Intent

At Well Green we believe in, and promote, the development of the ‘whole child’.  For this reason, we recognise the importance of Personal, Social, Relationships, Health Education and Citizenship. We believe that personal, social and health education (PSRHE) enables our children to become healthy, safe, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. PSRHE is a programme of learning through which children acquire the skills and knowledge they need to live healthy and happy lives now and in the future. Through PSRHE we explore and counter any ‘Barriers to Learning’ that children may have.  

Our school motto is “Learning, Caring, Growing Together” and we are dedicated to ensuring that Well Green is a happy, stimulating and caring place for everyone. We expect high standards of behaviour and good manners throughout the school. Behaviour and attitude to learning is underpinned by values that are taught through PSHE lessons, making it integral to the success of the whole school. PSHE is at the heart of our school ethos.

The aims of PSRHE education at Well Green is to:

1. Help our children develop a healthy, safer lifestyle.
2. Support our children in developing good relationships.
3. Ensure that our children respect and appreciate the differences between people.

1. Provide our children with the knowledge and skills they need to live healthy, safe, responsible and balanced lives.
2. Eliminate any ‘Barriers to Learning’.
3. Provide our children with opportunities to explore their own needs, beliefs and values.
4. Ensure all children become positive and active members of society.

Implementation

At Well Green, we believe that it is vital to put the child at the heart of our planning. We therefore have created our own bespoke schemes of work for PSRHE incorporating statutory guidance and aspects of different programmes of study including SEAL, to ensure that we are catering for the needs of all the children in our school. Our main focus of study is based on three core learning themes:

1. Personal, social & emotional

2. Relationships

3. Physical health & mental wellbeing

Alongside this we have adopted a Growth Mindset approach to learning whereby the children are encouraged to develop their talents and abilities through hard work, effort and persistence. We aim to develop resilient, independent lifelong learners who face challenges with determination, deal effectively with setbacks and learn from their mistakes.

British Values objectives are weaved into the schemes of work for each Year group. 

Our behaviour system is based on a ‘Rights and Responsibilities’ theme whereby each child understands what their own rights are and recognises the responsibility they have towards others to ensure that everybody’s rights are met, and what they can do to make sure that this is achieved. Each class has a dedicated display exploring this theme.

We teach PSHE through dedicated weekly lessons, which is supplemented through other curriculum areas and Assemblies. PSHE is an integral part of school life and is fully embedded into the whole curriculum. Collective worship provides additional opportunities to enhance pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as well as the promotion of British Values.

A Kagan approach to teaching and learning across school means that all children are actively involved in lessons, all children’s ideas are valued and all children have an equal part to play in lessons. This collaborative team approach to learning provides daily opportunities for the children to develop their social and co-operation skills whilst engaged in their learning.

Impact

The teaching and learning of PSRHE enables our children to:

1. Become confident and responsible learners who work hard and persevere when faced with challenges.
2. Achieve well because they are well engaged, motivated and independent learners.
3. Make the most of their and other people’s abilities.
4. Value their own and other people’s achievements.
5. Manage risk and meet the challenge of life, both now and in the future.
6. Identify their own personal values and strive to live up to them.
7. Relate positively to our neighbourhood and local communities.
8. Make sensible choices about their own health and wellbeing.
9. Know how to keep themselves and others safe.
10. Have worthwhile and fulfilling relationships.
11. Respect the differences between people.
12. Play an active role as members of a democratic society.
13. Develop effective social and communication skills.

Our PSRHE provision enables us to:

1. Promote equal opportunities for all.
2. Improve the health and wellbeing of our children.
3. Recognise and celebrate the cultural diversity represented within our school community.

Our school vision, values and ethos are reflected in PSHE. The personal and social development of children is enhanced by all aspects of our school, including the staff, children, learning experiences and environment, that allows them to feel safe and for which they have some responsibility.

RELATIONSHIPS EDUCATION

Government information for schools about;

‘Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education’.

'The focus in primary school should be on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and with adults.

This starts with pupils being taught about what a relationship is, what friendship is, what family means and who the people are who can support them. From the beginning of primary school, building on early education, pupils should be taught how to take turns, how to treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect, the importance of honesty and truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept of personal privacy.

Establishing personal space and boundaries, showing respect and understanding the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact – these are the forerunners of teaching about consent, which takes place at secondary.

Respect for others should be taught in an age-appropriate way, in terms of understanding one’s own and others’ boundaries in play, in negotiations about space, toys, books, resources and so on.

From the beginning, teachers should talk explicitly about the features of healthy friendships, family relationships and other relationships which young children are likely to encounter. Drawing attention to these in a range of contexts should enable pupils to form a strong early understanding of the features of relationships that are likely to lead to happiness and security. This will also help them to recognise any less positive relationships when they encounter them.

The principles of positive relationships also apply online especially as, by the end of primary school, many children will already be using the internet. When teaching relationships content, teachers should address online safety and appropriate behaviour in a way that is relevant to pupils’ lives. Teachers should include content on how information and data is shared and used in all contexts, including online; for example, sharing pictures, understanding that many websites are businesses and how sites may use information provided by users in ways they might not expect.

