Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education

PSHE at Stocksbridge Junior School

At Stocksbridge Junior School, every child is a global citizen! Our PSHE curriculum aims to ensure that, through quality first teaching, pupils are provided with the skills and knowledge so that they are well-equipped for navigating their life with tolerance and a respect for diversity. Our curriculum is ambitious and empowers pupils to become independent, resilient and empathetic lifelong learners. Through our PSHE curriculum, school values and ethos and the wider school curriculum, we actively promote the mental well-being, physical and social and emotional development of pupils. Our PSHE curriculum supports pupils to advocate and live by our school values: respect, endurance, aspiration, courage and honesty, as well as the British Values.

Our pupils are growing up in an increasingly complex world, living their lives seamlessly on and offline. Whilst this presents many positive and exciting opportunities, it also presents challenges and risks that pupils must be well-educated about.

We believe that the subject content delivered to pupils must be age appropriate and developmentally appropriate. PSHE is taught sensitively and inclusively, with respect to the backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents while always with the aim of providing pupils with the knowledge they need of the law, their rights and the rights of others. It is important that they understand their rights as a child and as an adult, so they have an appreciation and understanding of their responsibilities to humanity and know how to make valuable contributions to the society we live in.

Intent

The intention of PSHE at Stocksbridge Junior School is to equip pupils beyond the minimum statutory requirements of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory curriculum. The intent of the PSHE curriculum is to ensure that we provide pupils with in-depth learning opportunities that cover the content outlined in the Department for Education’s statutory relationships, sex and health education guidance, as well as going beyond this to integrate non-statutory content. This will ensure we are creating a complete and comprehensive PSHE programme. The curriculum is well planned to ensure that we teach PSHE as a whole school approach, whilst also ensuring our teaching and lessons underpin the following:

Section 2.5 of the national curriculum framework document states that:
“All schools should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education, drawing on good practice.”

Furthermore, under section 78 of the Education Act 2002, it is stated that maintained schools should:

Promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.
Prepare pupils at school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

As part of a broader PSHE curriculum, we want pupils to acquire the skills and attributes needed to become lifelong, upstanding members of the community, who can face challenges and can navigate their lives with independence and resilience. We want our pupils to have self-belief, high aspirations and the drive and motivation to achieve any goal or dream– the sky really is the limit. At Stocksbridge Junior School, we possess a shared ambition of ensuring all pupils develop their voice; a voice which they wholly feel is valued and respected. Our intention is that pupils leave our school with a strong sense of identity. We want our pupils to exude confidence and self-esteem as we believe this will help enable them to thrive as individuals, as family members and as members of the local community and wider society.

The RSHE curriculum is specifically focused on the development of relationships, physical and mental health, and sex education. RSHE is progressively sequenced to ensure that content is ambitious, challenging and responsive to the needs and context of the local community whilst remaining developmentally age-appropriate. We want pupils to understand and appreciate what healthy friendships and relationships are like. We want pupils to know how to keep themselves and others safe and, in line with our school safeguarding procedures, it is essential that pupils know how to report concerns and who to report them to. We want to provide pupils with age-appropriate sex education as well as informing pupils about the changes that happen during puberty. The RSHE curriculum also aims to:

Promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development and wellbeing of pupils in school and in society.
Prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life; including work.
Develop key concepts, skills, strategies and understanding that enable pupils to make positive lifestyle choices and take responsibility for their own actions, now and in their future.
Reduce stigma attached to health issues, in particular those to do with mental wellbeing.
Identify and support vulnerable and SEND pupils and promote safeguarding.
To promote pupils’ self-control and ability to self-regulate, and strategies for doing so.
To teach children the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships.

Implementation

At Stocksbridge Junior School, we have implemented/used guidance from the PSHE Association and Jigsaw to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which develops pupils personally, socially, emotionally and economically whilst also ensuring that the statutory parts of the RSHE curriculum are delivered in each year group. The PSHE Association and Jigsaw lessons take a progressive, spiral and age-appropriate approach, which will ensure that pupils are prepared for each stage of their education, including secondary school. They will learn and practise skills that they can use throughout their whole lives in future friendships and relationships, careers and hobbies.

The PSHE curriculum is implemented throughout six units of work across the year:

Autumn 1 - Relationships
Autumn 2 - Community
Spring 1 - Physical well-being
Spring 2 - How to keep safe online
Summer 1 - Dreams and goals
Summer 2 - Changing me (including sex education) JIGSAW

Each year group studies a similar unit at the same time, allowing for knowledge to be built sequentially throughout the year and then built upon, and retrieved, in future years.

