Personal, Social, Health and Emotional ( PSHE )
At Chollerton C of E First School, we understand our responsibility to deliver a high-quality, age-appropriate personal, social, and health education curriculum which incorporates relationships, sex and health curriculum.
Our Christian vision and values will be embedded in our PSHE curriculum promoting social and cultural development through the practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.
We intend our children to flourish, live well together and encourage good mental health.
We support the character and moral development of pupils, aspirations for themselves and hope for the communities of which they are part. We foster dignity and respect enabling pupils to achieve the most they can and inspire hope for others in our local community and beyond.
Our children develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to effectively navigate the complexities of life in the 21st Century. Our curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of society.
Kapow Primary’s RSE/PSHE scheme of work covers the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance (as set out by the Department for Education), including the non-statutory sex education.
The scheme also covers wider PSHE learning, in line with the requirement of the National curriculum (2014) that schools ‘should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).’ Children’s learning through this scheme would significantly contribute to their personal development as set out in the Ofsted Inspection Framework and promotes the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.
Quality PSHE and RSE teaching is an important element in helping schools to carry out their duty of care with regards to safeguarding. The DfE’s statutory ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sep 2020)’ guidance states that ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that children are taught about safeguarding, including online safety. Schools should consider this as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum’. In response to the child-on-child abuse updates to Section 5 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2022), our curriculum introduces and revisits ideas of personal boundaries, consent and communicating our boundaries with others. This prepares pupils for the challenges and responsibilities they will face in the future.
In addition to our discreet lessons, PSHE is part of a wider cross curricular approach, with the aim to support the development of the ‘whole child’, by helping them to understand how they are developing personally and socially as well as promoting their social, mental and physical development.
Implementation
The Kapow Primary scheme is a whole school approach that consists of three areas of learning in EYFS: Reception (to match the EYFS Personal, social and emotional development prime area) and five areas of learning across Key stages 1 and 2.
EYFS:
● Self-regulation
● Building relationships
● Managing self
Key stage 1 and 2:
● Families and relationships
● Health and wellbeing
● Safety and the changing body
● Citizenship
● Economic well being
Each area is revisited to allow children to build on prior learning. The lessons also provide a progressive programme. The lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health education, but where our lessons go beyond these requirements (primarily in the Citizenship and Economic well being areas) they refer to the PSHE Association Programme of Study which is recommended by the DfE. Sex education is not covered by our curriculum, due to the fact our children leave at the end of Year 4; It is covered during Upper Key Stage 2 when children move on to their next school.
The scheme supports the requirements of the Equality Act through direct teaching, for example learning about different families, the negative effect of stereotypes and celebrating differences, in addition to the inclusion of diverse teaching resources throughout the lessons.
Organisation
Class 1
In Reception and Year 1, most PSHE is taught through a topic approach; some content is taught discretely.
Class 2
Children are grouped according to the content of the lessons; most often, Years 3 and 4 are taught together and Year 2 are taught separately. Lower Key Stage 2 content has been arranged so that these units are taught in a spiral curriculum that revisits each theme every two years. This enables children to recall and build upon previous learning, exploring the underlying principles of PSHE education regularly at a depth that is appropriate for the age and stage of the child. Lessons also signpost key words, building a rich vocabulary to develop understanding.
A range of teaching and learning activities are used and are based on good practice in teaching RSE/PSHE education to ensure that all children can access learning and make progress. In key stage 1 and 2, there is an introductory lesson at the start of each year group which provides the opportunity for children and teachers to negotiate ground rules for the lessons. These introductory lessons can then be referred to throughout the year to help create a safe environment. All lessons are differentiated to stretch the most able learners and give additional support to those who need it. The use of stories, scenarios, and video clips provide the opportunity for children to engage in real life and current topics in a safe and structured way. Role-play activities are also included to help children play out scenarios that they may find themselves in.
There are meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular learning, in particular with Computing for online safety, PE for leading healthy, active lives and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle. Therefore, flexibility in the timetable needs to be accounted for as some objectives for PSHE education will be met outside of the allocated timetable slot. Flexibility in the timetable is also important to allow us to respond to local, national and global events in an age appropriate way. Opportunities such as the Chrysalis Inter-Generational Project allow our Year 4 children to become active, responsible citizens and appreciate and value others when working with people with dementia.
The scheme provides consistent messages throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help.
The role of parents and carers is recognised, and we work with them and include them in their children’s learning.
Assessment for learning opportunities are built into each lesson, which enable self-evaluation and reflective learning and allow teachers to evaluate and assess progress. Each lesson begins with a discussion of children’s existing knowledge and experience, providing an opportunity for baseline assessment. Each lesson ends with an opportunity to consolidate and reflect upon learning.
Impact
By regularly and carefully assessing children’s knowledge and understanding, staff identify that the PSHE and RSE curriculum is having a positive impact on pupils’ learning. This enables them to identify gaps in learning and adapt their teaching to fill these.
Each unit of lessons comes with an Assessment quiz and Knowledge catcher. The quiz contains 10 questions, nine of which are multiple-choice and can be used either at the end of the unit or at both the start and the end to help measure progress and identify any gaps in learning. The Knowledge catchers list some of the lesson titles in mind-map or table format and can be used at the start of a unit to see what the children already know and to inform planning, and then pupils can revisit the same version of the Knowledge catcher at the end of the unit to add what else they now know, further demonstrating their progression in learning.
Our PSHE and RSE curriculum provides an effective curriculum for wellbeing. Children are enabled to develop the vocabulary and confidence needed to clearly articulate their thoughts and feelings in a climate of openness, trust and respect, and know when and how they can seek the support of others. They will apply their understanding of society to their everyday interactions, from the classroom to the wider community of which they are a part. Our scheme of work supports the active development of our school culture, which prioritises physical and mental health and wellbeing, providing children with skills to evaluate and understand their own wellbeing needs, practise self-care and contribute positively to the wellbeing of those around them.
Successful PSHE education can have a positive impact on the whole child, including their academic development and progress, by mitigating any social and emotional barriers to learning and building confidence and self-esteem. Evidence suggests that successful PSHE education also helps disadvantaged and vulnerable children achieve to a greater extent by raising aspirations and empowering them with skills to overcome barriers they face. Our scheme of work is used as a whole-school approach to positively impact wellbeing, safeguarding and SMSC outcomes. This ensures that all children at Chollerton First School are able to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to succeed at school and in the wider world.