Teaching about families requires sensitive and well-judged teaching based on knowledge of pupils and their circumstances. Families of many forms provide a nurturing environment for children. (Families can include for example, single parent families, LGBT parents, families headed by grandparents, adoptive parents, foster parents and carers amongst other structures.) Care needs to be taken to ensure that there is no stigmatisation of children based on their home circumstances and needs, to reflect sensitively that some children may have a different structure of support around them; for example, looked after children or young carers.

A growing ability to form strong and positive relationships with others depends on the deliberate cultivation of character traits and positive personal attributes, (sometimes referred to as ‘virtues’) in the individual. In a school wide context which encourages the development and practice of resilience and other attributes, this includes character traits such as helping pupils to believe they can achieve, persevere with tasks, work towards long-term rewards and continue despite setbacks. Alongside understanding the importance of self-respect and self-worth, pupils should develop personal attributes including honesty, integrity, courage, humility, kindness, generosity, trustworthiness and a sense of justice. This can be achieved in a variety of ways including by providing planned opportunities for young people to undertake social action, active citizenship ‎and voluntary service to others locally or more widely.

Relationships Education also creates an opportunity to enable pupils to be taught about positive emotional and mental wellbeing, including how friendships can support mental wellbeing.

Through Relationships Education (and RSE), schools should teach pupils the knowledge they need to recognise and to report abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse. In primary schools, this can be delivered by focusing on boundaries and privacy, ensuring young people understand that they have rights over their own bodies. This should also include understanding boundaries in friendships with peers and also in families and with others, in all contexts, including online.

Pupils should know how to report concerns and seek advice when they suspect or know that something is wrong. At all stages it will be important to balance teaching children about making sensible decisions to stay safe (including online) whilst being clear it is never the fault of a child who is abused and why victim blaming is always wrong. These subjects complement Health Education and as part of a comprehensive programme and whole school approach, this knowledge can support safeguarding of children.'

By the end of primary:

Families and people who care for me

Pupils should know:

• that families are important for children growing up because they can give love, security and stability
• the characteristics of healthy family life, commitment to each other, including in times of difficulty, protection and care for children and other family members, the importance of spending time together and sharing each other’s lives
• that others’ families, either in school or in the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care
• that stable, caring relationships, which may be of different types, are at the heart of happy families, and are important for children’s security as they grow up
• that marriage represents a formal and legally recognised commitment of two people to each other which is intended to be lifelong
• how to recognise if family relationships are making them feel unhappy or unsafe, and how to seek help or advice from others if needed
  Marriage in England and Wales is available to both opposite sex and same sex couples. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 extended marriage to same sex couples in England and Wales. The ceremony through which a couple get married may be civil or religious
•  
• Caring friendships
• Pupils should know:

• how important friendships are in making us feel happy and secure, and how people choose and make friends
• the characteristics of friendships, including mutual respect, truthfulness, trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences and support with problems and difficulties
• that healthy friendships are positive and welcoming towards others, and do not make others feel lonely or excluded
• that most friendships have ups and downs, and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened, and that resorting to violence is never right
• how to recognise who to trust and who not to trust, how to judge when a friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable, managing conflict, how to manage these situations and how to seek help or advice from others, if needed
   
  Respectful relationships
  Pupils should know:

• the importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have different preferences or beliefs
• practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships
• the conventions of courtesy and manners
• the importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness
• that in school and in wider society they can expect to be treated with respect by others, and that in turn they should show due respect to others, including those in positions of authority
• about different types of bullying (including cyberbullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult) and how to get help
• what a stereotype is, and how stereotypes can be unfair, negative or destructive
• the importance of permission-seeking and giving in relationships with friends, peers and adults
   
  Online relationships
  Pupils should know:

• that people sometimes behave differently online, including by pretending to be someone they are not
• that the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-to-face relationships, including the importance of respect for others online including when we are anonymous
• the rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them
• how to critically consider their online friendships and sources of information including awareness of the risks associated with people they have never met
• how information and data is shared and used online
   
  Being safe
  Pupils should know:

• what sorts of boundaries are appropriate in friendships with peers and others (including in a digital context)
• about the concept of privacy and the implications of it for both children and adults; including that it is not always right to keep secrets if they relate to being safe
• that each person’s body belongs to them, and the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact
• how to respond safely and appropriately to adults they may encounter (in all contexts, including online) whom they do not know
• how to recognise and report feelings of being unsafe or feeling bad about any adult
• how to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard,
• how to report concerns or abuse, and the vocabulary and confidence needed to do so
• where to get advice, for example family, school or other sources
   

At Well Green we recognise the importance of teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and adults. This will create opportunities to ensure children are taught about positive emotional and mental wellbeing and how friendships/family relationships can impact on this.

Teaching is set within the context of a wider whole-school approach to supporting pupils to be safe, happy and prepared for life beyond school. The curriculum on relationships education complement and is supported by school’s wider policies on behaviour, inclusion, respect for equality and diversity, bullying and safeguarding. Safeguarding is at the heart of Relationships Education, there is a focus on keeping children safe and the role that school can play in preventative education.

Please click on the link below to read the Parent Guide relating to relationships education.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-sex-and-health-education-guides-for-schools