PSHE and RSE
Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
Intent
County Durham is in the top 30% of deprived areas in England and the number of children that receive pupil premium funding is almost 10% above the national figures. Here, at Howden le Wear Primary School we value PSHE as one way to support children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning. Our Jigsaw scheme of work brings consistency and progression to our children’s learning, including: emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development.
At Howden le Wear Primary School PSHE is at the core of what we do and enables our children to become independent, confident, healthy and responsible members of their community. We believe that if attention is paid to supporting children’s personal development in a structured and developmentally appropriate way, this will not only improve their capacity to learn (across the curriculum) but will ultimately improve their life chances and enable them to thrive. Our PSHE lessons improve children’s social skills to better enable collaborative learning; teach mindfulness techniques to relax and calm their minds for learning; help the brain to focus on specific learning intentions; and initiate new learning. Jigsaw has a strong focus on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing physical and mental health. Whilst using a mindful approach allowing children to learn to build their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
We want our children to be proud of their achievements, have high aspirations, and the self-belief to realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it. In an ever–changing world, it is important that they are aware (at an age appropriate level) of different factors which will affect their world and that they learn how to deal with these so that they have good mental health and well-being and strive for equality.
Our Relationships and Sex Education enables our children to learn how to be safe, and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.
Implementation
Our PSHE lessons are taught using the ‘Jigsaw’ programme, which is a spiral, progressive scheme of work and aims to prepare children for life, helping them to know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever changing world. We have a strong emphasis on building emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. We include mindfulness to allow children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
Our Relationship and Sex Education enables our children to learn how to be safe and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives. Our curriculum ensures children have an understanding of the full diversity of the world they live in and be prepared for life in modern Britain.
PSHE is taught through Jigsaw’s six half termly themes with each year group completing the same unit at the same time, but at their own level:
Autumn 1: Being Me in My World
Autumn 2: Celebrating Differences (Including Anti-Bullying)
Spring 1: Dreams and Goals
Spring 2: Healthy Me
Summer 1: Relationships
Summer 2: Changing Me
Within each unit, British Values links are made.
Our wider curriculum incorporates all of our aims and vision for school. PSHE, SMSC and British Values are an integral part of the whole school curriculum. Our wider enrichment activities help to support our PSHE curriculum e.g. Mental Health Week, Safer Internet Day and are celebrated as a whole school community. Visitors (such as the NSPCC, PCSOs, Bikeability, the school nurse) complement our school curriculum to offer additional learning. We hold weekly whole school assemblies and collective worship that are linked to PSHE, British Values and SMSC and cover any additional sessions relevant to our whole school.
In our PSHE curriculum at Howden, we recognise the strong connections it has with the rest of the school curriculum, ensuring a holistic approach to student development. PSHE lessons are intertwined with subjects such as Science, where we explore healthy lifestyles, and English, where we engage in discussions about relationships and emotions through literature. Our behaviour policy reinforces the principles of respect and kindness taught in PSHE through the restorative approach. Additionally, interventions like our Nurture Group provide targeted support for students, helping them build social and emotional skills that align with our PSHE objectives. Extra-curricular clubs and activities, such peer mentoring, further enhance our commitment to personal development, allowing students to apply their learning in real-world contexts. Together, these elements create a cohesive framework that supports our students’ growth as well-rounded individuals. Our local community is not particularly diverse and so, we ensure that we discuss and celebrate diversity as much as possible, to address this with our children. We add more diversity-linked lessons to the PSHE scheme, as well as exploring differences in society during assemblies.
Throughout all of our lessons in school, we believe in supporting children to develop their resilience, independence and confidence, through embracing challenge and fostering a love of learning. We do this through the language we use in class, praising children for their efforts and using language to change their level of thinking. We encourage all of our children to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. We challenge all of our children to look for opportunities to show the school values of resilience, empower, self belief, pride, equality, community and thrive.
