"I've learned that people will forget what you've said, people will forget what you've done but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou 

PSHE

At Kirkby on Bain, our goal is to make sure that we equip our children with the right skills and knowledge to stay safe and achieve their full potential. We believe that teaching our children to make informed decisions should lie at the heart of our teaching in PSHE. The decisions that we make define who we become and the experiences that we will encounter. For this reason, our curriculum is designed with a series of interactive lessons that teach our children how to make positive and informed decisions that will keep them safe and well. 

Intent

At Kirkby on Bain Primary School, we strongly believe in giving our children the critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed to be able to make positive and informed decisions throughout their lives. In conjunction with our whole school ethos and our continued provision for spiritual, moral, social, and cultural (SMSC) development, we are supporting our children on their journey to becoming reflective, responsible, articulate, and independent individuals.  

Our PSHE/RSHE curriculum aims to give children the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to effectively navigate the complexities of life in the 21st Century. The curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of society.

Kapow Primary’s RSE/PSHE scheme of work covers the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance (as set out by the Department for Education).

Our chosen scheme covers wider PSHE learning, in line with the requirement of the National curriculum (2014) that schools ‘should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).’ Children’s learning through this scheme would significantly contribute to their personal development as set out in the Ofsted Inspection Framework and promotes the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty. The Kapow Primary scheme does not specifically cover gender identity, although identity is a theme that runs through all year groups and units more generally.

Quality PSHE and RSE teaching is an important element in helping schools to carry out their duty of care with regards to safeguarding. The DfE’s statutory ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sep 2023)’ guidance states that ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that children are taught about safeguarding, including online safety. Schools should consider this as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum’. In response to the child-on-child abuse updates to Section 5 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2022 and 2023), our curriculum introduces and revisits ideas of personal boundaries, consent and communicating our boundaries with others. This prepares pupils for the challenges and responsibilities they will face in the future.

Implementation

Our PSHE curriculum builds foundations of health and wellbeing, providing crucial decision-making skills and positive attitudes to enable children to achieve their best potential, academically and socially. We want our children to develop and deepen their personal, social, emotional development in ways that are tailored to their age group, whilst also expanding on their previous knowledge as they progress through the school. Within our sessions, we want to provide a safe space where children can: explore new topics or ideas; make safe and informed choices; learn how to take responsibility for their actions; be respectful of others’ views and opinions; value difference and develop themselves as the best version of themselves.

The Kapow Primary scheme is a whole school approach that consists of three areas of learning in EYFS: Reception (to match the EYFS Personal, social and emotional development prime area) and five areas of learning across Key stages 1 and 2.

EYFS:

● Self-regulation

● Building relationships

● Managing self

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 requirements 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. There are meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular learning, in particular with Computing for online safety and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle. The scheme provides consistent messages throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help.

Each unit of lessons has an Assessment Quiz and Knowledge Catcher. The quiz contains 10 questions, nine of which are multiple-choice style and we use these either at both the start and the end of the unit to help measure progress and identify any gaps in learning. The Knowledge Catchers are used at the start of a unit to see what the children already know and to inform teacher planning. 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.

We strive to provide our children with learning opportunities across and beyond the curriculum, threading our learning together with the use of our whole school golden threads and planning activities that enrich pupils’ experiences. In both KS1 and KS2, children have opportunity, and are encouraged, to practice courageous advocacy and support a cause close to their class' heart throughout our ‘Make a Difference, Be the Change!’ golden thread.

KS2 classes also take part in the Archbishop of York Youth Trust Young Leaders Award and Raising Aspirations Programmes, helping them to identify their own positive skills and qualities and understand how these can be applied to the world of work.

The DAaRT (Drug Alcohol and Resilience Training) program is run with years five and six alternating with Raising Aspirations to ensure our lessons are complimented with additional interactive sessions, encouraging and supporting pupils to seek help when needed, develop further speaking and listening skills, make safe and responsible choices and are more knowledgeable about drugs, alcohol and substance use/abuse, in an age appropriate way.

Impact

Children have increased levels of confidence and have developed resilience to deal with disappointment and see failure as a positive opportunity to learn and grow personally.

• Children develop skills, knowledge and awareness, becoming responsible, respectful and active citizens, of our school and locality, the world and as they transition into their next steps in education and beyond.
• Children develop strong collaboration skills and recognise others’ inherent worth and uniqueness as strengths. We will teach our children not only to tolerate difference but to celebrate it and 'challenge discrimination'.
• Children will collaborate critically, creatively and with a caring approach.
• Children are better able to reflect upon their choices, evaluate their decisions/choices and learn from their mistakes.
• Children leave the school with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community, with the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections, and become lifelong learners, ready to face the challenge of their next setting and flourish.

Through our progression of PSHE/RSHE lessons, our children will have met the objectives set out within the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance. They will be able to utilise their learning within their daily lives, from dealing with friendship issues to resilience to making healthy choices and knowing where and how to get help when needed.