Orchard Park Community Primary School

PSHE

Intent

The National Curriculum states that ‘all schools should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), drawing on good practice’. Although not all aspects of PSHE are compulsory, from September 2020, the relationship and health aspects of PSHE became statutory within the National Curriculum.

The intent of our PSHE curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. At Orchard Park Community Primary School PSHE enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society who are able to articulate their feelings in order to maintain good mental health. It aims to help them to understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of our diverse society. Through the delivery of our PSHE curriculum we aim for our children to become resilient, flexible learners, by providing experiences, knowledge and skills to enable them to become good citizens in the future. We encourage our children to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school and the wider community.

We are aware of the way that PSHE supports many of the principles of safeguarding and it links closely to our school’s Safeguarding Policy. It also links closely with Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) Development and British Values (Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance). Through our PSHE curriculum at Orchard Park Community Primary School we recognise our duty to ‘actively promote’ and provide opportunity for children to understand the fundamental British Values as first set out by the Government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2014, in order for them to become fair, tolerant and confident adults in a forever challenging world.

Implementation

At Orchard Park Community Primary School we follow the units of work designed by the Cambridgeshire PSHE Service. These units of work have been planned taking into account the updated Statutory Guidance for the teaching of PSHE which came into effect in September 2020. The units of work are taught across paired year groups: Nursery / Reception, Year 1 / 2, Year 3 / 4, and Year 5 / 6. These units of work have been carefully planned into our long term plans to ensure that throughout the time that the children are at our school all aspects of the curriculum will be taught, deepening their learning by building on the foundations laid right from the Early Years.

At the beginning of each PSHE unit of work, children are able to convey what they know already as well as what they would like to find out. This helps to inform the programme of study and also ensures that lessons are pitched appropriately, taking into account children’s prior knowledge and starting points. Staff will use assessment for learning to ensure that lessons are relevant and will use this to help to plan for next steps. Our inclusion policy ensures that all children will have the same opportunities, with access to a broad and balanced curriculum.

Impact

Although PSHE at Orchard Park is taught separately from the half termly class topics, it pervades all aspects of school life and learning and is therefore taught implicitly as well as explicitly. Outcomes in PSHE books evidence a broad and balanced PSHE curriculum and demonstrate children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge and progression within their personal and social development. As children progress throughout the school, they develop a deep knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the moral, social and cultural issues of our diverse society, as well as the importance of both physical and mental wellbeing. They also develop their emotional literacy and expand their knowledge and use of a corresponding vocabulary to enable them to effectively communicate with others or about themselves.