Understanding Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education in Primary Schools

About Adrian KingJenny McWhirterNick Boddington

Starting his career as an art and mathematics teacher working in both primary and secondary schools in north London, Nick Boddington joined the Advisory Service where he specialised in the teaching of sensitive issues including SRE, HIV, bullying and drug education.  One of the first Ofsted Inspectors to be trained, he left the Advisory Service as Lead Senior Adviser for Children’s Wellbeing for Essex to take up his current position as Subject Lead with the national PSHE Association. Nick is committed to a model of PSHE that places children’s individual and unique understanding of their world and their own enquiry at the centre of learning. He is co-author of a number of Government documents, academic texts and teaching resources committed to improving the quality of PSHE education. He has spent over 25 years championing the importance of placing high quality PSHE at the centre of the school curriculum. Adrian King has been a teacher in both primary and secondary schools and was Health Education Co-ordinator for Berkshire Local Authority from 1985 to 1998. Since then he has been an independent consultant, trainer and author. In 2004 Adrian was the consultant engaged to write Drugs: Guidance for Schools for the Department for Children School and Families. He has been Membership Secretary of the National Health Education Group since 1986 and has also been an elected official for both Drug Education Forum and Drug Education Practitioners’ Forum. Adrian is committed to improving the quality of PSHE education for young people, working to ensure it addresses their needs, and respects both their rights and their responsibilities. Dr Jenny McWhirter is a freelance researcher and author who has been interested in the health and well being of children and young people since working as a part time youth worker in the 1980s.  She has been researching effective approaches to PSHE education for more than 25 years.  At Southampton University she managed an MSc in Health Education with Health Promotion and developed a special study in PSHE and Citizenship for the secondary PGCE programme.  Her research includes many aspects of PSHE education, including personal finance, asthma and drug education.  After leaving academia in 2003, Jenny worked for DrugScope and, later RoSPA, as an education advisor. Jenny has been chair of the Drug Education Forum and the Drug Education Practitioners’ Forum.  She was a member of the NICE Programme Development Group ‘Strategies to prevent unintentional injuries among the under 15s’. Jenny’s current research includes effective responses to drug and alcohol hidden harm.