Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) & RSE

At St John’s Primary School, we recognise the importance of PSHE and RSE and the part it plays in the education of our pupils.   We believe that PSHE & RSE enables and supports children to gain the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy and fulfilling lives- with high aspirations ready to meet the next stage of their education, their lives and future. We empower our pupils with teaching, skills and knowledge about different kinds of relationships, emotions, looking after ourselves, different families, sex, sexuality and sexual health equipping them for adult life and enabling them to make a positive contribution to society.

Intent

We value the importance of the new statutory requirements, which reinforce the importance of our role in helping pupils to become secure, independent and responsible members of society recognising we are all different yet equal. In addition, the statutory requirements of all schools to provide compulsory Relationships Education (September 2020), will further support children as they negotiate their world and the wide variety of different relationships they experience within it. At our school, we understand the legal requirements of PSHE and Relationships education at EYFS, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two and ensure we implement these effectively.

Implementation

PSHE and Relationships education has three main areas in our school – Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.  At our school, we think carefully about our pupils, families and wider community when we plan our PSHE and Relationships curriculum.  We always consider pupils’ starting points.  We recognise that children will bring differing levels of knowledge and understanding to any issue explored through PSHE & RSE. We aim, through our spiral curriculum, to develop the pupil’s skills for life including: independence, aspiration (and to aspire), resilience, confidence, future possibilities, participation, initiative and enterprise, financial capability and a healthy lifestyle. These will be taught within a safe environment of our Christian values.

The government have endorsed guidance and materials provided by the PSHE Association as a suitable way to deliver the PSHE & Relationships curriculum and at St John’s Primary School, we use these many of these materials as a basis for our teaching.

We have structured our PSHE & Relationships curriculum is a spiral structure as follows:

Health and Wellbeing:
Healthy Lifestyles
Growing and Changing
Keeping Safe

Relationships:
Feelings and Emotions
Healthy Relationships
Valuing Difference

Living in the Wider World:
Rights and Responsibilities
Environment
Money

We encourage active engagement in lessons and provide a variety of activities to stimulate, encourage and interest children. We use age appropriate resources and deal with sensitive topics in a thoughtful and apt way. We make connections between learning in PSHE and real-life experiences children have encountered or may be likely to.  This is thought through carefully and sometimes non-human characters may be used to provide sensitivity. Links are often made between PSHE and other subjects, most notably PE and RE.  We also make connections with wider aspects of school e.g. school rules, values, rewards and behaviour expectations.

Many elements of the PSHE curriculum are embedded elsewhere in our school, particularly in our core values, code of contact and learning behaviours.

Core Values: Respect, Honesty, Caring, Curiosity, Fairness, Responsibility, Code of Conduct, Be safe, Be kind and Be responsible

At St John’s, children in EYFS develop skills that form a crucial foundation for later teaching of PSHE/Relationships at KS1 and KS2. The curriculum provides opportunities for progression throughout the school. With this in mind the learning journey begins in EYFS and the curriculum is carefully planned alongside our EYFS lead to ensure continuity and progression. We also work alongside the MHST Team (Mental Health Support Team) who deliver appropriate sessions to pupils and classes further enhancing our curriculum.

Pupils with SEND are supported within this subject to allow each individual access to their full curriculum entitlement.

Impact

As a result of our robust PSHE and Relationships Curriculum, pupils in our school have become far more confident in talking openly about their feelings and emotions and the majority are well-equipped in how to deal with challenges linked to these. Our pupils feel safe to discuss sensitive issues and are more aware of how their actions can affect others. Pupils understand relationships and the differences between them and are not only developing self-esteem and self-respect but also an empathy of others. Covid 19 has had an enormous impact on the mental health of our pupils and families therefore we are doing everything possible in school to support children and families through this by promoting a ‘talking’ environment for all.