Intent

‘Education that does not mould character is absolutely worthless – Mahatma Gandhi.’

At Pearl Hyde, PSHE is an essential part of our broad and balanced curriculum; it is a subject that is woven through everything that we do in school.

Through our PSHE curriculum, children will acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life in a diverse society now and in the future.  As part of our whole school approach, our PSHE curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, well-being, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of society.

Underpinned by our school values, our PSHE curriculum supports children to live the ‘Pearl Hyde Way’ – providing the children with opportunities to develop perseverance, excellence, acceptance, respect and leadership. Our programme aims to assist children and young people to prepare for adult life by supporting them through their physical, emotional and moral development, and helping them to understand themselves, respect others and form and sustain healthy relationships.

In addition, our PSHE curriculum covers the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance (as set out by the Department for Education), including non-statutory sex education. It 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).’ Our curriculum also endeavours to promote the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.

Finally, our PSHE curriculum ensures that children are taught about safeguarding, including online safety. Our broad and balanced 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.

Implementation

As a school, we have chosen to use the Kapow Primary scheme to deliver our PSHE Curriculum. It 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 stages 1 and 2:
● Families and relationships
Learning how to: form respectful relationships with others, deal with conflict and bullying and the importance of challenging stereotypes.
● Health and wellbeing
Learning strategies for looking after their mental and physical health, including healthy eating, relaxation techniques, sun safety, immunisation facts and the benefits of sleep.
● Safety and the changing body
Learning: how to administer first aid in a variety of situations and about safety around medicines, online and road safety and the changes which occur during puberty,
● Citizenship
Learning about: human rights and the rights of the child, democracy, diversity and community and protecting the environment.
● Economic wellbeing
Learning how to make decisions when it comes to spending, budgeting saving money and exploring different career choices.

It is a progressive and spiral curriculum with the following key principles in mind:

✓ Cyclical: Pupils revisit the five key areas throughout KS1 and KS2.

✓ Increasing depth: Each time a key area is revisited, it is covered with greater depth and increasing maturity.

✓ Prior knowledge: Upon returning to each key area, prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build on previous foundations, rather than starting again.

Reception

In Reception, PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) is a prime area of learning and, therefore an integral part of teaching and learning. Planning for these areas reflects the interests of the children and the unique needs of the school but is supplemented by the Kapow PSHE Schemes of Learning. Children take part in circle time and discuss topics and themes that are at their level. PSED is a fundamental building block in a child’s development and underpins the whole of the Reception curriculum.

Years 1 – 6

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. Our curriculum content has been organised into a two-year cycle, due to mixed-age teaching at Pearl Hyde. All lessons can be adapted to stretch the most able learners and give additional support to those who need it. In some areas, though, we feel that it is important that pupils have the opportunity to develop their understanding each year, rather than once in a two-year period, so these lessons have clear guidance, activities, differentiation and assessment information for each year group. In these instances, teachers teach the same lesson each year, but pupils will have a different experience in the lesson depending on whether they are the younger or older cohort. This means that even with a two-year cycle, you can be reassured that your pupils are progressing year-on-year as they develop in emotional maturity.

The structured curriculum provides 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.

Each lesson is 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 has been included in line with the DfE recommendations and is covered in Year 6 of our scheme. There are 2 lessons within this unit where parents have the opportunity to withdraw their children from all/part of the lessons: Safety and the changing body: Lesson 5: Conception and Lesson 6: Pregnancy and Birth.

There are meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular learning, in particular with Computing for online safety and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle. The scheme provides consistent messages across all year groups, including how and where to access help and support if needed.

Pearl Hyde seeks to provide a safe, secure learning environment for PSHE that enables children and young people to gain accurate knowledge, develop their own values and attitudes, and develop skills to grow into happy, confident and successful adults. In key stages 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 sustain a safe environment where children can openly share their thoughts, opinions and ideas, and explore sensitive topics safely.

PSHE lessons will have a specific place on the timetable and each unit will be delivered over half a term, however, some flexibility may be needed in certain academic years. In addition to these discreet lessons, the PSHE curriculum will be supplemented and enhanced by visiting speakers (such as dentists and experts from dog charities) and workshops (for example, the ‘Star’ programme run by West Mercia police, pedestrian training and NSPCC assemblies and workshops). Dedicated events such as Children’s Mental Health Week, Road Safety Day, E-safety Day, Cyber-bullying Week and British Values Week will serve to reinforce learning and raise awareness of specific issues. The role of parents and carers is also recognised within our curriculum, and there are increased opportunities for us, as a school, to include them in their children’s learning.

Impact

To be successful independent learners, children and young people need regular opportunities to reflect on and identify what they have learned, what needs to be learned next and what they need to do to continue their learning. Teachers also need to be clear about the progress and achievements of the pupils they teach, and how their learning might be improved. To enable this to happen, assessment has to be an integral part of the teaching and learning in all subjects, including PSHE education.

However, the personal nature of PSHE education means that it cannot be assessed in the same way as most other subjects and it would be inappropriate for assessment in PSHE education to imply passing or failing ‘as a person’. It is, however, possible to recognise and evidence progress and attainment in the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes PSHE strives to develop. It is important that children can be assessed using a method which allows them to best express their knowledge and understanding of the topic being taught, so a range of assessments are used, such as photos of practical work, freeze frame pictures, reflective diaries, drama and diagrams. Mind maps can be produced illustrating what they know, think or believe and questions they have about a new topic. At the end of the unit, the children can take a different coloured pen and revisit their original mind-map, adding to it, correcting previous misconceptions and answering their original questions. This will demonstrate the progress they have made. Evidence will be recorded through the use of a whole class PSHE floor book, which pupils contribute with pictures, reflections or annotations of work. 

Monitoring of the PSHE curriculum will be carried out by the PSHE Subject Leader, using the following methods:

• Learning walks
• Evidence in books
• Staff questionnaires
• Pupil discussions and questionnaires
• Meetings with the head and safeguarding team
• Discussions with PSHE working party (comprised of teachers, parents and PSHE link governor)
• Annual meeting with the link governor