Impact
As a result of our PSHE and RSE curriculum, children will:
- Develop the skills they need to flourish in the wider curriculum and in life;
- Be prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life, to reach their full potential as individuals and within society;
- Recognise that they belong to our school community and a wider community;
- Be active members of our school community, valuing and being valued as individuals;
- Be emotionally aware and resilient and have a greater understanding of who they are and their place in the world using appropriate vocabulary to communicate this and to discuss their feelings and recognise their emotions and applying this to all aspects of their life;
- Be equipped with the skills to enable them to adapt, grow and be active citizens within an ever-changing world;
- Be able to apply strategies to look after their mental health and wellbeing;
- Know how to stay safe.
We use appropriate assessment tools to inform our teaching and learning and to measure the impact of the curriculum we have created. We vary our approach to assessment to ensure it is tailored towards each subject. Each Jigsaw lesson is mapped out with two learning objectives; one specific to Relationships and Health Education (PSHE) and the other designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills. We assess our children in PSHE through observational assessments of discussions and work that take place during PSHE lessons. The final lesson of each unit of work is an opportunity for our children to apply their learning. Pupil voice and monitoring activities support our judgements that we make within the Jigsaw curriculum.
To find out more about the Jigsaw PSHE programme and an overview of Jigsaw content for each year group, please click on the links below:
PSHE Curriculum Documents
Personal, Social and Emotional Development Progression through EYFS
National Curriculum Aims, DfE Guidance & Coverage
Jigsaw Skills and Knowledge Progression
EYFS Year One Year Two Year Three
Information for Parents
Relationship, & Sex Education (RSE)
From September 2020, Relationships and Health Education were made compulsory in all primary schools in England and includes curriculum content under these headings.
Relationships Education: is designed to help children to have positive and safe relationships with family, friends and online. All primary schools are required by the government to teach Relationships Education and parents cannot withdraw children from this section of the curriculum. The areas this section of the curriculum cover are:
- Families and people who care for me
- Caring Friendships
- Respectful Relationships
- Online Relationships
- Being Safe
Health Education: supports children to make good decisions about their health and wellbeing and enable them to know how to seek support if any health issues arise for themselves or others. All primary schools are required by the government to teach Health Education and parents cannot withdraw children from this section of the curriculum. The areas this section of the curriculum cover are:
- Mental wellbeing
- Internet safety and harms
- Physical health and fitness
- Healthy eating
- Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
- Health and prevention
- Basic first aid
- The changing adolescent body
Sex Education: is designed to help children to:
- Understand and respect their bodies
- Develop positive and healthy relationships appropriate to their age and development
- Support children to have positive self-esteem and body image
- Empower them to be safe and safeguarded.
Parents do have the right to request their child is withdrawn from these specific lessons. If you wish to withdraw your child, please contact our Head of School, Mrs Clark, who will be happy to discuss this further with you and a withdrawal form will need to be completed.
At Howden le Wear Primary School, all aspects of RSE is taught through the Jigsaw PSHE Programme and specifically delivered through the ‘Relationships’ and ‘Changing Me’ puzzle pieces which are covered in the second half of the summer term annually. More information on the content of lessons can be found at the links below:
What-do-Primary-Schools-in-England-have-to-teach-for-statutory-Relationships-Education
RSHE-A-Guide-for-Parents-and-Carers-leaflet
Jigsaw LGBTQ Parents Leaflet
Review / Consultation on RHSE
Our Relationship, Health and Sex Education curriculum and policy is reviewed annually so we can be sure our RHSE provision is appropriate for our pupils based on their:
- Age
- Physical and emotional maturity
- Religious and cultural backgrounds
- Special educational needs and disabilities
As part of this process we consulted with parents, staff and governors to gauge their views on how this content is covered in school. Following the consultation process our PSHE / RHSE policy and curriculum provision was agreed by our Academy Council. A link to the PSHE / RHSE policy can be found here.
Should you wish to speak with us directly about PSHE / RHSE please contact us through the usual communication channels to arrange an appointment. Our PSHE subject lead is Mrs Bennett.
