PSHE

Intent

At Maidenbower Infant school and Nursery we believe that ‘what happens early, matters for a lifetime’ and we recognise that Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) including Relationships Sex Education (RSE) should be at the heart of our school values and ethos and run throughout all that we do, every day.

Our PSHE/RSE curriculum is aligned closely with our school values and aims to support our children to be curious, have a good understanding of themselves, to be kind, have empathy, an ability to work with others and form and maintain positive relationships treating everyone equally with tolerance and respect. We aim to achieve this through an ambitious, relevant, progressive, and engaging PSHE/RSE curriculum which inspires, nurtures, and develops all pupils' personal and social skills, values, and knowledge and understanding to support them to become successful citizens in the wider world.

We have high expectations and aspirations for all our children at Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery. We plan and adapt our PSHE/RSE curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of all the children so that when they leave our school, they are well equipped with the essential knowledge and cultural capital to succeed in the next stages of their education and beyond. We want our children to develop independence, be ambitious, have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

Our PSHE curriculum will support our Pupils to:

make informed choices.
know how to keep themselves safe and healthy.
develop happy and healthy relationships.
build and develop their self-esteem and self-identity and be the best they can be.
recognise we live in a diverse world and to embrace this.
develop a happy and healthy mind.
identify when they need to seek help and how to do this.
understand ways to reduce anxiety.
become responsible members of society who demonstrate respect and tolerance and who are prepared to face and manage the challenges and opportunities of an ever-changing modern Britain.
develop their understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance.
develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.
help pupils to understand the importance of their physical and mental health, understand emotions and feelings and have strategies to help them become resilient and confident so they are ready for the transition to the next stage of their education.

Why teach Relationship, Sex and Health Education?

From September 2020, The Department for Education (DfE) made Relationship and Health Education compulsory for all primary schools in England and Relationships, Sex and Health Education compulsory in all secondary schools in England. The changes aim to ensure that children are equipped with the skills and understanding to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships to support them to create a happy and successful adult life.

“Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way”. DfE, 2019

Implementation

Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) including Relationships Sex Education (RSE) is at the heart of our school values and ethos and runs throughout all that we do, every day. As well as it being embedded as part of our ethos, PSHE/RSE at Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery is delivered and taught through a carefully sequenced, relevant, and progressive scheme of learning which brings together the British Values, Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC), personal, social, health, relationships, emotional literacy, social skills, and citizenship into a comprehensive curriculum. Consultation with all stakeholders including pupil and parent voice ensures our PSHE/RSE curriculum is well adapted and bespoke to our school to meet the needs of all our children. Our curriculum is designed to prepare children for life, helping them to know and value who they are, understand how they relate to other people and keep them safe in our ever-changing world. There is a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. It includes mindfulness to allow children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.

To ensure children know more and remember more over time, our PSHE/RSE curriculum ensures that learning from previous years is revisited and extended, adding new concepts, knowledge and skills, year on year as appropriate. It is important that skills are taught but also applied during consecutive years, thereby building on knowledge and experience. Lessons are carefully considered and well adapted to meet the needs of each individual class / pupils and to deal with issues as they arise. Lessons are delivered in a way that ensures pupils feel safe and encourages participation by using a variety of teaching approaches with opportunities to develop critical thinking and relationship skills. Assemblies, themed days, visits and visitors are used to support the teaching and learning. We work in partnership with parents, informing them about what their children are learning and when required, providing guidance towards resources that can be used at home. Lessons and school ethos consistently promote safe, equal, caring and enjoyable relationships and we discuss real-life issues appropriate to the age and stage of pupils, including friendships, families, consent and safe relationships online.

Pupils are taught regularly timetabled PSHE/RSE lessons by a member of Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery staff with whom the pupils are familiar. Staff follow our tailor-made whole school curriculum to plan their lessons which has been devised to support our vision in PSHE/RSE and to ensure the progression of knowledge and skills across the year groups from EYFS to KS1 and beyond. This is based on West Sussex’s Education for safeguarding Guidance (E4S) and Jigsaw (PSHE scheme) whilst ensuring the Statutory RSE curriculum is taught and uses the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education Statutory guidance for governing bodies, proprietors, head teachers, principals, senior leadership teams, teachers:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1090195/Relationships_Education_RSE_and_Health_Education.pdf. In the Foundation Stage, PSHE and citizenship is taught as a discrete subject in Reception, as well as being an integral part of topic work and embedded throughout the curriculum. The objectives taught are based on the Personal, Social and Emotional Development statements from ‘Development Matters in the EYFS’ and the PSED Early Learning Goals.

