PSHE Intent

We live in a diverse community with many differences and similarities. The communities are made up of different sexes, different ages, different races, different religious beliefs and different cultural beliefs. We want all children in school community to grow up respecting, tolerating and understanding the diversity and richness that all these different communities can offer to society. They also need to understand how their community is part of the wider community of their town, their county, their country and their world. They are taught this to give them an understanding of life and the world that is broad, balanced and rich in experiences.

We believe that Personal Social Health and Economic Education (PSHE) and the Relationships Education objectives that sit within the subject, help to give pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, independent lives. It enables them to become informed, active and responsible citizens. Above all, we wish to ensure that when children move on from our school, they have a good understanding of the importance of healthy relationships and are able to safeguard themselves and be healthy, mentally emotionally and physically.

The overarching aim for PSHE education is to provide pupils with:

• accurate and relevant knowledge
• opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding
• opportunities to explore, clarify and challenge their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
• the skills, language and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.

Developing children through PSHE requires all aspects of the discipline to be developed together. The curriculum must include “Knowledge” and “skills” and “concepts” which become blended to form a rich experience.  PSHE knowledge is cumulative and deepens when concepts are compared and evaluated. Hence why it is important that some key concepts will be visited through every year group. All activities will deepen the children’s understanding of one or more of the following concepts:

• Identity (their personal qualities, attitudes, skills, attributes and achievements and what influences these)
• Relationships (including different types and in different settings)
• A healthy (including physically, emotionally and socially) balanced lifestyle (including within relationships, work-life, exercise and rest, spending and saving and diet)
• Risk (identification, assessment and how to manage risk rather than simply the avoidance of risk for self and others) and safety (including behaviour and strategies to employ in different settings)
• Diversity and equality (in all its forms)
• Rights (including the notion of universal human rights), responsibilities (including fairness and justice) and consent (in different contexts)
• Change (as something to be managed) and resilience (the skills, strategies and ‘inner resources’ we can draw on when faced with challenging change or circumstance)
• Power (how it is used and encountered in a variety of contexts including persuasion, bullying, negotiation and ‘win-win’ outcomes)
• Career (including enterprise, employability and economic understanding)

These concepts will be combined with the following skills:

• Intrapersonal - skills required for self-management
• Interpersonal - skills required for positive relationships
• Skills of enquiry