PSHE and RSHE at Sutton Bonington 

Curriculum Intent

Our planned curriculum programme of learning opportunities and experiences specifically promotes children’s personal, social and health development and helps them to grow as individuals and members of families and communities. PSHE equips children with the knowledge and practical skills to live healthy, safe, fulfilled and responsible lives, both now and in the future.

Through the explicit teaching of mental and emotional health, we promote pupils’ well-being through an understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies. It also contributes to safeguarding, providing pupils with knowledge, understanding and strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe, as well as equipping them to support others who are facing challenges. PSHE also helps them to reflect on their own and Fundamental British values (FBV) and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of attitudes and values they may encounter now and in the future.

The personal, social and emotional development of children is underpinned by British values that will enable children to:

• Be able to demonstrate that they recognise their own worth and that of others, and identify positive ways to face new challenges.
• Express their views confidently, and listen to and show respect for the views of others.
• Make choices about how to develop healthy lifestyles.
• Identify some factors that affect emotional health and well-being.
• Identify different types of relationships and show ways to maintain good relationships.
• Research, discuss and debate topical issues, problems and events.
• Understand why and how rules are made and enforced, why different rules are needed in different situations and take part in making and changing rules.
• Demonstrate respect and tolerance towards others, and resolve differences by looking at alternatives, making decisions and explaining choices
• Show an appreciation of the diversity of religious, and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom and describe some of the different beliefs and values in society.
• Articulate the meaning of the British Values and how these support harmony within their own and wider communities

Curriculum Implementation

At Sutton Bonington Primary School we use a thematic approach to teaching PSHE and our curriculum is built upon the PSHE Association Thematic Model. This national programme of study covers the breadth of PSHE from all statutory RSHE requirements to economic wellbeing and careers and it sets out the content for each key stage. Learning opportunities are spread across three core themes: Health and Wellbeing, Relationships, and Living in the Wider World. We cover the core themes over the school year, with three topics per half term. This approach allows different year groups to work on similar themes at the same time, building a spiral programme year on year. It also allows us to adapt the curriculum to suit the needs of our learners including pupils with SEND.

At Sutton Bonington Primary School, in addition to Relationships and Health Education, we also teach aspects of Sex Education that is covered in our Science Curriculum. Alongside this, we teach about different kinds of relationships as it is important that learners have an understanding of the full diversity of the world they live in and be prepared for life in modern Britain.

Relationships and Health Education including Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) development and Fundamental British Values are an integral part of our whole school curriculum, and they are often taught within other subject areas. SMSC education is at the heart of our school and it is taught in such a way to reflect the overall aims, values and ethos of our school. This also helps to promote fundamental British values across the curriculum. 

We encourage our pupils to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. We challenge all our pupils to look for opportunities to show the school values of KINDNESS, RESILIENCE, HONESTY, CURIOSITY and RESPECT and PRIDE. 

Visitors such as emergency services, NSPCC and the school nurse complement our PSHE curriculum offer. Assemblies are linked to RHE, British Values and SMSC and cover any additional sessions that would benefit the whole school. RHE, BV and SMSC displays throughout school reinforce the RHE curriculum enabling children to make links.

Curriculum Impact

Through the explicit teaching of the PSHE curriculum, teachers and pupils assess their learning throughout the lesson (AFL). At the end of the topic, pupils are given specific tasks to assess their knowledge and understanding allowing them to build a schema of connections of concepts and knowledge which the pupil can retrieve throughout their continued learning journey in PSHE. The overall measure of the impact of PSHE in the curriculum is that our pupils become caring, empathetic, responsible, resilient individuals who have the knowledge and understanding to become valued citizens in our diverse, modern world, armed with strategies to maintain a physically, mentally and emotionally healthy life-style.