Considering that sex is a topic of infinite curiosity to most teens, it has always seemed incongruous that they are so averse to personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education. We know they want to know more - about sex and all the other “life” lessons in the subject - and each school usually has at least one excellent PSHE teacher: Mr Penney, at ours, is one of the greatest I have had the privilege to teach alongside.

So, what’s going on? It’s a question that we need to consider carefully. The roll-out of the new relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum may have been postponed until next summer, but we still have to ensure we are ready - and, regardless, school should be about teaching the whole child, so even without the policy pressure, this should be something we are constantly trying to get right.

One potential option is outsourcing: there are some wonderful theatre productions and teams of specialist facilitators who can be brought in and who will do sterling work in engaging young people through carefully devised drama, role plays and workshops. Unfortunately, with current school budget cuts, these services have now become luxuries. So, it falls to the school staff to deliver these vital strands.

But what are the key issues with a school-only approach?

●The PSHE coordinator (who, one would hope, is passionate about the topics) is unable to teach all the students in the school, so the delivery of this part of the curriculum is generally shared among the teaching staff. “This is not my area of expertise - I’m a subject specialist,” you hear them cry. Most teachers care about the value of the subject matter, but many don’t feel they are qualified to teach some of the topics, which might range from disability discrimination to debt, and from sex and consent to self-harm. The bottom line is: many don’t want to teach PSHE.

To support the resistant staff member, the PowerPoint presentations they are provided tend to be packed with every bit of information the educator might need. In a worst-case scenario, the staff member will then read off the presentation and the students will completely disengage.

If that’s not enough, these lessons fall to the back of the prep queue for many teachers, so they tend to be ill-prepared and the next slide is often as much of a surprise to the teacher as it is to the students.

Badly crafted and poorly delivered PSHE lessons can do do more harm than good in these crucial areas for children’s development.

So, how do we get over these issues?

Inspiration came to me while driving home from school. A programme on the radio was detailing how podcasts are booming both in the UK and globally. The steepest growth in listening is now among young adults aged 15 to 24 - with around one in five (18.7 per cent) now enjoying podcasts weekly. Intrigued, I did some research that evening and discovered that one of the reasons podcasts are on the rise is because of the intimacy of the voices and the stories that are often told - the ability of the audio to hold our concentration. I found some fascinating research from Emma Rodero, a professor of communications at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, who conducted a study into how audio productions retain people’s attention.

She told The Atlantic: “Audio is one of the most intimate forms of media because you are constantly building your own images of the story in your mind and creating your own production … And that, of course, is something that you can never get with visual media.”

Perhaps you have jumped ahead and can see where I am heading with this, but I will state it nonetheless: PSHE delivered via podcast seemed like a no-brainer.

Our students already had a Bett award-winning bespoke app for their school, Brighton Hill TeenMind, in which there are sections called My Mind, My Body, My Relationships and My Relaxation. The creation of a series of eight-minute podcasts on PSHE-themed topics - called My World - seemed the logical next step.

Essentially, we saw the role of the podcasts not as delivering the entirety of the lesson, but as a series of bitesized hooks to provide the key content. The topics would be delivered over two lessons:

●The first part would consist of a podcast made by our students after having interviewed an expert. Then the class would break into groups or pairs and answer a series of questions based on what they heard.

●The follow-up lesson would feature a visual stimulus from an image, a film or a case study. The students would watch or study it and then answer questions or discuss scenarios around it. This lesson would serve to embed understanding of the topic or elaborate in greater detail.

When would students have time to listen to those interviews? We looked at procuring some of the time allocated to our twice-per-day, 25-minute tutor slots.

In order to ensure relevance to our target audience and to get the tone and language right, students from Years 8, 9 and 10 were selected to become researchers as My World ambassadors.

All the students were given topics and outcomes that were age-relevant to their year groups and they worked in tutor periods researching the topics and putting together key information that they felt would be relevant for their peers to learn. Having conducted the research, the students were clear about the information that needed to be revealed through the type of questions they asked in the podcast.

The format for those podcasts was a straight interview and, most of the time, the students led the interviews. We wanted to interview people who were passionate and knowledgeable on each topic - these were the “storytellers”. It was important that they had an anecdote to share that personalised the podcast and the topic being explored. The interviewees were sourced from the students themselves, the staff body and the local community.

The results were some extremely engaging, emotional, heartwarming podcasts.

For example, one group was given the topic of character strengths. Three students did a very moving interview with a staff member that explored a tragic turning point in his life, from which he was able to highlight the character traits that got him through that tough stage - both mentally and emotionally. Another staff member had experienced homophobia and was able to talk candidly about discrimination and his views on why people are homophobic and what we need to do about it.

We also had staff talking about: living with a mental health challenge and the signs to look out for; a moving personal account of grief and losing a child; unhealthy and healthy relationships and what that staff member had experienced as the danger signs; and Mr Penney was able to talk comfortably about contraception, sex and consent.

Suddenly, the PSHE lessons were not just topics - they were topics contextualised in personal stories delivered through engaging podcasts.

Of course, the podcasts were not enough on their own. Once the lessons had been created, I trained all the staff on how to deliver a safe lesson when it came to facilitating discussions around PSHE themes, but especially mental health and RSE. Staff were guided on how to set up agreed boundaries with their tutor groups: for example, how to get them to agree to listen respectfully, and how to facilitate a discussion to allow students to ask awkward questions but ensure that the most vulnerable in the class were always kept in mind.

It was also key to ensure the staff were prepared in the event of a possible disclosure and the need to follow our safeguarding procedures. So, how did it go?

The teachers who had to deliver the sessions were relieved that they did not have to be the experts, just the facilitators for the discussions. We ensured that the facilitator was also the class tutor, which meant strong relationships were already set up, enabling comfortable discussions and trust between teacher and students.

Feedback from students and staff has been hugely positive. Many of the lessons I went into were buzzing with discussions. Obviously, the real test will be long-term change. I’m in the throes of researching the impact of what knowledge the students have retained.

We will only have done our job if all our students are able to make informed decisions about their relationships and emotional and mental health in the future.

But what about the planning, you ask? The beauty of podcasts is their longevity. They can be used again and again and again on most digital platforms (long after Mr Penney has retired!). When one needs updating, we can do that, but the upfront work has saved us huge amounts of time in the long term.

Of course, in the past few months, there has been an added benefit. As Covid-19 hit, we crossed into virtual learning and we suddenly realised that we could support our students both academically and pastorally by rolling out some of the pre-recorded podcasts online. Not only were many of the themes - such as resilience and character strengths - relevant during lockdown, but the students also greatly appreciated hearing the familiar voices of their teachers and fellow students, helping to keep us connected as a school community.

We’ll keep you posted on the long-term impact but, for now, why don’t you have a listen and then maybe give it a try at your school?

Clare Erasmus is head of the digital technology and communications faculty at Brighton Hill Community School in Basingstoke

To listen to some of the podcasts, visit Anchor FM at bit.ly/BrightonPod

This article originally appeared in the 19 June 2020 issue under the headline “Let’s talk about sex (among other things): how we podcasted PSHE”