PSHE and RSE
PSHE, or Personal Social Health Education, aims to give children the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves safe and healthy and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. When taught well, PSHE helps pupils to achieve their academic potential, and leave school equipped with skills they will need throughout later life.
RSE, or Relationships and Sex Education, falls under the banner of PSHE. Within RSE we support children’s spiritual, moral, social, emotional and physical development, and help to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.
From 2020, it became statutory for primary schools to deliver RSE which ensures that both boys and girls are prepared for the changes that adolescence will bring, and how a baby is conceived and born. However, PSHE more broadly remains a non-statutory subject. We believe in its importance for us as a school in delivering the best all-round educational experience for our children, therefore it is part of our core curriculum.
Intent
PSHE and RSE education is a planned, developmental programme of learning through which children and young people acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future. As part of our whole-school approach, PSHE education develops the qualities and attributes pupils need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society.
PSHE education helps to reduce and remove many of the barriers to learning experienced by pupils, significantly improving their capacity to learn and achieve. The PSHE education programme also makes a significant contribution to: pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development; their behaviour and safety; delivery of a comprehensive RSE curriculum; and the school’s statutory responsibility to promote pupils’ wellbeing. In addition the learning provided through our comprehensive PSHE education provision is an essential to safeguarding pupils, as Ofsted has set out.
PSHE education equips pupils with the knowledge, understanding, skills and strategies required to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of PSHE education is providing opportunities for children and young people to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future.
PSHE education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others helps pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.
Our PSHE Curriculum is one vehicle through which we develop the Keevil Characteristics in all our children. It is also the means through which we develop and consolidate children’s knowledge and understanding of fundamental British Values. . The progression in both of these areas of learning are highlighted in the document below – Keevil CofE Academy PSHE Knowledge and Skills Progression.
Implementation
We primarily deliver PSHE through a series of Wellbeing Days, one each half term. During which the whole school comes off the usual timetable and focuses on a particular topic or theme. We run a 2 year cycle of topics, so that children re-visit these as they move through the school, allowing their understanding and skills to develop in a progressive and age-relevant way – see Keevil CofE Academy PSHE Curriculum Overview below.
We deliver other PSHE sessions when we identify a particular need in a group or class of children, or across the whole school.
We partner with professionals from Coram Life Education (https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/) to deliver RSE in Y4, Y5 and Y6. We also make use of their SCARF materials to deliver RSE sessions for younger children in the school, as well as other aspects of our PSHE curriculum.
For more details about our RSE curriculum and delivery, please see our policy below.
Impact
Through the delivery of our PSHE and RSE curricula, children are enabled to flourish. They develop the knowledge and understanding that helps them to be healthy in body and mind. They grow as individuals, able to articulate and express their personal thoughts and opinions. They are able to navigate social situations through being able to self-regulate, compromise and problem-solve. They understand their role as citizens and members of a community, and the part they can play as such. They can assess risk and make decisions as a result of considering consequences. They achieve a balance and self-understanding that helps their learning in all areas of the curriculum. They develop the Keevil Characteristics of Resilience, Communication, Problem-Solving, Diligence, Learning and Team-Work and an understanding of the fundamental British Values which enable them to be ready to move on to secondary school and life beyond.