About Court Fields School
Court Fields School is a secondary school in Wellington, Somerset. Like many schools across England, it had PSHE embedded within its timetable, but the way it was being delivered was falling short of what students needed. PSHE Lead Richenda Battishill led a significant overhaul of the school’s approach, sharing her experience and the lessons learned at a Life Lessons PSHE Network Meeting for schools in the South West.
The challenge: PSHE squeezed into twenty minutes
Before the changes were made, PSHE at Court Fields School was being delivered in form time, a model that created a cascade of problems for staff, and ultimately for students.
What wasn’t working
- PSHE was being squeezed into a 20-minute morning tutorial slot, leaving insufficient time for meaningful learning
- Lessons were led by non-specialist tutors who found it challenging to facilitate difficult or sensitive conversations
- Students who were withdrawn for interventions during tutorial time missed lessons entirely, creating gaps in their learning
- The resources in use were outdated; heavy on video clips that were either AI-generated or American, and therefore felt irrelevant to students
- Student engagement was consistently low, and pupils struggled to understand why they were studying PSHE at all
- The format made it impossible to cover the breadth of content required within the time available
It was clear that a change was needed, not just to the resources, but to the fundamental structure of how PSHE was timetabled and delivered.
The solution: making PSHE a proper curriculum subject
Richenda and the team took a deliberate, structured approach to rebuilding PSHE from the ground up. Rather than making incremental tweaks, they made a series of connected changes that addressed the root causes of the problems they had identified.
Structural changes
- PSHE was moved into the formal timetable as a dedicated one-hour lesson at Key Stage 3, ensuring all students received consistent, uninterrupted access to the curriculum
- A dedicated specialist PSHE team was established, with investment in training to ensure staff felt confident and equipped to lead discussions on sensitive topics
- Exercise books replaced printed booklets, giving PSHE the same look and feel as other subjects and signalling to students that it deserved the same level of engagement
Where Life Lessons made the difference
Introducing Life Lessons as the school’s PSHE resource was a turning point. Richenda highlighted several specific ways in which the platform supported the school’s goals:
- A clear structure and logical flow gave staff confidence and ensured consistency across classes
- Resources were age-appropriate and directly relevant to students’ lives – a marked contrast to what had been used before
- Life Lessons peer and expert video clips replaced the AI-generated and American content, generating noticeably higher engagement
- Discussion-based activities kept students actively involved in lessons rather than passive recipients of information
- Built-in assessment tools helped students understand how to improve, and gave the PSHE team the data they needed to plan effectively
- A clear curriculum overview gave staff visibility of the full programme, building their confidence and reducing planning burden
The results
Since making these changes, Court Fields School has seen a marked improvement across a number of areas:
- Student engagement in PSHE has increased significantly, with pupils more willing to participate in discussions and activities
- Staff report greater confidence in delivering PSHE, particularly when navigating difficult or sensitive topics
- The curriculum is now coherent and cumulative – students build knowledge and skills progressively across Key Stage 3 rather than encountering disconnected topics
- Assessment has given students agency over their own learning, and has provided the team with meaningful insight to inform future planning
- PSHE now has parity of esteem with other subjects, something that has shifted both student and staff attitudes towards it
Delivered by Richenda Battishill at a Life Lessons PSHE Network Meeting.
