Beth Chandler, Head of PSHE at Kings' School, Winchester
Beth supports non-specialist colleagues in delivering employability and careers sessions to Years 7 to 9. She uses LifeSkills resources and finds these sessions help students understand their strengths and skills as well as the skills they will need in their future careers.
One of the key aspects Beth focuses on in her role is embedding transferable skills across the school. By using LifeSkills resources, she says she is not only able to ensure that there is a shared language about transferable skills across departments and year groups in school, but provide students with credible, real-world insights that prepare them for their future careers.
“The future of careers is such an important topic for young people which means having professional material is really important – so we’re not just blabbing on about what it was like in my day.”
One of the challenges PSHE Leads face is that the teachers delivering PSHE sessions may not have specialist expertise, so they need high-quality resources that all teachers can get excited about and deliver confidently.
Beth states that she’s got “lots of different teachers teaching PSHE, and every year it can change in terms of who delivers it, but I’ve had feedback that they like using LifeSkills because the resources are straightforward to use.” Similarly, Beth has found that the resources both ensure student engagement and learning.
Beth emphasises that helping students understand the future of careers is crucial to help them thrive in their next steps, and is at the heart of her vision for PSHE.
Beth discovered LifeSkills lessons and activities online, As well as being straightforward to embed and deliver, another key advantage is that they allow for effective sequencing:
“I always start from the point of view of what do I want the pupils to learn? Then I go onto the site, and click into the right topics and age groups, until I find something that answers what I’m trying to do. So, for year 7 it’s that hook of trying to introduce them to different types of careers and start thinking about skills, and then in year 8 building on that. I’m always looking for sequencing through the years.”
“Having a clear plan and well-organised resources is really important. With all the will in the world, even teachers who enjoy teaching PSHE don’t have a huge amount of time to prepare. So, the easier it is to navigate with ready-made resources where all you need to do is print them out - that’s the way to ensure engagement from the teacher and that you’re still going to have a well-delivered, quality lesson.”
“Now the site is my first port of call and quickly became a trusted resource. To be honest, the reason I like Barclays LifeSkills resources is because I don’t have to do much fiddling with them at all, and they generally work standalone as well as being good quality.”
