Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Citizenship Education

Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Citizenship Education

Canon Burrows CE Primary is committed to valuing the individuality of all of our pupils and supporting them to explore the knowledge and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy and independent lives through making safe and informed decisions in order to to thrive as individuals, family members and responsible citizens of society. Within our PSHE and Citizenship lessons, and within the broader life of the school, we aim to ensure that pupils explore the necessary knowledge and understanding required to stay safe, be happy and healthy and fulfil their potential, while also preparing them for life, both in the present and in the future in modern Britain.

Our PSHE and Citizenship education aims for pupils to develop the qualities and attributes needed to thrive as individuals, family members and responsible members of society. It also aims to equip children with the skills they need to live successfully as citizens of the communities to which they belong and enables them to celebrate diversity and treat all people with kindness and respect. We also intend to ensure all children understand the importance of equality and respect and the Protected Characteristics from the Equality Act 2010.PSHE and Citizenship education in our school also aims to encourage children to develop positive mental health and emotional wellbeing, by empowering them with the knowledge of why this is important and how it can be achieved.  We ensure the emotional and social needs of all our pupils are met within our school environment, and we support the development of pupils’ health and wellbeing, relationships, self-esteem and confidence.   We want to equip children with the knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe both on and offline and ensure safeguarding needs thread through our curriculum.  We encourage our pupils to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community.  In so doing, we help develop their sense of self-worth. We teach them how society is organised and governed and we ensure that they experience the process of democracy in school through the School Council, Sports Council, Arts Council and ECO Committees. We teach them about rights and responsibilities and they also learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse and multicultural society.  

Our Curriculum

The Health and Relationships aspects of PSHE is compulsory as from September 2020 under the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The Relationships and Health aspects of our PSHE provision forms an integral part of our PSHE curriculum and meets with the statutory requirements.  A clear and comprehensive Health and Relationships Education scheme of work is provided within our PSHE curriculum and an overview of the planned provision for Key Stages One and Two is attached. This scheme of work is bespoke to Canon Burrows, made up from a range of providers, and all of its resources used are fully in line with the Learning Outcomes and Core Themes outlined in the PSHE Association Thematic Programme of Study which is widely used by schools in England and is recommended and referred to by the DfE in key documentation relating to PSHE provision in schools. The PSHE curriculum has been tailored to meet the needs of the pupils in our setting.  The EYFS work to the standards in the PSED area of their curriculum.  In provision, children will explore the ideas of relationships, feelings and appropriate behaviours, self-confidence and self-awareness, rules and routines, empathy and restorative justice.

Our PSHE curriculum is comprehensive and further enriched as it integrates the broader, non-statutory aspects of PSHE, to include economic well-being; careers; personal safety and assessing and managing risk. The curriculum is based on three core themes: Relationships, Living in the Wider World and Health and Wellbeing.

• Health and Wellbeing lessons will explore physical wellbeing, healthy lifestyles, mental health, growing and changing, keeping safe and drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
• Relationships lessons will explore families and close positive relationships, friendships, managing hurtful behaviour and bullying, safe relationships and respecting self and others.  
• Living in the Wider World lessons will explore our shared responsibilities, communities, media literacy and digital resilience and economic wellbeing (money and aspirations, work and career) and British Values.

Our curriculum is taught through a sequence of lessons that are progressive and based on what our children in our school and town need, considering their age, stage, and maturity and their understanding, culture, and experience.  All lessons cover content in an age-appropriate manner.  It offers a spiral programme which organises learning into a series of recurring themes. Its purpose is to develop knowledge, skills and attributes so that prior learning is revisited, reinforced and extended upon as pupils progress through school. 

We believe PSHE and Citizenship education is an important and necessary part of all pupils’ education. In our school, it is a key element of school life and, as well as explicit teaching sessions which will draw on good practice and national recommendations, it will be built into many aspects of the wider curriculum. Our school believes PSHE and Citizenship education is a shared responsibility of school staff, parents, carers, pupils and, where appropriate, the wider community.

How we teach PSHE

In Key Stage One and Two PSHE is taught every week.   In Reception, Personal, Social and Emotional Development runs throughout the curriculum, during child-initiated learning where we provide purposeful provision and interaction based on the children’s knowledge and interest and we have planned adult led circle times where we explore the learning and development intentions in The Early Years framework. In addition, staff will set aside time to discuss matters arising from school council meetings or other issues as they arise.  In PSHE lessons we ensure that a safe teaching and learning environment is created and there is a school ethos which promotes positive relationships between peers and pupils and staff. 

