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

About Jenny BarksfieldJenny McWhirterNick Boddington

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. Jennys current research includes effective responses to drug and alcohol hidden harm.   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 Childrens 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 childrens 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.