care of students.

PSE is undertaken in a variety of ways at Lord Williams’s School. Several projects involve small groups of students and are highly suited to specific needs. These include:

Using anti-bullying CD-ROMS and running bullying support groups in Year 7
Supporting the Activ8 programme in Year 8.
Organising extra-curricular initiatives such as the ‘Millennium Group’ at Lower School.

All students work on year-based PSE programmes with their tutor during tutor time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These are developed under the direction of the Heads of Year and are relevant to the particular needs of each year group. At other times, tutor groups work on a Careers Guidance programme. Our current PSE programme comprises:

Key Stage 3
Year 7
Settling in to Lord Williams’s - a comprehensive induction programme for new students
Rights and responsibilities
Safety and first aid
Self-evaluation and ‘Records of Achievement’
Working with charities
Local Agenda 21
Bullying
Better Ways to School

Year 8
Study skills
Safety - revisited
Working at friendships
Working with charities
Communic8 (Communicating with others)
Records of Achievement - updating


Year 9
Making decisions for GCSE
Action or apathy? - dealing with challenging situations in positive ways
Records of Achievement - updating
Human rights

Key Stage 4
Year 10
Study skills
Prejudice
Crime and punishment
Work experience preparation
Records of Achievement - updating

Year 11
Records of Achievement especially CVs and summative statements
Interviews with tutors
Stress management
Family life
Revision using study boxes.

Issues raised through these programmes are developed and revisited during assemblies and special PSE sessions during the year, when the normal timetable is suspended. These provide opportunities for visiting speakers, or for students to visit local community groups, workshops and charitable organisations.