PSHE at Old Sarum Primary
Vision
At Old Sarum Primary school we have a comprehensive PSHE and SRE curriculum which responds to the needs of our children and the wider community. This ensures all children receive a broad, high quality, age appropriate and relevant PSHE curriculum inclusive of all statutory content, including Sex and Relationships Education and a positive mental health focus from Year R to Year 6. The PSHE curriculum plays a pivotal role in supporting personal growth, encouraging the development of resilience, self -awareness, tolerance, empathy and independence.
How it is taught and why
PSHE is taught weekly as part of a spiral curriculum revisiting key concepts and understanding over time-promoting positive and successful citizenship, helping to prepare our children for their next steps in the wider world. Our PSHE curriculum is designed to proactively safeguard, empower and protect our children, to prepare them for the many situations, issues or dilemma’s they may encounter in the wider community. We value pupil voice and feedback, using this to inform our future teaching and learning. This in turn helps us to continue to respond to an ever evolving world.
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 the most able learners 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.
Our aim is that all children know about and learn about (in an age-appropriate way)
- Families and the people who care for them.
- What a caring relationship looks like.
- What is a a respectful relationship is
- How to be safe at home, school and online.
- How to support and recognise their own mental well-being.
- The importance of physical health and fitness through healthy eating.
- The risks of drugs alcohol and tobacco.
- The importance of health, prevention, and the use of first aid
- How our bodies change and changes in puberty.
Assessment
Each unit of lessons comes with an Assessment quiz and Knowledge catcher. 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. The Knowledge catchers list some of the lesson titles in mind-map or table format and can be used at the start of a unit to see what the children already know and to inform planning, and then pupils can revisit the same
version of the Knowledge catcher at the end of the unit to add what else they now know, further demonstrating their progression in learning.
Pupil voice is also used as an assessment tool