PSHE

‘Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based and which:

promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society

prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life’

Along with the National Curriculum framework, we fully support the DfE’s statutory framework for Relationships Education (September 2019) which outlines that:

“Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.”

(DfE September 2021)

INTENT

At Dogmersfield Primary School we want every child to thrive and grow into a healthy, independent and confident member of the community. We believe that PSHE plays a vital role in helping our children to learn and that our Christian ethos is important to developing strong relationships and enabling children to believe in themselves and their abilities. Through our values of Love, Courage and Respect, we believe that our children will learnt love themselves, others and God. They will develop respect for themselves, others and God. Finally we believe that they will develop courage in their learning and in their relationships with others.

IMPLEMENTATION

In our school, we teach PSHE through the Heartsmart for Church Schools scheme of work. This is tailored to take into account our mixed year classes and to ensure all children cover the key objectives set. This includes 5 key phrases to help the children to focus on key learning:

Don’t forget to let love in

Too much selfie isn’t healthy

Don’t hold on to what’s wrong

Fake it a mistake

No way through isn’t true

These phrases help the children to understand that they are all important and special, that they should consider others as well as loving themselves, that they should forgive and forget when something goes wrong, to be authentic, and that there is always a solution to be found to a problem. These lessons build year by year and are taught weekly. Alongside Heartsmart, we use Medway RSE planning to teach the statutory Sex and Relationships curriculum. These lessons are taught discretely and by the class teachers. Through Mantle of the Expert lessons, our children learn to have a voice and to express their opinions respectfully and confidently. They develop debating skills and explore further our values of Love, Courage and Respect.

IMPACT

We believe that developing these skills will enable all children at Dogmersfield Primary School to become independent, confident and resilient individuals, who care not only about themselves but also others in the world around them.