PSHE & RSE

At St Andrew’s, our PSHE curriculum allows children to make informed choices around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships and finances. It also aims to give children the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need to effectively navigate life in the 21^st Century and will support them in becoming confident and active individuals in their community and in society. 

Using a PSHE scheme, as well as our Collective Worship themes and school values, the curriculum supports our children’s personal development and promotes the four British Values, which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy, rule of law, respect and tolerance and individual liberty. These values are evidenced throughout the school and in the wider community. 

The Kapow Primary scheme of work is a whole school approach and consists of three areas of learning in EYFS:

• Self-regulation
• Building relationships
• Managing self

And five areas of learning in Years 1 to 6

• families and relationships
• health and wellbeing
• safety and the changing body
• citizenship 
• economic wellbeing. 

The scheme offers a spiral curriculum, which allows children to build on their prior learning. It also includes:

• an introductory lesson to explore and agree on ground rules creating a safe and trusted environment
• a transition lesson to prepare them for the year ahead. 

All lessons can be adapted to stretch the most able learners and give additional support to those who need it. 

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 themes - 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 the Year 6 units.

Teaching is led in a safe and structured way through circle times, scenarios, videos, stories, practical activities, or role play. We offer all children the opportunities to engage in their learning in a meaningful and thought-provoking way. 

Cross-curricular and enrichment links

There are many opportunities for cross-curricular learning at St. Andrew’s and PSHE is a subject which lends itself to links with other subjects. 

For example, many science units have a focus on growing, diet and lifestyle, and computing units have a focus on Internet Safety.

Our RE themes have close links with Health and Well-being, a well as families and relationships.

Every year in Years 5 and 6, the children take part in UK Parliament Week; a national series of events aimed at inspiring interest in parliament, politics and democracy.

We also plan a Health and Well-Being Week for staff and children, as well as taking part in Children’s Mental Health Week in February. 

Class Buddies are often used in PSHE to enable our older children to help younger ones to develop ideas and concepts such as Equally, the benefits of young children engaging in discussion with an older child cannot be underestimated.

Books are carefully chosen for classroom and shared book corners and teachers promote and read books, which support some of the concepts in the PSHE curriculum. These include Ruby’s Worry, Wonder, Julian is a Mermaid and The Final Year.

We know that children learn best through repetition and recall. Our spiral curriculum which we follow at St Andrew’s, allows children to revisit past learning and knowledge and understand where new teaching fits in with the PSHE curriculum. 

There are opportunities to capture pupils’ knowledge at the start of a new unit and to assess their learning at the end. This allows for assessment and helps to measure progress and identify any gaps in learning. 

Each unit of lessons comes with an Assessment Quiz and a 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 can be used at the start and end of a unit, to inform planning and to demonstrate progress in learning. 

At St. Andrew’s we take opportunities to actively promote British Values, defined by the government as the following:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect
• Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Democracy:

Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard through our School Council and Pupil Questionnaires and surveys. House and Vice Captains are also voted for by children in KS2.

The Rule of Law:

The importance of Laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school assemblies.

Individual Liberty:

Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advise how to exercise these safely, for example through our Internet Safety and PSHE lessons. Pupils are given the freedom to make choices, for example, by choosing to participate in our various extra-curricular clubs.

Mutual Respect:

The school ethos, values and aims promote respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom rules, as well as our behaviour policy.

Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs:

This is achieved through enhancing pupils understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society. Assemblies and discussions involving prejudices supported by learning in RE and PSHE.

Evidence of our commitment to British values

• Games Makers support younger children at lunchtimes

• Parliament Week

• We have an elected School Council with representatives from Y2-Y6

• We have a House Team system and the children elect House Captains

• Our broad and balanced curriculum teaches elements of democracy, civic responsibility, rules and laws, the monarchy, equality, values and virtues, environmental awareness and understanding of other faiths

• We make visits to different places of worship

• We welcome visitors from other faiths

• Each class has a class agreement, agreed by the pupils

We recognise and celebrate important events, for example

• The Olympics

• Key events for the Royal family

• Remembrance Sunday

• Charity events such as Children in Need, Macmillan Cancer Care

• St. George’s Day with children from uniformed organisations

• St. Andrew’s Day

As a Church school, Christian values underpin our ethos. Our school vision statement ‘Together we love life, learning and God’ and our core values ‘Love, Courage and Friendship’ permeate all areas of school life. We promote the Christian values of:

• Reverence and Wisdom

• Thankfulness and Humility

• Endurance and Service

• Peace and Forgiveness

• Compassion and Friendship

• Trust

• Justice

• Hope

• Creation

• Koinonia

On a more general level, the school undertakes daily worship, which uphold Christian values. These are also taught within formal PSHE and RE lessons and on an informal nature throughout the school days.