Grove House Primary School Staff Login

PSHE + RHE

PSHE – Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education 

RHE – Relationships and Health Education 

 

Our School Values:

We are kind

We are safe

We are understanding

PSHE

Intent – 

We aim to give children the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to navigate the challenges of modern life. For children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, relationships, and financial matters that will support them in becoming confident, responsible adults.

We aim to promote the four fundamental British values, which reflect life in Bradford and modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.

We use our PSHE and RHE sessions to address children’s and staff’s awareness of safeguarding. Following the KCSiE document (DfE, 2022), we introduce and revisit personal boundaries, consent and communicating our boundaries with others. We do this through our values of demonstrating kindness, safety and understanding. At all times, we want our children to understand the material being taught and how it ties into the values of Grove House and ‘real life’.

Our PSHE curriculum has to ensure our pupils have a strong understanding of their own health and well-being.

Implementation – 

PSHE begins in Early Years! We feel passionately that giving our youngest children the skills and knowledge to be able to share how they are feeling, look out for each other and build strong relationships puts them in the best position for moving through school as confident learners. In Nursery, they begin with ‘Me and My Relationships’ and culminate with ‘Growing and Changing’. PSHE is delivery daily using stories and circle time. In Reception, they cover self-regulation, building relationships, and how to manage themselves. In KS1 and KS2, sessions are taught in thematic units with a spiral approach, ensuring themes can be revisited in greater depth each year, so that children can recall and build upon previous learning. Sessions are linked to our values at Grove House and experiences outside of school. PSHE is taught through circle times and embedded through enhancements to the provision. 

Our offering reflects the challenges faced by our community and is adapted to circumstances that have consistently arose. For example, lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for RHE. After parent consultations, the RHE elements cover statutory requirements only and we do not teach any of the recommended/optional units, e.g. non-statutory sex education.

Lessons use a variety of strategies to ensure that all children can access learning and make progress. In Y1-Y6, there is an introductory lesson at the start of each year, which allows all participants to establish ground rules – these are referred to as appropriate to help create a safe environment. Concepts are embedded through debate, stories, role-play, scenarios, and video clips, to allow children to engage in real life and current topics.

Where appropriate, teachers make meaningful links with PSHE sessions to other areas of learning, in particular with Computing for online safety and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle.

Impact – 

Using a combination of pupil voice, teacher voice, parent feedback and floor books, our approach has a positive impact on pupils’ learning.

At the end of each unit, children complete a mini-quiz (usually involving multiple-choice questions) that helps children recall learning from the unit and helps the teacher measure any gaps in learning. Teachers hold a circle time to address any common gaps that arise.

Our most recent Ofsted report details positive references to elements of PSHE, and how it links with our other enrichment offerings, but we also like to listen what our children and parents say:

Parent of Y6 child: ‘The school has been really good. The sessions have really helped him sort things that used to get him angry and he has learned how to stay safe and healthy around others.’

KS1 – 

What do you think of when you know you’re in a PSHE lesson?

  • That it’s about keeping money safe and not spending too much. Being nice to your friends, helping people to make them happy and letting them help me when I seem like something has happened.

 KS2 – 

Why do we study PSHE at school?

  • For people to feel safe and know about things that you’ll need when you’re older.
  • To know how to budget. To spend money, but to do it so that you have enough for other things each month.
  • To help us manage our emotions; to know how others are feeling and what’s going on with them beneath what you can see.

What’s it like to be a pupil here?

  • The values help us to know how to act, and when we use them we know we’re doing good.
  • Really good, because lots of people are understanding. When we’re not in the moment, we’re always more understanding after.

What are you proud of at Grove House?

  • That adults are always there to help children, and the children are there to help the adults as well when they need it.

What do you find tricky about PSHE?

  • When I realise that what we’re talking about links to me. But with other lessons, like My Happy Mind and stuff, I know it’s OK to be sad, and to pause and move on. That way, it doesn’t happen over and over, but I know I can start to feel better.

RHE

We teach Relationships Health Education (RHE) as part of the Relations Sexual Health Education (RSHE) programme building up in an age-appropriate way from Nursery to Year 6. We follow the statutory guidance from the DfE. After parent feedback and recognising the needs of our community, we do not teach the non-statutory units around sex education.

Our focus is 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.

From EYFS, circle time and stories are used to develop 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 boundaries, showing respect and understanding the differences between appropriate and inappropriate contact prepares them for the notion of consent at secondary.

We ensure our children understand that they have rights over their own bodies, boundaries in friendships, family, and online, and where to report concerns when they suspect something is wrong. This links with online safety and computing as well. It also links with the national curriculum for science; for example, the main external body parts, the human body as it grows from birth to old age (including puberty) and reproduction in some plants and animals.

Parent support – 

Last year, we hosted a parent session to discuss updates to the RHE element of our PSHE offering. It was a very good session, with lots of questions around what we taught. If you were not able to attend, below is a link to the Powerpoint that was shared. We will host a similar session this year, so that you are clear on what material your children will be presented and the vocabulary used.

Grove House RHE Parent Discussion 2024

Our RHE policy is currently being updated and will be added later this calendar year. Our current policy can be found here as a reference: RHE Policy