PSHE and RSE

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At Wheatfield Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental and physical health for every member of our staff and all of our children. The whole school community’s emotional wellbeing and mental health are at the heart of the culture and ethos of our school. All children will be listened to, are happy together and are ready to learn from one another. By promoting positive mental and physical health, we are equipping children with the skills and strategies they need to manage their emotions and maintain healthy relationships and lifestyles, therefore preparing them for modern day life.

Curriculum Intent

Our high quality PSHE curriculum, Jigsaw, provides each and every child with the opportunity to explore themselves, their relationships and the world around them. By following Jigsaw, our children will be supported throughout their school life to be healthy, safe and prepared. Our spiral curriculum ensures full coverage of personal, social, health and economical education across all year groups. By building on previous years’ learning our children are not starting from scratch, rather they are activating their prior knowledge and deepening their understanding in every lesson. Teaching points that may arise throughout the school day will be addressed in an ad hoc manner to ensure quick and effective resolutions.

Within our curriculum, we follow the statutory guidance for Relationships Education and Health Education so that fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and with adults can be built. In PSHE lessons, children will be given the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings in a safe and respectful environment. We embrace and celebrate the differences among us to enable the children to appreciate the diverse communities. Alongside this, the children will be taught a range of strategies to apply in a wide variety of situations, continuously developing their independence and empowering the children to make positive decisions about their own health and wellbeing. By teaching this way, we are supporting all of our young people to be happy, healthy and safe, as well as equipping them for life as an adult in British society.

Curriculum Implementation

Here at Wheatfield, we use the Jigsaw scheme of work to teach our PSHE lessons. These are adapted to suit individual cohorts. It is a unique, spiral, progressive and effective scheme of work, aiming to prepare children/young people for life, helping them really know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever-changing world.

Jigsaw nurtures children to be confident and successful, increasing their capacity to learn and preparing them for the challenges of the modern world. Developed by teachers and wellbeing experts, Jigsaw provides children with opportunities to develop their emotional intelligence and life skills. Jigsaw is aligned to the national framework for EYFS that integrates emotional literacy, self-regulation, and social skills in an easy session per week.

Our whole school curriculum follows a whole school approach that consists of different areas of learning:

Being Me in My World
Celebrating Differences
Dreams and Goals
Healthy Me
Relationships
Changing Me

Our lessons provide a progressive programme and each area is revisited every year to allow children to build on prior learning. The lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education.

Our subject lead regularly monitors the progression of each area across the year groups to ensure high quality teaching and learning. Staff are continuously being developed by providing the support that each individual teacher may require. CPD sessions are held to further build staff confidence and share good practice. Differentiation is planned for and enables teachers to make accurate assessments of where the children are in their learning. To support the Equality Act, we have a carefully selected variety of texts to further support learning about different families, the negative effect of stereotypes and celebrating differences, in addition to the inclusion of diverse teaching resources throughout the lessons. Cross-curricular links are also planned for, especially through English and Oracy. Staff are also encouraged to take learning outside as much as possible to further promote the children’s engagement and curiosity of the world around them.

Curriculum Impact

The impact of the curriculum design is that our children will leave Wheatfield Primary School as well rounded, confident, and caring young people. They will be able to express their thoughts and feelings in a respectful manner, identify and maintain healthy relationships and know how to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations.

Exercise books and Sways will demonstrate the journey the children take in their learning, and pupil voice will show high levels of engagement in the subject and children will be able to use and discuss the strategies they have been taught both in and outside of school. Once taught the full scheme, children will have met the objectives set out within the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance and can utilise their learning within their daily lives, from dealing with friendship issues to resilience to making healthy choices and knowing where and how to get help when needed.

Wellbeing is at the heart of our schools vision and wellbeing at our school seeks to equip our children with the skills they need to be healthy, happy and safe. It incorporates the programme of study from the PSHE Association (which includes objectives meeting Relationship and Sex Education); Therapeutic Approach, ELSA, E-Safety, Anti-Bullying and Mindfulness strategies to support children’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. Our aim is for wellbeing to underpin all aspects of our curriculum so that our children can make right choices, be kind and be the best they can be.

Useful Websites

www.mind.org.uk - Has information regarding mental health.

www.youngminds.org.uk - This site contains information on mental health and tips for young people and their carers.

What is RSE?

Relationship and Sex Education in our school is about the emotional, social and cultural development of pupils, and involves learning about relationships, healthy lifestyles, changes, diversity and personal identity. It is taught as part of our PSHE curriculum.

Relationships and Sex Eeducation focuses on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships including: