PSHE stands for Personal, Social, Health and Economic education. We have statutory responsibilities to promote pupil well-being and pupil safeguarding (Children Act, 2004) and community cohesion (Education Act, 2006). PSHE Education plays an important part in fulfilling all of these responsibilities. We regard PSHE as an important component of the whole curriculum. We believe that the promotion of health and well-being is central to the life of the school and its relationships with the surrounding community.

From September 2020, primary schools in England are required to teach Relationships and Health Education as compulsory subjects and the Department for Education strongly recommends this should also include age-appropriate Sex Education. Schools also have statutory responsibilities to safeguard their pupils (Keeping Children Safe in Education, DfE, 2021) and to uphold the Equality Act (2010). Our PSHE curriculum supports all of these requirements and has children’s wellbeing at its heart. We ensure that the fundamental British values are strongly embedded and promoted through our PSHE whole-school approach and through everyday aspects of school life.

Curriculum organisation

Our PSHE curriculum is organised into six half-term units of work, each with six lessons. Every year group studies the same theme at the same time allowing for themes to be shared and celebrated by the whole school. Each unit is launched with a whole school assembly and a song, with each year group then studying the same unit at the same time according to their learning level.  Each year group is taught one lesson per week and all lessons are delivered in an age- and stage-appropriate way so that they meet children’s needs. Relevant and meaningful content can then be revisited and built upon each year, allowing for understanding to be developed as our children mature. The curriculum is progressive and carefully planned to help children develop and extend their knowledge throughout their time at Inglehurst Infants.

• Being Me In My World covers a wide range of topics, including a sense of belonging, welcoming others and being part of a school community, a wider community, and a global community; it also looks at children’s rights and responsibilities, working and socialising with others, and pupil voice.

• Celebrating Difference focuses on similarities and differences and teaches about diversity. Children learn to accept everyone’s right to ‘difference’, and we  explore the concept of bullying – what it is and what it isn’t, including cyber bullying.

• Dreams and Goals aims to help children think about their hopes and dreams, their goals for success, what personal strengths are, and how to overcome challenges, via team work skills and tasks. Children learn about experiencing and managing feelings of pride, ambition, disappointment, success; and they get to share their aspirations and their dreams for the world.

• Healthy Me covers two main areas of health: Emotional health (relaxation, being safe, friendships) and Physical health (eating a balanced diet, physical activity, rest and relaxation, keeping clean, medicines, being safe) in order for children to learn that health is a very broad topic.

• Relationships has a wide focus, looking at diverse topics such as families, friendships, pets and animals, and love and loss. A vital part of this unit is about understanding relationships with friends and family and why it is important to share and cooperate. They have the chance to explore roles and responsibilities in families, and look at stereotypes.

• Changing Me deals with change of many types, from growing from young to old and this links with the science curriculum when teaching children about life cycles. Each year group thinks about looking ahead, moving year groups or the transition to junior school. 

Each PSHE lesson is spit into six parts;

• Connect us – a game or activity to build social skills, collaborative learning and positive relationships.
• Calm me – this helps children to relax and quieten their thoughts and emotions.
• Open my mind – gaining children’s attention fully so that they are filtering out activity around them that is not significant to their learning.
• Tell me or show me – the introduction of new information, concepts or skills.
• Let me learn – children are given the opportunity to use and discuss what they have been taught.
• Help me to reflect – children are given regular opportunities to stop and reflect on their learning.