Our PSHE curriculum is interwoven with our social and emotional curriculum, that is underpinned by the Thrive approach. Social and emotional targets underneath the strand of ‘Skills and Structure’ are shared with class teachers each half-term, based on assessments from the Thrive-Online assessment tool. This enables teachers to work on the development of desired behaviours and social and emotional skills, within both PSHE lessons and the wider curriculum.

We also ensure that, throughout the year, we celebrate awareness days/weeks, such as: Anti-Bullying Week, Safer Internet Day, Mental Health Awareness Week and RSE Day to ensure that statutory parts of the RSHE curriculum are explicitly taught at every possible opportunity.

One of the most important aims of our broad and balanced PSHE curriculum is to ensure that pupils are kept safe during their time in education and are well-equipped to continue to keep themselves safe in life beyond education. Therefore, it was vital when implementing our PSHE curriculum that we embraced the following, which is outlined in Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022, paragraph 131:

Schools and colleges play a crucial role in preventative education. Preventative education is most effective in the context of a whole-school or college approach that prepares pupils and students for life in modern Britain and creates a culture of zero tolerance for sexism, misogyny/misandry, homophobia, biphobia and sexual violence/harassment. The school/college will have a clear set of values and standards, upheld and demonstrated throughout all aspects of school/college life. These will be underpinned by the school/college’s behaviour policy and pastoral support system, as well as by a planned programme of evidence-based RSHE delivered in regularly timetabled lessons and reinforced throughout the whole curriculum. Such a programme should be fully inclusive and developed to be age and stage of development appropriate (especially when considering the needs of children with SEND and other vulnerabilities). This program will tackle, at an age-appropriate stage, issues such as:

Healthy and respectful relationships.
Boundaries and consent.
Stereotyping, prejudice and equality.
Body confidence and self-esteem.
How to recognise an abusive relationship, including coercive and controlling behaviour.
The concepts of, and laws relating to – sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, so called ‘honour’-based violence such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), and how to access support, and
What constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why these are always unacceptable.

The teaching of the PSHE curriculum is planned and delivered to support pupils in transferring key knowledge into their long-term memory and, therefore, improving the progress they make. Essential vocabulary is identified within each lesson and unit of work to ensure that our pupils can discuss and evaluate the PSHE content effectively. Pupils’ work is evidenced as part of a whole-class floor book or on Seesaw.

Impact

Ongoing formative assessment is used to assess the impact of pupils’ progress and understanding in PSHE. The end points in PSHE make it clear to teachers the substantive knowledge that pupils should have acquired during a unit. This allows for teachers to skilfully use retrieval practice and targeted questions to ensure that this knowledge has become embedded in pupils’ long-term memory.

Pupil interviews and scrutiny of work in their exercise books and on Seesaw will help inform the subject lead, and subsequently teachers, about what has been learnt, any misconceptions that need addressing and any content that may need revisiting.

Our well-constructed curriculum in PSHE leads to successful learning amongst all pupils at Stocksbridge Junior School. The impact of our curriculum can be seen through the work pupils produce, the conversations had with pupils as well as the ways pupils behave and conduct themselves, both inside and outside of school.

Stocksbridge Junior School Curriculum for PSHE

What should pupils know by the end of Key Stage 2?

Relationships Education

Families and people who care for me

Pupils should know:

That families are important for children growing up because they can give love, security and stability.
The characteristics of healthy family life, commitment to each other, including in times of difficulty, protection and care for children and other family members, the importance of spending time together and sharing each other’s lives.
That others’ families, either in school or in the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care.
That stable, caring relationships, which may be of different types, are at the heart of happy families, and are important for children’s security as they grow up.
That marriage represents a formal and legally recognised commitment of two people to each other which is intended to be lifelong.
How to recognise if family relationships are making them feel unhappy or unsafe, and how to seek help or advice from others if needed.

Marriage in England and Wales is available to both opposite sex and same sex couples. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 extended marriage to same sex couples in England and Wales. The ceremony through which a couple get married may be civil or religious.

Caring friendships

Pupils should know:

How important friendships are in making us feel happy and secure, and how people choose and make friends.
The characteristics of friendships, including mutual respect, truthfulness, trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences and support with problems and difficulties.
That healthy friendships are positive and welcoming towards others, and do not make others feel lonely or excluded.
That most friendships have ups and downs, and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened, and that resorting to violence is never right.
How to recognise who to trust and who not to trust, how to judge when a friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable, managing conflict, how to manage these situations and how to seek help or advice from others, if needed.

