Vision

New Haw Community School’s RSHE and PSHE curriculum will equip pupils with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to successfully manage their lives, now and in the future.  We will help pupils to stay healthy, safe and prepare them to play an active, positive and successful role in today’s diverse society.  The curriculum will help pupils to achieve their academic potential by supporting their wellbeing and tackling issues that can affect their ability to learn, such as anxiety and unhealthy relationships.  Pupils will develop skills and aptitudes like collaboration, communication, sound judgement and resilience, which are crucial to navigating the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.  RSHE and PSHE, combined with the school’s ethos and behaviour expectations of both pupils and staff, will support our pupils to become adults who can manage risk and make informed choices.

Curriculum design

Curriculum Map

Rationale

PSHE and RSHE at New Haw is taught through a clear and comprehensive scheme of work.   The PSHE and RSHE curriculum is built around the core themes of Health and Well-Being, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.  Statutory Health Education and Relationships Education guidance, published by the DfE, has been used to inform planning. PSHE and RSHE is delivered through a spiral curriculum.   As children progress through key stage 2, they revisit the three key themes, each time accessing them at a deeper level.   As pupils grow and develop, they will encounter many first experiences, from making responsible decisions about friendships to choosing their career path.  Therefore, the curriculum has been planned to encompass not just the first experiences children will encounter at New Haw Community School but those they will experience when they leave us.

Due to the continuous developments in technology and greater opportunities for children to interact online, at New Haw we recognise that many children already have active online lives.  The knowledge and skills they learn in Relationships Education will enable them to navigate the online world safely and understand what is and is not appropriate behaviour. Through Relationships Education, pupils also gain the knowledge they need to recognise and report abuse, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse and to keep themselves safe.

Health Education is mandatory under Relationships Education. This will give pupils the vital skills and strategies and awareness to manage their own mental health. Topics include: physical health benefits to mental health, sleep, first aid, positive and emotional wellbeing and learning when and how to get help, as well as tackling the stigma of mental health.  Importantly, it outlines the link between physical and mental health, and how one can impact on the other. At the end of Year 4, children will be introduced to the changes that occur during puberty and this will be revisited and developed in both Year 5 and Year 6.

We acknowledge that PSHE cannot be taught solely in PSHE lessons. Therefore, at New Haw, it is part of a whole school approach and our curriculum provides a range of opportunities for children to make links to other areas of learning and explore a wide range of social, moral, cultural and behavioural issues.  For example, in RE, English, history and geography pupils will explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they will encounter in the wider world.  Other aspects of the PSHE curriculum, including keeping healthy and safe, will also be taught through science and computing lessons.

In their final term, Year 6 will include a unit on Sex Education, which builds on the related biological knowledge covered within the Year 5 science curriculum.  Though not a statutory requirement, the decision was made to include Sex Education in Year 6, primarily to ensure that children received accurate information, rather than relying on the misconceptions obtained through playground discussions.  Each unit’s content is planned based on the needs and maturity of pupils and so will be regularly reviewed to ensure it remains current and impactful.