KEEPING HEALTHY SERIES. Exercise. Eating. Harmful Substances. Personal Hygiene. Relationships and Safety. By Carol Ballard. Hodder Waylandpound;10.99 each

Angela Piddock suggests resources to help tackle issues of health and wellbeing

If you can put aside your ire at a presentation which patronises your key stage 1 pupils by inviting them to chose between “thinky”,“feely” and “talky” activities in order to explore serious moral and social issues, then you will find The NotSo Naughty Stories a useful way of addressing part of the PSHE curriculum.

The 12 stories of the title provide an effective starting point for this exploration and an accompanying booklet suggests further activities, some of which may be familiar, but if not, are worth trying.

The CD is designed to be used with the whole class, groups, or individual children. The teacher has control of what activities are made available and can record which ones various pupils have completed. I doubt that teachers will want to use all aspects of this programme, but they should find much of it useful.

The Let’s Stop Bullying! CD aims to provide children with advice on their rights and responsibilities and what they should do if they feel unsafe or are being bullied. Its interactive facility enables schools to add their own information on the steps they take to ensure a safe environment.

Digital photos and video clips can be inserted, as well as a voice-over, so that the presentation becomes closely relevant to the circumstances in your school. The accompanying booklet explains clearly how this can be done so that even the most technologically-challenged can customise the presentation. It is set up so you can even get your pupils actively involved in presenting their own anti-bullying programme. The CD offers an imaginative and flexible way to get your message across to all members of the school community.

The Keeping Healthy series of books covers all aspects of keeping healthy, from the physical to the emotional. The emphasis is on children taking responsibility for themselves and this is to be welcomed.

The books tackle sensitive areas of the PSHE curriculum, such as relationships, drugs and emotions, in a way which is straightforward and accessible. Although the series is aimed at eight to 11-year-olds, the books could be just as successfully used with six to seven-year-olds.

However, even in addressing the older pupils, couldn’t the statement in the section on alcohol in Harmful Substances - that “drinking with your friends can be fun” - be seen as taking openness a bit too far?

Eating is a particularly volume. It approaches issues around a healthy diet and food preparation in an informative and non-patronising way - and the illustrations are delicious.

However, there are some omissions. For example, why does the section on fire not tell the child what to do if he or she catches fire? There are also some odd glossary definitions. These are, however, quibbles in what is an extremely good and well-presented series.

Angela Piddock is head of Wilberforce Primary School, Westminster, London