PSHE
RSHE Policy
Unlike the other curriculum areas, we have a specific standalone policy for the teaching of Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). You can access this on our Policies page here. The below information describes our approach to teaching PSHE:
Why PSHE Matters:
PSHE & RSE provide a supportive, nurturing environment in which to have sensitive discussions and grow as individuals. Providing this kind of environment is the backbone of any school and a key aspect of the ethos of St John's.
PSHE also gives children a safe space to discuss and prepare for puberty as well as creating a positive culture around issues of sexuality and safe and healthy relationships. It helps to nurture tolerance and acceptance for each other and for everyone within our diverse society.
We make sure that the children in our care feel comfortable to ask questions and verbalise their feelings. PSHE and RSE equip them with the vocabulary to do this.
The study of PSHE in our school enables us to realise our vision of life in all its fullness by:
Growth - Starting the year with the school-wide topic of ‘Being me in my world’ which focuses on taking pride in your abilities and using your strengths to their best potential. Children are given time, during the ‘Dreams and goals’ topic, to really explore their aspirations in life and discuss how to realistically reach these goals.
Kindness - Topics like ‘Celebrating difference’ and ‘Relationships’ focus on diversity within both our school community and the wider world and really helps to nurture the children’s understanding of other people and how to respond to other people’s emotions.
Integrity - Summer topics of ‘Healthy me’ and ‘Changing me’ help to make the children aware of their own bodies and the changes they may encounter in their lives. These topics help them to understand how they can look after their bodies and prepare for the changes puberty may bring.
Integrity - Following the statutory guidance on discussing different relationships and diverse families, class teachers are ensuring to include a range of different families and relationships across the curriculum. Children are offered an opportunity to ask questions about different types of relationships and talk about their own experiences, which helps to nurture a respectful culture.
Joy - Children have a place in their classrooms in which they can submit worries or questions anonymously to a teacher, should they need to. The school nurture room also offers a ‘safe space’ for children who feel like they need to be heard or to work through any difficult emotions.
How we deliver it:
PSHE is taught through one 1-hour session per week. Biological aspects of RSE are sometimes taught within the science curriculum, for example the life cycles and reproduction of animals in Year 5.
In year 6, children are taught primary sex education. For more details, please see our RHSE policy.
Curriculum design: We use the scheme of work ‘Jigsaw’ to teach PSHE which covers all statutory requirements of RHSE and splits the subject into six topics: Being me in my world, Celebrating difference, Dreams and goals, Healthy me, Relationships and Changing Me. These tropics form a spiral curriculum, with these six key areas revisited again and again with increasing complexity so that children revisit and build on their previous learning.
Enrichment: We help children to maintain positive relationships and develop personal skills such as: empathy, compassion, respect and tolerance by exploring these themes in our class readers and aim to make sure that the texts are diverse and inclusive. These texts have been reviewed as of academic year 2023-2024. Every Autumn Term, at the same time as the national ‘Anti-Bullying’ week, we have a school-wide ‘Kindness Week’ where we empower every child to ‘speak out’ about bullying and be proactive, ambassadors for kindness! This ethos is promoted through whole school assemblies, through communication with parents in our school newsletter and the week ends with a ‘kindness box’ being prepared by each class to be given to another class in the school. In this way, we provide children with opportunities to reflect on the needs and feelings of others.
Inclusion: Our ELSA and Family Support Worker works closely with vulnerable children and their families to ensure that they receive the support that they need through leading ELSA sessions, working with parents directly or directing them to additional, external services where needed.
Teachers are proactive in responding to individual needs of children within their class and may choose to prioritise topics, spend longer on certain topics or put in additional PSHE lessons on specific issues that have arisen so that they are meeting the needs of their class and all children can experience ‘life in all its fullness’.
Our PSHE lessons are always taught within the context of family life, taking care to ensure that there is no stigmatisation of children based on their home circumstances (families can include single parent families, LGBT parents, families headed by grandparents, adoptive parents, foster parents/carers amongst other structures) along with reflecting sensitively that some children may have a different structure of support around them (for example: looked after children or young carers).
How we know we are doing it well:
Sociogram used in the first half term of every year to assess where the social needs lie within a class. Teachers are made aware of the results and therefore know which children may be struggling with building healthy relationships with their peers.
Half-termly wellbeing meetings with school SENCo/ELSA to discuss any children who may need additional support in place.
Termly pupil progress meetings highlight any children who may be struggling academically, which can help teachers to spot any sudden changes within a child’s attainment - a possible indicator of a change in wellbeing.
Use of the school nurture room and CPOMs are both good ways of tracking an individual’s behaviour, emotional wellbeing or other causes for concerns and can make it easier to spot any patterns of decreased wellbeing.
The subject leader has attended several CPD courses about the statutory requirements for RSHE and on diversity inclusion. This has been fed back to the staff through our professional development programme. The subject leader provides support for staff when needed, for example through teaching modelled lessons for them to observe and learn from.
The school recently achieved the ‘Wellbeing Award for Schools’ after evidence was gathered and an inspection carried out. This award confirmed that the wellbeing of children, staff and parents was paramount in our school ethos and nurtured effectively and thoroughly. Feedback was very positive.
Each topic has a key enquiry question/end point identified and we use a variety of methods to assess the children's progress against these such as written opinions, class debates/discussions and evaluating a final piece.