The Curriculum is split into 6 themes and is taught as a spiral curriculum, so topics are re-visited each year and, in more depth, to match the maturity of the pupils.

Autumn 1: Being Me in My World
Autumn 2: Celebrating differences (including anti-bullying)

Spring 1: Dreams and Goals/Digital Literacy and Online safety

Spring 2: Healthy Me

Summer 1: Relationships

Summer 2: Changing Me

In addition to Relationships Education, as an infant school the Sex Education aspect of PSHE/RSE is linked to the science curriculum as it focuses on correctly naming external body parts, the human body as it grows from birth to old age and lifecycles of animals and humans. Any issues raised during any discussions are dealt with very sensitively by our staff and in an age-appropriate way. Alongside this, we teach about different kinds of families and relationships and focus on creating healthy, respectful relationships within families and friendships in all contexts, including online. It is important that our children should have an understanding of the full diversity of the world they live in and be prepared for life in modern Britain. We also fully appreciate that parents are the first teachers of their children and have the most significant influence in enabling the children to achieve healthy relationships.

In school, the children have their personal jigsaw pieces as a tool to enable them to request time to talk to their teachers about any worries and concerns that they want to talk about privately. This initiative is being used by the children successfully and is an effective safeguarding tool for them which they can use with their teacher at any time in the school day.

Wider Curriculum

We believe that focusing on Metacognition and self-regulation, whilst also developing a 'Growth Mindset' in our children will help them to build resilience, independence and confidence; embrace challenge; foster a love of learning; and increase their level of happiness. We do this through the language we use in class, the power of ‘yet’, praising children for their efforts, and using language to encourage children to change their way of thinking. This supports both our school and PSHE aims and values.

We also encourage our pupils 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 pupils to look for opportunities to show the school values of ambition, kindness, respect and curiosity.

We also offer the following wider curriculum opportunities:

Visitors such as emergency services and the school nurse complement our PSHE curriculum to offer additional learning.
Assemblies are linked to PSHE, British Values and SMSC and cover any additional sessions that would benefit the whole school.
PSHE, BV and SMSC displays throughout school reinforce the PSHE curriculum enabling children to make links in their learning.
Working with Elite Football Coaching, forest schools, ELSA and Play Therapy, should individual children require this support.

Impact

What difference is the curriculum making to our pupils?

We are very proud of the PSHE/RSE work that we deliver at Maidenbower Infant School and Nursery, the evidence being seen through the well-rounded, confident, tolerant and independent pupils that leave us at the end of Year 2. The pupils’ attitude, behaviour and demeanour around school, within lessons, at playtimes’ and out in the community demonstrates the respect, tolerance and high aspirations that our pupils have of themselves and each other. Pupils leave us ready for their next step into Junior school and are armed with skills, knowledge and understanding that they can take forward into adulthood. Our pupils leave us prepared for life in an ever-changing modern Britain. They have the tools they need to succeed, keep themselves safe and thrive. We measure impact by the triangulation of lesson observations, work scrutiny and pupil voice, as well as this we carry our yearly subject leader/ teaching staff discussions – where successes and areas for development are discussed, and for which targets for the year are collaboratively developed.

By the end of Key Stage 1 children will…

Be able to form strong, positive relationships.
Know that families are important for children growing up because they can give love, security, and stability.
Know that every family is different, and they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care.
Have a secure understanding of physical health and wellbeing.
Be aware of boundaries with relationships and be able to recognise when something is wrong.
Know ways to keep safe in different situations.
Have the knowledge of what do and who to go to if they feel unhappy or unsafe.
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.
Recognise and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and Liberty.
Be able to understand and have a range of strategies to help them manage their emotions.
Have respect for themselves and others.
Have a positive self-esteem.

Below, you will find our Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) overview. This overview shares our vision for RSHE at our school, what the children will learn about in RSHE lessons, the end of year expectations for EYFS and Key Stage 1 and the enrichment opportunities that we provide in RSHE.