Intent

Excellence

At St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School, we believe that PSHE helps to give pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, in order to become informed, active and responsible citizens. Our personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) and Relationships, Health Education programme promotes children's personal, social and economic development, as well as their health and wellbeing. It provides information about keeping healthy and safe, emotionally and physically; encourages our children to understand how all actions have consequences and how they can make informed choices to help themselves, others and the environment.  Our PSHE and RSE curriculum sets the foundations on which our pupils can build upon when striving for excellence.

Experience and life skills

Our broad curriculum allows children opportunities to become independent and responsible members of society. Combined with our Beacons of Light curriculum, our pupils experience life outside of their own locality and develop an understanding of the diverse world in which we live.

Through a combination of weekly lessons, worship, assemblies and theme weeks/ days, our pupils develop an understanding of life in the wider world; how they can become responsible and active citizens and the responsibilities they will face as they move towards adult life. During Heartsmart lessons, our pupils discuss and explore a wide range of topics from challenges we may face, violence, diversity and personal relationships, allowing pupils time to consider the choices we may face and how to approach them. Pupils will learn about economic well-being; health lifestyles and how we have a responsibility to care for our environment.  Our Debt Aware sessions educate pupils to have a sound and sensible attitude towards money, raising their awareness of the importance of financial planning for the future.

Our safeguarding and PSHE curriculum run hand in hand. Key understanding of keeping safe, from responding to an emergency, to e-safety and healthy relationships are taught throughout the curriculum in Heartsmart lessons; discrete half termly lessons and short reminders in every session.

Celebrate diversity

Our PSHE curriculum spans the globe, covering a range of cultures; exploring diversity and celebrating our differences. Children are given opportunities to learn about life in different cultures and countries; those who are less fortunate and those who face discrimination or have fought for a rightful cause of equality.

At St Thomas’, children’s wellbeing, happiness and safety are our first priority; therefore, teaching & learning is sensitive to individual needs and supports children’s self-esteem through inclusivity. Our PSHE Curriculum explicitly teaches the need for a society that celebrates diversity and promotes equality.

The Christopher Winter Project scheme lessons have increased focus on families, relationships, safeguarding/keeping children safe and added additional units on respect and equality. We encourage children to develop the skills of listening, empathy, talking about feelings and relationships with families and friends.

Christian values

As a Church of England school, our Christian vision and values are central to all we do. Our mission statement, Jesus said, “Come live your life the way God wants you to”, motivates us to look to Jesus as our guiding light. He inspires us to live out our Christian values and to strive for Excellence in all that we do; celebrating life in all its fullness. Our values of compassion, thankfulness, friendship, peace, responsibility and forgiveness underpin our approach to PSHE. Our Christian Values are referred to throughout PSHE lessons to ensure teachers are developing pupils understanding of how these values can be lived out in our day to day lives.

At St Thomas’ we teach PSHE through three different adapted schemes of work; Heartsmart, The Christopher Winter’s scheme and PSHE Association. As a church school we deliver PSHE through the HeartSmart Church School scheme of work which is adapted for individual classes and focuses on the 5 main Heartsmart principles of; Don’t forget to let love in; Too much selfie isn’t healthy; Don’t rub it in, rub it out; Fake is a mistake and No way through isn’t true.

Reading and vocabulary

Children are given opportunities coherently articulate knowledge, skills and understanding by using explicit subject specific vocabulary in appropriate situations. Reading is used throughout our curriculum when appropriate to the unit being taught.

Knowledge rich and academic

Through themed days, experiences and weekly teaching, we encourage our children to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school, considering their own responsibilities, rights and duties as individuals and members of the wider community. In so doing, we help develop their sense of self-worth and they learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a community, inspiring them to be the very best version of themselves. We believe our PSHE curriculum lays the foundations that allow our pupils to reach the highest of aspirations, equipped with the knowledge and understanding to do so.

Further documentation and resources are available at parents' request if you would like to know more about the teaching of PSHE/RSE and the teaching material used.