As a Gold Rights Respecting School, we value diversity and foster mutual respect, modelling and inspiring attributes in pupils such as respect, courtesy and honesty. These underpin and inform the relationships we have, between pupils and between adults and pupils and help our students to understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
Knowledgeable learners
PSHE teaches children the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships, preparing them for adult life in British society.
Children are equipped with the knowledge and tools to begin to make informed economic decisions, to build lasting and respectful relationships and to learn how to stay safe in the wider world.
Lessons support pupils to develop the skills, language and attributes they need to both manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities.
Confident communicators
We teach age appropriate subject specific vocabulary as part of each lesson.
All lessons have an oracy focus where children are encouraged to share their views and they are given oracy scaffolds and visual support to help them communicate their ideas clearly.
Children are taught how to be anti-racist and to use anti-racist language to challenge racial discrimination.
Children are taught the language and standards needed to create and maintain respectful relationships within the classroom, school environment and wider world, enabling them to have positive, respectful and constructive relationships.
Children are taught that British values are precious but not universal. They can articulate, in an age-appropriate way, what life might be like without on or more of them, using taught vocabulary.
In EYFS children begin to learn about creating and thinking critically, having, developing and articulating their own ideas, making links between them and developing strategies for doing new things.
Active citizens
Children at Torriano understand that all children’s needs are the same but that there are inequalities in the world around them and they learn to stand up for those who are treated unfairly through lessons on rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. They campaign for fairer treatment for others through Unicef Schools global campaigns such as Outright and the Playground Challenge. They also take part in National Events such as Clean Air Day and Camden events such as The Takeover Challenge, which focuses on local environmental and social issues.
Our children learn to respect the different cultures and backgrounds in our community and understand that all families are unique and valid.
We teach our children how to make informed decisions about technology including how to keep themselves safe, who to trust online, to recognise that online images can be manipulated and who can help them.
Implementation
Our scheme of work is based on the Camden PSHE curriculum and is carefully planned to ensure progression through each of the main strands of PSHE and Relationships and Health Education (RHE). Learning builds upon knowledge and skills from the previous year and ensures that children’s understanding is developed and revisited.
Our curriculum includes statutory Relationship and Health Education (RHE) and aspects of non statutory Sex Education which is taught in Year 6.
The curriculum is divided into three themes;
Health and Wellbeing
Relationships
Living in the Wider World
Lessons are delivered weekly by the class teacher through whole class teaching and is also taught within other contexts such as assemblies, with outside agencies and whole school events and with the support of Camden’s PSHE curriculum. Outside agencies have included workshops on Bike Training, Road Safety, Gangs and Knife Crime, Stop and Search, NSPCC – Staying Safe and Transition to Secondary.
RHE is embedded in all curriculum areas including personal, social and health and economic (PSHE) education. For example, some biological aspects of RHE will be taught within the science curriculum and online safety is taught within computing lessons.
In line with DfE recommendations, non-statutory sex education is taught in Year 6. Children learn about the difference between an adult intimate/loving relationship and other types of relationships, how a baby is made and how a baby grows during pregnancy.Click here for the RHE Policy.
Opportunities for cross-curricular learning through science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle and computing for online safety provide consistent messages throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help.
The PSHE lead supports teachers and monitors standards through insets, planning support, book monitoring and pupil voice.
Staff, pupil and parent views are gathered through the school council, pupil conversations, insets, surveys and parent meetings. Curriculum improvement is constantly driven by these conversations including introducing anti-racist lessons, a Children’s Anti-Bullying Policy, lessons on consent and a workshop on Stop and Search with London Metropolitan Police.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), PSHE is taught as an integral part of teaching and continuous provision work and is embedded throughout the curriculum. At Brecknock we follow the non-statutory curriculum guidance Development Matters. In early years PSHE comes under the Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) area of learning and is broken down into statutory Early Learning Goals covering key concepts and skills around: Making relationships; Self-confidence and self-awareness; Managing feelings and behaviour.
Specific areas are also covered, such as, Physical Development; Health and self-care and Understanding the World; People and communities, and supports the teaching of Relationships; Health and Wellbeing along with Living in the Wider World. Teachers always reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately.
In EYFS children also explore their sense of self and effortful control. Links to our learning in communication and language are strong and they begin to use vocabulary to express themselves effectively. We focus on the ‘Zones of Regulation’ to explore feelings and how we can support children’s own self regulation.
In KS1, children focus on the three themes of PSHE; Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World in age-appropriate lessons.
In KS2, children build on their knowledge from KS, exploring more complex themes, but also learning about puberty from Year 5 and sex education in Year 6.
Pupils with SEND are included in all lessons where the statutory content and allows children time to explore, recognise and understand the subject content. This ensures pupils develop the essential skills and attributes identified, including key communication skills, vocabulary, strategies and the confidence to help manage issues when they encounter them (knowing how to seek help when necessary). Like all children and young people, pupils with SEND live in an increasingly ‘connected’ world. They are not always able to recognise or separate the ‘offline world’ from the ‘online world’, therefore, all topics are explored within the context of both.
Impact
A meaningful PSHE curriculum supports children becoming happier, positive about school life as a whole, having a better understanding of rules and responsibilities, being able to handle setbacks and disagreements.
An understanding of their inherent, indivisible, inalienable unconditional and universal rights, and how these rights can and should be protected.
An understanding of our diverse and complex world, and an empathy and respect for the rights of all individuals.
Positive and constructive communication, with highly developed oracy skills.
Resilience and self-regulation, and a keen understanding of their own health and wellbeing, especially supporting their mental and emotional development.
Risk management and balanced decision making, within the context of a changing and challenging world.
