PSHRE

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

‘A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.’  Amelia Earheart

What will children learn?

At Radwinter CofE Primary School, we know the vast importance PSHRE (Personal, Social, Health, Relationships and Economics) has on ensuring our pupils leave primary school prepared for their future with key personal skills, a secure understanding of the world, and knowledge of how to function and be effective in today’s society. Through our Christian context, we nurture love and kindness above all else: kindness to others, kindness to ourselves; loving one another, the world and ourselves like God has loved us.

We believe PSHRE is essential for helping young people develop a strong sense of identity, self-belief and confidence. We know that every child is unique and special and this is reflected in PSHRE lessons where there are high standards of tolerance, fairness and respect.

PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, Economics) is fundamental for equipping our pupils to be able to successfully navigate through different life situations. We teach them how to connect with and understand themselves as well as how to adopt healthy lifestyle choices and routines. Moreover, children learn how to conduct themselves positively in a team scenario through group debates, projects and presentations. This prepares them for their future education pathways and the world of work later in life. Similarly, we believe children need a good understanding of economics: how to handle their finances, where money comes from, where money goes, how to earn more money and what to do if you do not have money. This also complements our intention to ensure children have a realistic and informed understanding of the world: it’s diversity, causes of conflict, the power of unity, and human rights and responsibilities.

We believe RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) to be integral for helping our children know how to establish and maintain healthy, loving relationships with friends and family whilst also understanding how relationships, feelings and bodies change over time. Our children come from a variety of different local areas and can often experience mixed-aged classes which means their interpersonal friendship and teamwork skills are critical for them when forming friendships. Similarly, we have a large number of service children so understand the importance of relationships education in supporting them if family members are away or they are new to an area and settling in. We also believe it is our duty to ensure our pupils are fully educated about the changes that they may experience in their bodies as they grow up and the reasons behind these; without this knowledge, pupils may feel unnecessarily anxious or think that they are the only person experiencing something. To support all of our pupils with their RSE we establish a culture of openness, honesty and trust to that pupils feel supported and able to speak to adults in the school for guidance.

Through our PSHRE curriculum, our children will flourish on a personal level and feel supported and prepared to tackle challenges by using their developed skills and knowledge:

• Taking time to reflect on personal achievements, rewarding oneself and feeling positive about the good things they have done whilst also being able to be reasonable in goal-setting
• Being an excellent team player/leader: listening, compromising, including everyone, motivating and encouraging
• Knowing that resilience and determination can help them overcome difficulties as well as having practical strategies to use when dealing with stress, pressure or disappointment
• Understanding diversity in the world, beyond our community, and being able to approach different cultures, traditions, religions or viewpoints with maturity, mutual respect and openness. 

How will children be taught?

PSHRE is taught both explicitly, through weekly dedicated lessons, and implicitly through the visions and values upheld by staff and pupils, and the routines and procedures followed in school. We invest time in understanding pupil’s opinions of themselves and implementing strategies and techniques to support them such as mentoring or counselling, using their gifts for roles and responsibilities, and learning mindfulness practices.

Every day begins with Collective Worship which is a time for discussing many of the key themes in the PSHRE curriculum that need revisiting regularly. It is also a time for pupils to reflect on their personal opinions and perspectives, and also for them to share and celebrate their achievements and successes.

Within the classroom, teachers follow mapped progression documents (see below) that cover units within 3 key themes: Relationships, Living in the Wider World, and Health and Wellbeing. Lessons consist of a wide range of engaging activities that promote discussion and reflection: debates, responses to scenarios, quizzes, creative responses, cross-curricular writing, picture reflections, sorting and grouping tasks, drama, freeze frames, and hot seating. Teachers are given the autonomy to adapt the timing of coverage so that they can meet the needs of the class and also to respond to local, national and global incidences that we need to support the children with.

Although lessons provide explicit teaching of skills and knowledge, the every-day running of the school, especially playtimes, provides the opportunity for pupils to apply their new learning. For example, we are implicitly teaching PSHRE when helping pupils deal with fallouts on the playground, when encouraging them to be resilient with their learning, when showing them how to be organised and prepared for activities, and when championing good manners.

Predominantly, PSHRE lessons are taught by the class teacher as they have the strongest relationships with the pupils and are thus able to facilitate honest and open discussions. However, external agencies can be used so that we can benefit from their specialism. For example, Essex Fire Service deliver assemblies about fire safety, Year 6s attend Crucial Crew to learn about life skills as they transition to secondary school, and we use our connections with the local army barracks to provide insightful sessions about Remembrance Day.

What will the outcomes for children be?

From our engaging, rich and relatable curriculum, we believe our children become equipped, passionate and resilient members of society ready to transition to the next stage of their childhood with the necessary skills. This is as a result of the dedication of all of our staff to nurture and support pupils by teaching PSHRE both within lessons and in-the-moment. Staff also carry out assessment of skills during lessons by eliciting written, drawn or verbal responses to topics.

Our curriculum does not shy from challenging topics as we feel this would have a negative impact on their understanding of the world and their ability to form and communicate their thoughts and feelings appropriately. This will have a positive impact on the children upholding the school’s vision and values and also, as they grow up, navigating tricky situations independently.

We have begun to monitor the impact of our PSHRE curriculum by asking all pupils to complete a Pupil’s Attitude to Self and School survey (PASS) annually. This helps us identify pupils who might be struggling in areas such as self-regard as a learner, preparedness for learning and feelings about school. With these results, we are able to put in place additional support and interventions to help teach strategies and skills.

Our commitment to delivering quality and meaningful PSHRE enables families to have positive and open conversations at home knowing that we have taught an appropriate and applicable curriculum. This is evident through parent-teacher communications that focus on supporting a child by considering every area of their life. In addition to this, many of our parents are keen to be involved in school events such as talking about how their careers use mathematical skills, attending special assemblies and services for Remembrance Day, Harvest, Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Easter.

We believe pupils at Radwinter CofE Primary School become reflective, curious, considerate and ambitious individual as an impact of our PSHRE teaching. They leave our school with applicable life skills and fond memories of doing things to show kindness, help others and raise awareness of others’ needs.

If you would like further information on the curriculum we teach, please contact the school directly.

Puberty and Sex Education Information

Here you will find the slides used during the parent information meeting followed by lesson slides. The first 4 lesson slides are for the puberty lessons. The second set of 4 lesson slides are for the Year 6 Sex Education lessons. We have also uploaded responses to the questions parents asked at the end of the session. We hope you will find these very useful.