Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
including Relationships and Health Education
At William Reynolds Primary School, we recognise the importance of encouraging our pupils to become healthy, independent, and responsible citizens. Our approach to PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) is a teaching and learning programme which includes the statutory RHE (Relationships and Health Education) curriculum and has a strong focus on emotional and mental health and wellbeing.
Our principle aims for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) are for pupils to:
- learn the key building blocks of healthy, respectful relationships, focusing on family and friendships, in all contexts including online
- learn how to be safe and healthy and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way
- understand the importance of wellbeing and develop resilience and character that are fundamental to them being happy, successful, and productive members of society
- know facts about puberty including physical and emotional changes
The core of our PSHE lessons is the statutory RHE curriculum, which is supported by the PSHE Association guidance. The PSHE curriculum has been carefully planned and adapted in a logical progression to ensure that new knowledge and values build on what has been taught before: Early Years to Year 6. This enables our pupils to know more and remember more. End points are identified for each year group through a whole school PSHE progression plan. The sequence develops pupils’ understanding of relationships and health skills over time; we use the strands Relationships, Living in the Wider World and Health and Wellbeing as the fundamental building blocks of our PSHE curriculum. Teaching will include sufficient well-chosen opportunities and contexts for pupils to embed new knowledge so that it can be used confidently in real life situations.
Each term, pupils have a weekly PSHE lesson focussing on one of the key strands:
- Autumn - Relationships: Families and Friendships, Safe Relationships and Respecting Ourselves and Others.
- Spring – Living in Wider World: Belonging to a Community, Media Literacy and Digital Resilience and Money and Work.
- Summer – Health and Wellbeing: Physical Health and Mental Wellbeing, Growing and Changing and Keeping Safe.
Every year group has a yearly Curriculum Map that outlines the units of PSHE which will be taught throughout the year. This ensures that an adequate amount of time and coverage is allocated to each key area.
Medium Term planning supports teachers to plan a sequence of progressive lessons and over time, giving the pupils opportunities to understand how to build healthy, respectful relationships, including those online, supporting their personal development. Teaching pupils about mental wellbeing gives them the knowledge and capability to take care of themselves and receive support if problems arise. Pupils will learn about menstrual wellbeing and the changing adolescent body including physical and emotional changes.
Within this document key objectives (from the PSHE Association) and vocabulary are outlined along with suggested resources and web links. Progression documents, used to support the Medium-term plan, ensure that staff are delivering a consistent curriculum that increases in complexity.
In order for us to be able to deliver the best and most up to date curriculum, the subject leader attends relevant training to be able to provide staff with high quality CPD.
The EYFS curriculum ensures that pupils work and play cooperatively and take turns; show confidence in new situations; form positive attachments to adults and have friendships with peers; express their feelings and consider the feelings of others; to know right from wrong and to try to behave accordingly.
From Years 1 to 6, lessons are planned in a variety of ways involving class discussions, child philosophy, circle time and through written outcomes. Pupils are taught about the benefits and importance of daily exercise, good nutrition and sufficient sleep. Also, they are given the language and knowledge to understand the normal range of emotions that everyone experiences. Pupils can articulate how they are feeling, develop the language to talk about their bodies, health and emotions and judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate for the situations that they experience. At our school, we do not teach pupils sex education beyond what is required in the science curriculum.
At appropriate times in the year, there are themed weeks or days such as: Anti-Bullying week, Safer Internet Day, Global Awareness Days and World Mental Health Day. Weekly assemblies around the protected characteristics enable pupils to gain an understanding of the world they are growing up in, and learn how to live alongside, and show respect for, a diverse range of people.
The impact of our curriculum is that all pupils:
- have healthy, respectful relationships with people at school, at home and online
- know how to stay safe, including online, in our ever-changing world
- know how and where to seek support if they need it
- can recognise and talk about their own, and others, emotions
- know how to stay healthy and know ways to prevent illnesses, including their own personal hygiene
- know key facts about puberty and the changing adolescent body
- know how to consider the effect of their online actions
- are ready for their next stage of their education
