Personal, Social, Health Education
At East Ardsley Primary Academy we believe PSHE is an important subject that needs to be taught to our children. It is vital if pupils are to learn how to keep safe and healthy in an ever-changing world.
Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education is a school subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage their lives, now and in the future.
PSHE is a key way in which our school can ensure that pupils are receiving a wide and varied curriculum that is relevant to the lives they live today and prepares them for the future.
The skills and attributes that children gain help them to stay healthy, safe and prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. When taught well, PSHE education helps pupils to achieve their academic potential, and leave school equipped with skills they will need throughout later life.
Our PSHE framework links to our Growth Mindset goals within school. Just like The Zone of Regulations we are teaching our children in Growth Mindset, PSHE also helps them to regulate their actions, which in turn leads to increased control and problem-solving abilities. A lot of our PSHE sessions allow children to deepen their understanding of how to self-regulate; teaching them to recognise a broader range of emotions, understand the perspective of others, how to react to their behaviours and the tools they need to problem solving.
Within our scheme, ages 8-11 are provided with the appropriate knowledge of Relationships and Sex Education (SRE). These once again are age related conversations to ensure our children are preparing for changes and their safety.
All schools have statutory duties around safeguarding. It is a statutory requirement for schools to demonstrate that “children are taught about how to keep themselves and others safe” as part of a preventative education approach (KCSiE, 2022)
Click here to read our RSE Policy
The National Curriculum states that all schools:
- must provide a curriculum that is broadly based and balanced and which meets the needs of all pupils
- promote the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and society, and prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life
- should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) drawing on good practice.
All the key qualities that the Department of Education are wanting to see achieved in school are being delivered through our scheme of work. We are making sure our children are developing skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, teamworking and critical thinking to broaden their skills and lives.
The scheme we follow as a school is 1 Decision. This provides the whole school with a clear and progressive PSHE curriculum.
The way in which we deliver our PSHE allows teachers to manage sensitive discussions with children within a safe and supportive environment. Children are aware they can ask questions and their teacher will listen. It also allows teachers to be aware of vulnerable pupils and enables them to safely participate in discussions they would perhaps not usually want to join. It’s all about creating a safe, secure and supportive environment for every child to be open and honest.
High-quality life-skills education is essential for all students to reach their full potential. 1decision provides an interactive bank of resources that support PSHE, RSE, Health Education, SMSC Development, as well as Safeguarding and much more.
1 Decision in Early Years:
1 Decision within Early Years is taught through a series of stories and real-life scenarios created by colourful Rainbow Drop characters. Throughout these resources, the Rainbow Drops will go on many adventures and learn a lot about the wider world that they live in.
We supplement 1 Decision with half termly Leeds Mindmate lessons which were created as a response to children in Leeds saying that they wanted to learn more about their mental health before they had issues.
https://mindmatechampions.org.uk/pages/about/what-is-the-mindmate-lessons-teaching-resource
In addition, each half term has a growth mindset focus which will be explored in a PSHE lesson and then integrated into conversations and learning over the half term.
The structure of the half term is:
Lesson 1, Mindmate; Lesson 2, Growth Mindset; Lesson 3 +, 1 Decision.
Together these are our planned curriculum with coverage that meets the statutory guidance including RSHE (relationships, sex and health
This is further explained in the documents below.
PSHE Curriculum Overview to download
Protected Characteristics in 1 Decision
A parent or carer has the right to withdraw their child from specific elements of the relationships and sex education curriculum which we teach through our PSHE curriculum. Please click here if you wish to find out more about this.
Skills progression grid for PSHE
Alongside our planned curriculum, all classes have a weekly circle time. This time is used to be responsive to the PSHE needs of the class.