Health education : part or all of the PSHE and citizenship framework

Recent alterations to the Key Stage 1 and 2 National Curriculum in England have located health education as a strand within a non-statutory framework of Personal, Social, Health education and Citizenship. Starting from the premise that health education should adopt a health-oriented approach, this paper finds the aforementioned health component lacking as a basis on which to operationalise primary school health education. Using medicines education as an example, a disease/risk factor-oriented programme is critiqued and an alternative, health-oriented perspective proposed. This alternative demonstrates how basing health education around every component of the personal, social and health education and citizenship framework can engender a health-oriented approach to health education at Key Stages 1 and 2. Finally, two cautionary notes are made concerning the adoption of this approach