The curriculum teaches pupils how to stay safe. Pupils have an age-appropriate understanding of how to be safe online. They also know where to go to get help if they need it. Pupils understand about road safety, ‘stranger danger’ and fire safety. (Ofsted, 2021)

“I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

Intent

At St John's we believe that PSHE education equips children to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of PSHE education is providing opportunities for children and young people to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future. We believe in creating a safe space for children to talk and to be heard.

Implementation

We use a combination of schemes, Ten Ten and Jigsaw, to ensure our children are given a well-rounded education but one which is rooted firmly within a Catholic context. PSHE education contributes to personal development by helping children to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.

'Life to the Full' is a fully resourced Scheme of Work in Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) for Catholic primary schools which embraces and fulfils new statutory curriculum.

Taught with a spiral approach to learning in which pupils will revisit the same topics at an age-appropriate stage through their school life, the programme includes teaching about personal health, physical and emotional well-being, strong emotions, private parts of the body, personal relationships, family structures, trusted adults, growing bodies, puberty, periods, life cycles, the dangers of social media, where babies come from, an understanding of the Common Good and living in the wider world.

The entire teaching is underpinned with a Christian faith understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God – created, chosen and loved by God. The programme is fully inclusive of all pupils and their families

As a Catholic school, our mission is to support the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all of our pupils, rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Church. The education of children in human sexuality is an important, precious and privileged responsibility. The Church teaches us that this is very much a partnership with parents, in which parents are the ‘first educators’ of their children on these matters; ultimately, you confer on us the right to co-educate your children with you.

Impact

At St. John's our PSHE curriculum will offer our children accurate, balanced and relevant knowledge, the skills to live healthy, safe and responsible lives, opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge their own and others values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities, build confidence, resilience and self-esteem whilst developing their ability to manage feelings in a positive and effective way, identify and manage risk and build and maintain good relationships. These are all vital skills for living in the wider world.

How we assess:

Each module contains an assessment activity which is completed before and after the unit is completed. The children are also able to self-assess and evaluate their work after each session, it is important to reflect on the work they have completed in order to ensure full understanding. The subject leader monitors these evaluations through a folder of evidence and pupil interviews (pupil voice).