The Personal, Social And Emotional - Parents Page
What Are We Calling The Personal, Social and Emotional?
Keeping Emotionally Healthy means looking after your safety, your wellbeing, your strength, and your friendships. It also means knowing when you might be at risk and what to do about it.
Having a healthy body and doing regular exercise can help you keep a healthy mind too. But staying safe is also an important part of being emotionally healthy.
Being home-schooled can sometimes feel lonely, and for some people, that can make feelings of sadness or depression worse. That’s why, at Orchard Training, we often talk about Personal, Social and Emotional Education — and what we can do to look after ourselves.
Many of our learners study on their own, and this can make them feel lonely. Some need help and encouragement to join a group, especially if they left school because of bullying.
Some of our learners are in hospital and feel very low. This can be because of their illness, long treatments, medicine, or being away from others.
That’s why we talk about being mentally healthy, not just physically fit.
Following a Set Programme of Learning
Teaching mental health education involves more than just your emotions. It involves helping learners not only to see their mind but their bodies in a new way. It involves building learners confidence in their ability to solve challenging problems, and empowering them to build a better future for themselves and others.
Because we don't have to follow the National Curriculum we can spend a whole lot more time on this- if this is what is needed to be talked about! You can't all ways talk to mum and dad about stuff. Sometimes you need an outside the family opinion.
Staying safe by our self is a very important part of growing up. Some of our learners find the transition in to independence very trick and for some its dam right scary! We spend a lot of time dealing with this - nothing will surprise us.
We take disclosures and child protection very seriously and have procedures in place to report abuse. If you would like to see these policies and procedures - please just ask.
Keeping your child safe is a team effort!
Recording The Learning
The best way to keep track of what you’re doing is to write it down in your diary. We’ll encourage you to make notes about what we talk about when we visit you.
You can also join us on Facebook or follow our blog, where we run something called Mischievous Moral Mayhem.
Each week, we’ll post a social problem or issue online. You can write 200–500 words about how you would solve it and keep your writing as part of your evidence log.
If there’s an answer that would make sense to your parents, you can write a “Mum-Friendly Version” for them to read. You can also write another version just for me if your answer would be very different.
This isn’t about keeping secrets from your parents. It’s natural for them to want to know they’ve done a good job raising you. But everyone needs a bit of space to think and talk freely — especially teenagers, people who have been bullied, or learners on the autistic spectrum.
It’s okay to say things like:
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“I don’t think I’d do that.”
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“I’d find that really hard.”
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“I feel like doing this because…”
You can share your thoughts honestly, without worrying about hurting anyone’s feelings. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone outside your family about these things.
What you tell us is private. We won’t share it unless there’s something we’re really worried about — in that case, we’ll follow our safeguarding procedures to keep you safe.
Making Friends After Leaving A Hostile School Environment.
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If you left school because you were bullied or found it hard to make friends, being home-schooled might feel like a relief at first. But after a while, you might start to feel lonely or bored — that’s what people sometimes call “cabin fever.”
Let’s be honest — your mum is great, but you probably don’t want to spend all day, every day with her! It’s true what they say: a little time apart helps you appreciate people more.
That’s why we’d love you to join us and learn to make friends again. On the first Thursday of every month, we go for a walk together. It’s a relaxed way to meet people and get past the awkwardness of talking to someone new.
Everyone there understands what it’s like — they’ve been through similar things.
Why not join us on
Walking for Friendship?
Mondays - Mischievous Moral Mayhem!
You’re at a friend’s house, sitting at the dining table. You start to swing on the chair — and suddenly you hear a loud crack! The chair has broken. The parent isn’t in the room, but they are somewhere in the house.
What do you do? Do you own up and tell them what happened, or do you stay quiet and hope no one notices?
There isn’t a right or wrong answer here — it’s about what you think is the best thing to do.
Write 200 to 500 words explaining what you would do or could, what you should and what you would do in this situation. Think about how you would feel, what your friend might think, and what could happen next.
Here at Orchard Training, we include this kind of learning in our projects so it feels natural — and enjoyable too.
You don’t need any fancy or expensive equipment to learn about this. All you need is time and good listening skills.
Your emotions are closely linked to how well you sleep and eat. If you ever need help with either of these, please come and talk to us — we’re here to support you.