 In today's Bites by CPD I'm going to be inviting you to have a think about how we can develop safe and sensitive teaching strategies when we are dealing with difficult topics such as those related to mental health. So maybe we're going to be teaching about self harm or eating disorders for example. But equally you could use these strategies when teaching any tricky topics in PSHE so if you are covering say abuse or FGM for example. Okay so number one is to imagine that you have got a vulnerable pupil front and centre. So whatever topic it is that you're talking about say I'm going to deliver a lesson on self harm I would imagine in the centre of the front row a pupil who is currently self harming. I would try when I was developing and delivering that lesson to cater to that child's needs and to keep them safe. If I keep that most vulnerable child safe then I will be keeping the entire class safe. So my first invitation for you to have a think about this is when developing and delivering the lesson what would you need to think about in order to keep that child safe. So you might be thinking about things like your use of images and how you might distance the learning for example but come up with as many different things as you can think of as what you would need to bear in mind to keep that child safe. Okay the next step is to give due warning that this tricky topic is coming up. So you can let pupils know that the topic is going to be covered and you can let other relevant adults know the topics coming up as well because sometimes you won't necessarily know all the needs of the pupils in your class because perhaps your safeguarding lead or your pastoral staff have got additional information about pupils in your class and they might know for example that child X is struggling with an eating disorder and you might not know that so you wouldn't necessarily know to reach out to them. So yeah recognizing that we need to share a little bit more widely. So have a think about who do you need to tell and have a think about what information you need to be sharing with them. What should you be sharing the whole lesson plan or just the topics? What do you need to share? So how are you going to do that and who are you going to tell? Okay so number three is having a bit of a plan around what you could do during your lesson if a pupil were to become distressed. What's your plan for managing that? Do you have an extra pair of hands you can help? Are they able to leave? Where would they go? That kind of thing. My kind of top tip here is just making sure you've always got a discussion activity up your sleeve so if you become aware that a pupil looks stressed and you think you need to check in with them you can get everyone talking and then you can quietly check in with that pupil. Have a think about what's practical within your lesson. If a pupil were to become distressed what could you do? Have a plan for that. Have a think about that now. Okay number four is making sure that you clearly sign post support for any pupils who might be impacted by the issues covered in the lesson. Whether that is directly impacted themselves or if they're worried about a friend they need to know why to go for help and what will happen if they do. Have a think about what sources of support you could be sign posting and also how you can sign post them beyond the lesson because sometimes pupils don't want to be seen to be writing them down so can you think about putting them on toilet doors or in planners or repeating them in assembly or putting them on the website? What else might you be able to do? What support should you be sign posting? That's both within school and then also like websites and help lines and stuff and where can you do that sign posting? Okay and it can also be really helpful as well as sign posting support if you're able to make yourself available just after the lesson so where possible it's great if this lesson can be just before the end of the day or just before lunch for example just in case this has stirred up anything for anyone and they just need to touch in with you and ask for some help at the end. Finally number five is trying to ensure that you are helping pupils to transition out of what might have been quite a heavy lesson so you might want to kind of lighten the mood essentially and ready them for the next learning that they're about to do so have a think about what activities could you do at the end of the lesson just for a couple of minutes just to help kids get back into the right mindset and able to carry on with the rest of their school day and kind of yeah lighten the mood really what would work well here what do you imagine being able to do. Okay I hope that helps I mean it's a massive topic and I could teach on this for days but actually one of the things I find quite often is that people are a bit reluctant to tackle tricky topics in PSHE because they're really worried that they'll get things wrong and hopefully just having a little bit of a framework and some ideas here for doing it safely and sensitively will make you feel a little bit more able to be brave and tackle some of the tough topics. If you've got other ideas to add or experiences to share please leave them in a comment below remember loads of different people use these videos in their CPD and if you are willing to share your experience it makes it an even better experience for them too so please take a moment to leave a comment if you have something to add suggest or share. I hope it was helpful do subscribe and you will be kept up to date with my videos on Tuesdays and Fridays and do drop me a line let me know in the comments if there are any particular topics you would like me to cover in future Bitesize CPD sessions. Hope it was helpful see you next time bye.