PSHE Tasks: Week Commencing 3.3.25

Key Stage 3 PSHE Topic - Health and Wellbeing: Keeping Healthy - Personal Hygiene

Objectives

Understand the importance of taking increased responsibility for own physical health – maintaining personal hygiene including oral health and the prevention of infection.

Information

Good hygiene means keeping your body looking, smelling and feeling clean and healthy.  Maintaining good personal hygiene is necessary to keep our bodies physically healthy and for us to feel mentally confident and well.  This is important because the way we look and smell can change the way other people see, think or feel about us. It is easier to make friends and get a good job if you have good personal hygiene.

Experts say you should:

Clean your teeth for two minutes twice a day (morning and night) to prevent the build up of plaque which causes cavities and gum disease.  It also freshens our breath.

Wash your hair every other day or every day, depending on your scalp's needs.  Use a gentle shampoo and conditioner that's appropriate for your hair type. Avoid using too much shampoo or conditioner, which can leave residue on the scalp.  Use a comb or brush while washing to help remove tangles from the hair shaft.

Keep nails clean as germs can lurk in them.

Generally, doctors say we should shower or have a bath once a day as we come into contact with many allergens, viruses and bacteria that can be washed off.  Showering more often can strip the body of moisture.  Showering or bathing three times a week can be fine for some people if they are not active or don't get dirty and the weather is not hot.  On days when you do not shower or bathe you should wipe yourself down with a clean cloth.  Areas of the body needing special attention are the face, armpits, groins and buttocks. These are areas where moisture can build up on the body, increasing the risk of getting bacterial and fungal infections such as jock-itch. For this reason, you should also change into clean clothes after exercising, swimming or getting hot and sweaty.

If you don’t shower you may develop body odour, build up layers of dead skin cells and develop acne.

You should always wash your make-up and sunscreen off each night as these can block the pores of the skin.

You should wash your hands before and after handling food or administering first aid, after you have been to the toilet or changed a nappy, after providing personal care or handling any dirty washing, after handling pets and pet food, after gardening or handling any substance that has got on the hands.  It is also important to be mindful of ailments; viruses such as flu, sickness and diarrhoea and COVID can be caught from trolleys at the supermarket laptops, remote controls, door handles and crowded places. You may want to wash your hands as soon as possible after exposure or use a hand sanitiser.

During menstruation, girls and women need access to hygienic and effective menstrual products in privacy and a clean space.  They should wash their hands before and after changing or using such products.  They need a means of disposing of used products hygienically.

Tasks

1. Produce an annotated diagram of a person showing appropriate hygiene practices.
2. Research a range of products for keeping teeth, hair, skin, hands, feet, and intimate areas clean. You may want to consider ingredients – whether they are natural or environmentally friendly, packaging, cost, how they work, whether they are effective, whether they are inclusive for people with sensitivity or allergies.Or produce a collage of pictures from magazines and Google of hygiene products.
3. Draw designs for a range of products and packaging that you think could be aimed at teens.  This could be for males, females or unisex.
4. Find recipes for making own soaps and hygiene products and have a go at making some.
5. Produce a notice giving advice about hand hygiene and the spread of germs.

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Key Stage 4 PSHE Topic – Health, Wellbeing & Making Informed Lifestyle choices: Sleep

Objectives

Make informed lifestyle choices regarding sleep. 

Information

Teenagers should have approximately 9 hours of sleep a night.  Good quality sleep is necessary for wellbeing and brain function.  Lifestyle choices can affect sleep quality and there are a range of strategies and advice to promote good sleep quality.

After puberty, the biological clock of teenagers shifts to waking naturally 2 hours later and finding it difficult to get to sleep for two hours after they used to.  Consequently, they often feel as being out of sync with family or doing things they need to do, like going to school, college or work.  Spending time outdoors, especially in a morning can be beneficial in inducing sleep.

Teenagers benefit from regular sleep routines, including having at least 1 hour – 90 minutes before bedtime winding down and not using any screen (phone, tablet, video, TV, computers).  Trying to compensate for missed sleep by sleeping in at weekends or holidays will further disrupt sleep habits, making it difficult to get back into routine.  Teenagers should also avoid caffeinated coffee, nicotine, alcohol, tea, sugar, fizzy drinks and sweets later in the day.

When sleep-deprived, teenagers particularly, suffer from irritability, moodiness, experiences of delayed thinking, impulsive acts and risk-taking.

There are consequences to not getting enough sleep or poor-quality sleep such as oversleeping in the morning and being late, being tired when cycling or driving, being tired at school or work. Being tired when operating machinery can be dangerous to self and others. Keeping up with schoolwork, letting down a team or friends as not feeling alert and well to socialise with friends (social jetlag) are also common consequences.

Shifting sleep habits takes approximately 4 weeks to establish a new sleep routine.  You should try changing the routine such as setting the alarm by 10 minutes difference a day.

Helpful sleep strategies and tips include keeping a sleep diary and noting what the day was like when you got good or poor sleep, have a dark cool and tidy room, have 60 – 90 minutes relaxing non-screen time, practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques, have phones out of the bedroom, exercise 2-3 hours before bedtime, have clocks and alarms that are not visible.

Daytime naps of 30-45 minutes can help some people struggling with tiredness but can disrupt sleep patterns.  Keep to a regular pattern at the weekend.  If struggling with racing thoughts while trying to sleep try to allocate time in the daytime for thinking them through.

Note – Although you may have blue lights on your phone screen to reduce the impact of screentime this does not prevent your brain from being active when on social media or gaming.

The NHS and The Sleep Charity have tips and links to organisations for further information, advice and support.

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Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Careers

Objective

Investigate a range of jobs in the Science sector for Science Week.

Information

There is an enormous range of opportunities for people who are interested in science, love science or have a scientific skillset.  Science sectors include medical research, education, space, food, pharmaceuticals, business, technology, green, climate and environmental industries. 

There will always be a high demand for people in science, technology and engineering.

Task

Research some of these industries at Careerpilot.

https://www.careerpilot.org.uk/job-sectors/subject/science

The website is user-friendly and has hundreds of video links to jobs and people’s accounts of working in the different industries.  It has links to jobs and courses at all levels, for example, vocational, apprenticeship and degree courses and gives good advice about what to do if you have a love of science right now.