PSHE

We use PSHE Matters (a locally produced PSHE curriculum) as the basis to plan our units of work and sessions. 

PSHE Matters highlights the key knowledge children should have at key points of their education.  The progression document below highlights what we teach - and expect children to understand - throughout school. 

SPS PSHE Progression Tables (PDF)

Our RSE curriculum is taught through both our Science and PSHE curriculums.  Our RSE policy can be found in the policy section of this website.  Click here to visit the policy page.  Our RSE curriculum intent is below.

SPS RSE Curriculum Intent (PDF)

As mentioned above, we follow the Derbyshire PSHE Matters scheme of work. Long term overviews are in place and there is a whole school theme that is delivered across school at the same time which is well thought out to cover all the objectives in the National Curriculum over a two-year cycle. These themes last for a term.

Every class has a stand alone lesson each week.  Outside of dedicated PSHE lessons, staff embed and revisit PSHE learning through activities in other areas of the curriculum.  Examples of this include learning about equality during the topic about Africa and learning to share and listen to others during group or paired work.  Whole class stories are also a great way for staff to have discussions which can further develop children's sense of what is right.  Some PSHE is also delivered through outside agencies such as NSPCC, P4YP and the Changing Lives team. 

Reminders about what PSHE is are shared with the children regularly and discussions are held about why the subject is important. When planning a unit, staff look at the scheme of work and select the activities based on the needs of the class (considering their starting points) and current local and national issues. Consideration is given to the protected characteristics when illustrating examples – such as selecting people with disabilities. Baseline and summative tasks are used to capture progress when staff deem them to be useful for the unit. 

Children's learning can be shown through their PSHE books, groups discussions, Bubble Time, assemblies and day to day activities. 

We further develop PSHE by giving children a range of roles and responsibilities in school.  This includes having monitors in classes for specific roles, having an active school council, play leaders, anti-bullying ambassadors, librarians and iVengers.  

Below is an overview of the PSHE titles we cover over a two-year rolling curriculum.  

SPS Curriculum Overview for PSHE (PDF)

In PSHE, we currently have Knowledge Organisers where children record what they have learnt about a topic at the end of each term. This is added to and recapped throughout the year. 

These help staff to determine what key learning the children have gained from the topic.  It also provides children with an opportunity to reflect on their learning and to revisit key points later in the year.  

We understand the importance of teaching high quality PSHE lessons to all children and leaders monitor the impact of teaching in a variety of ways. 

Importantly, the subject leader spends time in classes - seeing what the children are learning, talking to pupils about their understanding and views about PSHE and talking to staff about the learning sequence they are following in PSHE.  The subject leader likes to carry out book looks alongside pupils to gather information about their learning. PSHE is unique in that it can be monitored each day by seeing how the children interact with each other and how they conduct themselves around school.  Leaders are active in identifying any particular issues - such as messy cloakrooms - and addressing this so children are quickly reminded about the importance of respecting the property of others. 

Key findings about the impact of the PSHE curriculum are shared and discussed with staff - the information is based on the strengths identified as well as any areas for development. 

Staff assess children against the curriculum intent statements each year.  Information is centered around determining which children are not yet at the expected standard and who are very secure within the expected standard.  This provides us with information to inform our future teaching.  

Here are some great websites to support learning in PSHE:

nspcc - great for safeguarding information.

sja - St. John's Ambulance- information about basic First Aid.

Compass - Changing Lives Team.

think.gov - Information for Road Safety.

hectors-world - Information about Bullying.

natwest- Information regarding money.

childline - Safeguarding information. 

bbc.co.uk/bitesize - General PSHE information.

For safeguarding links, please click here. 

While we don't specifically set homework, children's development in PSHE is best when it is in partnership between home and school.

Through school newsletters, we make parents and carers aware of the topic titles for PSHE. This enables parents and carers to have conversations with their children about their learning.

Ultimately, PSHE is about teaching children to have the skills and knowledge to thrive in the real world and the more that can be done at home to support their development in this area, the more chance they have to succeed in life.