Our Intent: why do we teach PSHE at Weston? 

To safeguard our children: we teach the children to keep safe emotionally and physically. 

We also teach our children to: 

To become a responsible and respectful citizen with an understanding that their actions have wider consequences and that they can be courageous advocates, influencing society for the better. (see Being the Change which replaces School Council from September 2020). 

To be able to build and maintain positive relationships.

To have an understanding of how to maintain a good level of good health and well-being. 

To flourish, and confidently approach the next stage of their education. 

To be well prepared for adulthood. 

To understand, articulate and regulate their emotions. (Our work on mindfulness is designed to support this).

To learn respect for themselves and for others. 

To accept and care for their bodies and have a healthy body-image.

To become tolerant and open-minded individuals with respect for people whose lives differ from their own. 

Enable our children to develop resilience and independence, knowing how to use appropriate resources and find a way to work things out for themselves. 

We are mindful of the specific focus which we need to have due to where our school is located, such as an awareness of water safety.

An important part of PHSE is to teach children about relationships and sex. 

The school provides R.S.E. using a curriculum which was developed following consultation with staff, governors, parents and children. 

We teach R.S.E. as a progressive, spiral scheme. Elements of RSE, such as puberty are taught as part of science, whereas some aspects, such as relationships, are taught as part of our PHSE programme. For PHSE, we use a spiral curriculum called Jigsaw which enables us to teach the children about sensitive subjects in an incremental and age-appropriate way. The Changing Me section relates to RSE.

Parents will be made aware of when and how RSE is being taught before the lessons take place. Although it is hoped that all parents will wish to support the teaching of this content, they retain the right to withdraw their children from the sex education aspect of this topic.

How PSHE underpins our work in school:

Well taught PSHE is a central part of our work as a Church of England school.

Work during PHSE lessons links to: our work in RE; the values shared during Collective Worship and to British Values. 

As we work to develop a respectful attitude across the school, the Jigsaw Scheme offers opportunities to explore and to promote the values which we are seeking to nurture in our pupils.

The Church of England document “Valuing all God’s Children”, 2019, states: 

“Central to Christian theology is the truth that every single one of us is made in the image of God. Every one of us is loved unconditionally by God. We must avoid, at all costs, diminishing the dignity of any individual to a stereotype or a problem. Church of England schools offer a community where everyone is a person known and loved by God, supported to know their intrinsic value” (page 1)

“Opportunities to discuss issues to do with self-esteem, identity and bullying, including HBT (homophobic, biphobic and transphobic) bullying, should be included in physical, social, health and economic education or citizenship programmes. The curriculum should offer opportunities for pupils to learn to value themselves and their bodies. Relationships and sex education should take LGBT people into account.” (Page 6)