Relationships and sex education curriculum Letter (pdf)
What is PSHE?
PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) is a school curriculum subject that helps children and young people stay healthy, safe and prepared for life – and work – in modern Britain.
Intent
Through our progressive PSHE curriculum, the scheme aims to give children the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to effectively navigate the complexities of life in the 21st Century. The curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of society.
The scheme 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).’ Children’s learning through this scheme would significantly contribute to their personal development as set out in the Ofsted Inspection Framework and promotes the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.
At Alphington, we are creating our future citizens.
We want our children to:
- be able to approach a range of real-life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves through modern life
- be on their way to becoming healthy, open minded, respectful, socially and morally responsible, active members of society
- appreciate difference and diversity
- recognise and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and Liberty
- be able to understand and manage their emotions
- be able to look after their mental health and well-being
- be able to develop positive, healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future
- understand the physical aspects involved in RSE at an age appropriate level
- have respect for themselves and others
- have a positive self esteem.
Implementation
At Alphington, we use the Kapow Primary Scheme. The Kapow Primary scheme 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 stage 1 and 2:
- Families and relationships
- Health and wellbeing
- Safety and the changing body
- Citizenship
- Economic wellbeing
Each area is revisited to allow children to build on prior learning. The lessons also provide a progressive programme. The lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health education, but where our lessons go beyond these requirements (primarily in the Citizenship and Economic wellbeing 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. The scheme supports the requirements of the Equality Act through direct teaching, for example learning about different families, the negative effect of stereotypes and celebrating differences, in addition to the inclusion of diverse teaching resources throughout the lessons.
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. In key stage 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 create a safe environment.
All lessons include ideas for differentiation to stretch our highest attainers and give additional support to those who need it. Many lessons, stories, scenarios, and video clips provide 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. 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 throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help.
Alongside our Kapow PSHE lessons, children regularly discuss ‘The Alphington Way’ and focus on our school learning behaviour characters and our behaviour curriculum which supports metacognition (learning to learn). Children are given opportunities to listen to different social stories to enable them to be able to approach similar real-life situations in their day-to-day lives.
Throughout the year, pupils also reflect on understanding what it means to have a healthy lifestyle and good mental health. This is through assemblies, raising the profile through 10-a-day initiatives and taking part in Mental Health Week, alongside strong links to PE.
Impact
Each lesson within Kapow Primary’s scheme features assessment guidance, helping teachers to identify whether pupils have met, exceeded, or have not met the desired learning intentions for that lesson. Each unit of lessons comes with an assessment quiz. The quiz contains 10 questions, nine of which are multiple-choice and can be used either at the end of the unit or at both the start and the end to help measure progress and identify any gaps in learning.
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.
Pupils are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of their school and communities. In doing so they learn to recognise their own worth, work well with others and become increasingly responsible for their own learning. They reflect on their experiences and understand how they are developing personally and socially, tackling many of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.
Sex and Relationship Education within Alphington School
Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) plays a very important part in fulfilling the statutory duties all schools have to meet. SRE helps children understand the difference between safe and abusive relationships and equips them with the skills to get help if they need it. The SRE curriculum is taught through the Kapow Scheme and is progressive from Early Years to Year 6.
Our lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health education, but where our lessons go beyond these requirements (primarily in the Citizenship and Economic wellbeing 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.
Please find below the link to the PSHE/RSE policy. If you would like to talk about the content of this or have any questions, please get in touch with the school.
Please find below the link to the PSHE/RSE policy. If you would like to talk about the content of this or have any questions, please get in touch with the school.
