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The Importance of PHSE

27th September 2012 ... Charlotte

Today I was a key note speaker at a university health day for PGCE students. I spoke with particular reference to the importance of covering mental illness and emotional wellbeing in PHSE.

Standing in front of the 400 students was one of the scariest things I have done in a long time; it's a good job that I was behind a lectern or they would have seen the extent to which my legs were shaking! I told my story pointing out that when I was ill and missing a lot of school the teachers told me to prioritise the lessons which I attended, they said not to go to PHSE as it "wasn't that important". Looking back I find this ironic as PHSE was probably the one subject that could have benefited me at the time, much more so than any academic subject. I got the impression that in my school some of the teachers regarded PHSE as a soft subject and this attitude was picked up by the students. Actually in my opinion PHSE is one of the most important subjects. When I left school I had nearly all A grades at GCSE but I was in an adolescent psychiatric unit, my point being that you can have the best grades in the world but if you're not in a place to be able to use them they are kind of pointless. School is not just about academic achievement but forming healthy well rounded individuals.

If there is one thing that I hope the students took away from today it would be the importance of ALL students studying mental illness, after all mental health is everyone's business. It's vital that students receive support so we can intervene early and help those one in ten young people that suffer with a diagonalisable condition. I had some really fantastic feedback from the students and even had several that opened up to me about their own difficulties. It was an honour to feel like I was influencing the next generation of teachers that will be caring for society's young people. I only wish my teachers had experienced the same training.

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