Respectful relationships

Pupils should know:

The importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have different preferences or beliefs.
Practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships.
The conventions of courtesy and manners.
The importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness.
That in school and in wider society they can expect to be treated with respect by others, and that in turn they should show due respect to others, including those in positions of authority.
About different types of bullying (including cyberbullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult) and how to get help.
What a stereotype is, and how stereotypes can be unfair, negative or destructive.
The importance of permission-seeking and giving in relationships with friends, peers and adults.

Online relationships

Pupils should know:

That people sometimes behave differently online, including by pretending to be someone they are not.
That the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-to-face relationships, including the importance of respect for others online including when we are anonymous.
The rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them.
How to critically consider their online friendships and sources of information including awareness of the risks associated with people they have never met.
How information and data is shared and used online.

Being safe

Pupils should know:

What sorts of boundaries are appropriate in friendships with peers and others (including in a digital context).
About the concept of privacy and the implications of it for both children and adults; including that it is not always right to keep secrets if they relate to being safe.
That each person’s body belongs to them, and the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact.
How to respond safely and appropriately to adults they may encounter (in all contexts, including online) whom they do not know.
How to recognise and report feelings of being unsafe or feeling bad about any adult.
How to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard.
How to report concerns or abuse, and the vocabulary and confidence needed to do so.
Where to get advice, for example family, school or other sources.

Health Education

Mental Wellbeing

Pupils should know:

That mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health.
That there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations.
How to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings.
How to judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate.
The benefits of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation, voluntary and service-based activity on mental wellbeing and happiness.
Simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and family and the benefits of hobbies and interests.
Isolation and loneliness can affect children and that it is very important for children to discuss their feelings with an adult and seek support.
That bullying (including cyberbullying) has a negative and often lasting impact on mental wellbeing.
Where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online).
It is common for people to experience mental ill health. For many people who do, the problems can be resolved if the right support is made available, especially if accessed early enough.

Internet Safety and Harms

Pupils should know:

that, for most people the internet is an integral part of life and has many benefits.
About the benefits of rationing time spent online, the risks of excessive time spent on electronic devices and the impact of positive and negative content online on their own and others’ mental and physical wellbeing.
How to consider the effect of their online actions on others and know how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online and the importance of keeping personal information private.
Why social media, some computer games and online gaming, for example, are age restricted.
That the internet can also be a negative place where online abuse, trolling, bullying and harassment can take place, which can have a negative impact on mental health.
How to be a discerning consumer of information online including understanding that information, including that from search engines, is ranked, selected and targeted.
Where and how to report concerns and get support with issues online.

Physical Health and Fitness

Pupils should know:

The characteristics and mental and physical benefits of an active lifestyle.
The importance of building regular exercise into daily and weekly routines and how to achieve this; for example walking or cycling to school, a daily active mile or other forms of regular, vigorous exercise.
The risks associated with an inactive lifestyle (including obesity).
How and when to seek support including which adults to speak to in school if they are worried about their health.

Healthy Eating

Pupils should know:

What constitutes a healthy diet (including understanding calories and other nutritional content).
The principles of planning and preparing a range of healthy meals.
The characteristics of a poor diet and risks associated with unhealthy eating (including, for example, obesity and tooth decay) and other behaviours (e.g. the impact of alcohol on diet or health).

Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco

Pupils should know:

The facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use and drug-taking.

Health and Prevention

Pupils should know:

How to recognise early signs of physical illness, such as weight loss, or unexplained changes to the body.
About safe and unsafe exposure to the sun, and how to reduce the risk of sun damage, including skin cancer.
The importance of sufficient good quality sleep for good health and that a lack of sleep can affect weight, mood and ability to learn.
About dental health and the benefits of good oral hygiene and dental flossing, including regular check-ups at the dentist.
About personal hygiene and germs including bacteria, viruses, how they are spread and treated, and the importance of handwashing.
The facts and science relating to allergies, immunisation and vaccination.

Basic First Aid

Pupils should know:

How to make a clear and efficient call to emergency services if necessary.
Concepts of basic first-aid, for example dealing with common injuries, including head injuries.

Changing Adolescent Body

Pupils should know:

Key facts about puberty and the changing adolescent body, particularly from age 9 through to age 11, including physical and emotional changes about menstrual wellbeing including the key facts about the menstrual cycle.