PSHE and RSE
At Barford St Peter's School, PSHE is at the core of what we do and enables our children to become independent, confident, healthy and responsible members of society, as well as developing the “whole child” intellectually, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally (SMSC). At Barford St Peter’s, in addition to every year group completing a Protective Behaviours unit and the NSPCC Speak out Stay Safe program (both of which are continually revisited throughout the year), we follow the Kapow Primary's scheme of work for RSE and PSHE for KS1 and KS2 as it provides full coverage of the statutory and the non-statutory elements of the new national curriculum for relationships, sex and health education as well as covering the PSHE Association's guidance. Below is an explanation of how the scheme is implemented as a whole school approach with strands of learning relating to family and relationships, health and wellbeing, safety and the changing body, citizenship and economic wellbeing. Weaving through the heart of our PSHE teaching, is a commitment to enhancing and promoting our core Christian Values; Kindness, Compassion, Respect, Responsibility, Thankfulness and Perseverance.
Intent
The Kapow scheme used by our school aims to give children the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that they need to effectively navigate the complexities of life in the 21st Century. The curriculum covers key areas which will support children to make informed choices now and in the future around their health, safety, wellbeing, relationships, and financial matters and will support them in becoming confident individuals and active members of society. Kapow Primary’s RSE/PSHE scheme of work covers the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance (as set out by the Department for Education), including the non-statutory sex education. The scheme covers wider PSHE learning, in line with the requirement of the National curriculum (2014) that schools ‘should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).’ Children’s learning through this scheme will significantly contribute to their personal development as set out in the Ofsted Inspection Framework and promotes the four fundamental British values which reflect life in modern Britain: democracy; rule of law; respect and tolerance and individual liberty.
Quality PSHE and RSE teaching is an important element in helping schools to carry out their duty of care with regards to safeguarding. The DfE’s statutory ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sep 2020)’ guidance states that ‘Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure that children are taught about safeguarding, including online safety. Schools should consider this as part of providing a broad and balanced curriculum’. In response to the child-on-child abuse updates to Section 5 of Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2022), our curriculum introduces and revisits ideas of personal boundaries, consent and communicating our boundaries with others. This prepares our pupils for the challenges and responsibilities they will face in the future.
Implementation
The Kapow Primary scheme is a whole school approach that consists of three areas of learning in EYFS: Reception (to match the EYFS Personal, social and emotional development prime area) and five areas of learning across Key stages 1 and 2.
EYFS:
● Self-regulation ● Building relationships ● Managing self
Key stage 1 and 2:
● Families and relationships ● Health and wellbeing ● Safety and the changing body ● Citizenship ● Economic wellbeing
Each area is revisited to allow children to build on prior learning. The lessons also provide a progressive programme. The lessons are based upon the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health education, but where our lessons go beyond these requirements (primarily in the Citizenship and Economic wellbeing areas) they refer to the PSHE Association Programme of Study which is recommended by the DfE. Sex education has been included in line with the DfE recommendations and is covered in Year 6 of our scheme. The scheme supports the requirements of the Equality Act through direct teaching, for example learning about different families, the negative effect of stereotypes and celebrating differences, in addition to the inclusion of diverse teaching resources throughout the lessons.
A range of teaching and learning activities are used and are based on good practice in teaching RSE/PSHE education to ensure that all children can access learning and make progress. In key stage 1 and 2, there is an introductory lesson at the start of each year group which provides the opportunity for children and teachers to negotiate ground rules for the lessons. These introductory lessons can then be referred to throughout the year to help create a safe environment. All lessons include ideas for differentiation to stretch the most able learners and give additional support to those who need it. Many lessons, stories, scenarios, and video clips provide the opportunity for children to engage in real life and current topics in a safe and structured way. Role-play activities are also included to help children play out scenarios that they may find themselves in. There are meaningful opportunities for cross-curricular learning, in particular with Computing for online safety and Science for growing, nutrition, teeth, diet and lifestyle. The scheme provides consistent messages throughout the age ranges including how and where to access help.
Impact
Each lesson within the Kapow Primary scheme used at Barford St Peter's features assessment guidance, helping teachers to identify whether pupils have met, exceeded, or failed to meet the desired learning intentions for that lesson. Each unit of lessons comes with an Assessment quiz and Knowledge catcher. The quiz contains 10 questions, nine of which are multiple-choice and can be used either at the end of the unit or at both the start and the end to help measure progress and identify any gaps in learning. The Knowledge catchers list some of the lesson titles in mind-map or table format and can be used at the start of a unit to see what the children already know and to inform planning, and then pupils can revisit the same version of the Knowledge catcher at the end of the unit to add what else they now know, further demonstrating their progression in learning. Once taught the full scheme, children will have met the objectives set out within the Relationships and Health Education statutory guidance and can utilise their learning within their daily lives, from dealing with friendship issues to resilience to making healthy choices and knowing where and how to get help when needed