T racking down software and web content resources to help teach personal, social and health education, particularly for key stages 1-2, can seem a tricky task. At this level, PSHE is not a compulsory part of the curriculum, but it is combined with citizenship and covered by a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) framework of non-statutory guidelines. Because of this overlap, differentiating between resources for the two subjects can be difficult.

At primary level, PSHE is taught through four broad themes based on building confidence, becoming active citizens, being healthy and safe and developing good relationships between different people.

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) is working with different subject associations to build guidelines on both citizenship and PSHE as new subjects. Tim Dumbleton, who handles the agency's links with the Association for Citizenship Teaching (www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk), says several websites offer teachers a strong starting point for PSHE learning and resources, including:

· Teacher Resource Exchange (www.tre.ngfl.gov.uk), where teachers post ideas and resources;

· Virtual Teacher Centre (www.vtc.ngfl.gov.uk ), for links to a vast array of resources and PSHE organisations;

· Becta's ICT advice site (www.ictadvice.org.uk), for marrying ICT with PSHE and citizenship;

· Becta's Educational Software Database (http://besd.becta.org.uk).

Another popular site to search for free educational resources, recommended by the Schools Health Education Unit, is Schoolzone (www.schoolzone.co.uk). The National Association for Pastoral Care in Education site at www.warwick.ac.uk/wie/napce is also worth a look.

In addition, Dr John Cuthell, a Huddersfield University research fellow who studies the effects of ICT in education, recommends the following:

· the BBC website (<A HREF="http://www.bbc.co."

uk/schools/teachers/">www.bbc.co.uk/schools/teachers/) for primary level resources in PSHE;

· Grid Club (www.gridclub.com), where students can set up their own debates in a protected environment;

· TeacherNet (www.teachernet.gov.uk/pshe), which contains many evaluated resources;

· World E-Citizens (www.mirandanet.ac.uk/wecitizens), a protected environment site for students to post work and for teachers to organise collaborative projects with schools across the globe and run by the ICT in education MirandaNet (www.mirandanet.ac.uk.

"The interactivity of software and website content, as well as other ICT tools, is a very important component of teaching PSHE," says Cuthell, who believes younger children may understand words but not necessarily the concepts that much PSHE software and web content contains.

One school using knowledge of its local environment to stimulate thought on the wider world is Southborough CofE primary, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Deputy head Jonathan Kersey works on PSHE with the school's eco council, made up of student representatives from each class from five upwards, who work together to improve their environment.

Much of the council's work is based on the Eco Schools website (www.eco-schools.org.uk), which shows how to set up projects and provides teaching content and techniques.

"We were looking for ways to develop our participation in the Healthy Schools Initiative, and the Eco Schools Project was recommended to us as a great way to expand on that," says Kersey.

The website showed him how to help his students invest prize money from a competition in new litter bins for the school: a scheme the students unveiled in a school assembly.

At Athelston primary school at Sherburn in Elmet, Leeds, deputy head Rick Weights uses software with themes that young students are all too familiar with. Taking Indigo Multimedia's It's Your Goal, he teaches years 4 and 5 about healthy lifestyles (www.itsyourgoal.com). The program takes an unhealthy footballer in a Harry Potter-style castle and uses an interactive environment of animated characters to get students to help him give up his slovenly ways.

After an introduction to the lesson on the interactive whiteboard, students work in pairs before presenting their findings to the class in group discussion. "This software appeals to this age group, as it presents them with topics they will come across again and again," says Weights. "It delivers a lot of the teaching objectives I have in PSHE, science, and also design and technology, where I get students to use the software to design a healthy menu."

Web content and software is also useful for introducing more complex subjects, such as relationship-related software for roleplay, says Cuthell. One example is Swaythling primary school, Southampton. Drew Mackay, department head and ICT coordinator, uses the Kar2ouche software application, Relationships, School and the Wider World, to teach PSHE to years 5 and 6 (www.kar2ouche.com

Initially, students work in pairs on the software, which they find non-threatening, Mackay says. At the end of lessons, ideas are shared among the class, and then their ideas and individual story strands are presented in school assembly.

"This software gives you a set of story boards aimed at this age group, which they are meeting on a day-to-day basis, like bullying and how both parties feel," says Mackay.

"It really is a very useful, usable tool that can be used in many different ways. The only difficult aspect is that it's so good, everyone wants to spend a lot of time on it."