PSHE is also integrated into all areas of the curriculum e.g. when teaching about health in Science we cover Drugs Education. Additionally, as there is a large overlap between the programme of study for Religious Education and the aims of PSHE, we teach a considerable amount of PSHE through our Religious Education lessons and within assemblies, such as through our weekly Picture News Assemblies.

The curriculum is taught by class teachers who are trained and confident in delivering the specific content of lessons, including those covering issues such as healthy and unhealthy relationships, equality, respect, abuse, sexuality, gender identity, sex and consent.

When relevant, visitors from external agencies or the local community are invited to offer their expertise and experience to support the delivery of PSHE, e.g. health workers, police, faith leaders, Safe Squad.  In these instances, we ensure that they adhere to this policy, or the Relationships and Health Policy where relevant.

Lessons will involve a variety of teaching and learning strategies to encourage pupil engagement.  For example, we use of a range of starting points which are helpful in introducing sensitive or controversial topics for discussion e.g.

·       photographs/pictures,

·       group or class brainstorming,

·       a round, where each child says something they know about a topic

·       starter questions.

We also use distancing techniques meaning that children are able to engage with and explore issues deeply without having to discuss their own lives and experiences through activities such as:

·       stories,

·       role play,

·       scenarios based on real situations which can promote discussion whilst at the same time ‘depersonalising’ the discussion.

·       Games.

Our aims for PSHE are also implemented through a our school ethos and values, pastoral support, assemblies that cover British Values, visits, and visitors and our Behaviour Policy. We have an Anti-Bullying Week and a "Healthy Bodies, Healthy Mind Week" and each class have a class "Worry Box" where children can share any concerns privately and members of staff can support children accordingly. There is also the opportunity for children to email worries and concerns through our school web page. 

Meeting the needs of all pupils

PSHE will be delivered in a way that is accessible and inclusive of all pupils.  Canon Burrows CE Primary understands that pupils with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) are entitled to learn the programme of study for PSHE, hence, it is designed to be inclusive of all pupils. Teachers will understand that they may need to be more explicit and adapt planning and/or scaffold learning in order to appropriately deliver the programme to pupils with SEND.  In additon, some pupils may need additional support to meet their needs and this can be delivered through a range of interventions and adaptations on an individual need basis.  We believe that it is important that all learners are taught within the classroom with their peers, where interventions are needed teachers and teaching assistants follow a bespoke evidence informed intervention. Teachers have access to a SEND toolkit available from the PSHE Association to aid planning for pupils with SEND. We also pre-teach children who are at risk of falling behind in certain areas; this develops curiosity and interest as well as gives these children confidence and practice in retrieval before they learn new topic areas.

How we assess PSHE

Assessment will be in line with the EYFS and National Curriculum documents. Baseline assessments are used at the start of a lesson or a unit of learning to determine pupils’ prior knowledge through activities such as mind-mapping, cold tasks, starter questions and graffiti walls.  Assessment of PSHE delivered in the curriculum is conducted through the monitoring and observation of pupils’ learning with reference to knowledge and understanding gained, skills learnt and developed, attitudes and values explored and responses offered by pupils. Teachers will use questioning throughout PSHE and RHE lessons to elicit children’s understanding and promote and challenge children to deepen understanding of concepts. Questions should be precise and develop thinking.  Teachers will build opportunity for AFL into lessons and will use regular opportunities for discussion and use strategies to check and deepen a pupil’s understanding.  Talk in PSHE and RHE is the basis for all lessons. As teachers we encourage children to: Articulate their thinking, take responsibility for asking questions of others to clarify understanding, agree and disagree, justifying their thinking and responding in full sentences with the intention that everyone understands them.

PSHE will be reported as part of the school’s Personal and Social Development in end of year reports and in parent consultation meetings and some aspects may be included within other curriculum areas of the report e.g. in aspects taught through Science and Computing.  

By the time our children leave our school they will:

• 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
• understand the importance of equality and respect and The Protected Characteristics
• be able to understand and manage their emotions
• be able to look after their mental health and well-being (recognise online and offline risk to wellbeing)
• be able to develop positive, healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future
•  understand the physical aspects involved in RSE at an age-appropriate level
•  have respect for themselves and others
•  have a positive self esteem

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