Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education

Intent

Our intention is that when children leave St Paul’s, they will do so with the knowledge, understanding and emotions to be able to play an active, positive and successful role in today’s diverse society. We want our children to have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it. In an ever–changing world, it is important that they are aware, to an appropriate level, of different factors which will affect their world and that they learn how to deal with these so that they have good mental health and well-being.

In order to have a consistent approach towards PSHE, we have introduced a new PHSE scheme called 3Dimensions PSHE. Together with a major focus of school inspections, ‘Modern Britain’, 3D PSHE will help pupils ‘develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain’.

The National Curriculum states that ‘all schools should make provision for personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), drawing on good practice.’

According to the Education Act 2002 and the Academies Act 2010, the PSHE curriculum should be a balanced and broadly-based curriculum which ‘promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepares pupils at the school for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.’  We use a PSHE Programme - 3D PSHE - in which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes needed in order to keep themselves healthy and safe whilst preparing them for life and work.

There are three underlying core themes taught throughout Dimensions 3D PSHE, within which there is broad overlap and flexibility :-

1. Health and Wellbeing
2. Relationships
3. Living in the Wider World

The 3D PSHE Programme provides pupils with the means to handle many of the social, cultural, spiritual, physical and moral issues that occur throughout life.  It also helps pupils to develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully, and contribute positively, to life in modern Britain.  Pupils learn to respect similarities and differences between our diverse cultures in order to build successful and meaningful friendships and relationships that are vital to the world we live in.

Dimensions 3D PSHE supports the development of the attitudes, values, skills and behaviour which enable pupils to:-

• Live healthy lifestyles
• Address personal hygiene
• Develop an awareness of changing and growing
• Deal with different emotions in an appropriate way
• Keep safe
• Communicate well with others and work as a team
• Define, identify and know how to respond to bullying
• Know where and how to seek help when needed
• Treat everybody with respect
• Form and build positive relationships
• Understand the reasons for rules, and their responsibility to keep them
• Learn about their responsibility in caring for others
• Be active in their own learning
• Be active within their community
• Manage money well
• Keep safe online
• Self-assess and identify their strengths and weaknesses
• Know how to make emergency calls
• Know basic First Aid
• Work collaboratively and respectfully
• Appreciate diversity
• Empathise with other points of view
• Express opinions clearly
• Develop strategies for managing changing emotions

Relationships Education

The focus of 3D PSHE is on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships and relationships with other children and adults.  3D PSHE teaches pupils, in an age-appropriate way, what a healthy relationship is, enabling them to form a clear understanding of the features of positive relationships that are likely to lead to fulfilment, happiness and security. Pupils learn what friendship is, what family means and who the people are who can support them.

Our school’s careful use of 3D PSHE teaches about families in a well-judged and sensitive way, based on a clear knowledge of the pupils and their circumstances, reflecting that some children have different family structures and supportive relationships. They learn how to take turns, how to treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect, the importance of honesty and truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept of personal privacy. Establishing personal space and boundaries, showing respect and understanding, including the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact are the forerunners of teaching about consent, which takes place at secondary.

3D PSHE lessons teach pupils about online safety and appropriate behaviour online, including sharing data and ways in which information provided by users may be used negatively.

3D PSHE’s Relationship Education encourages the development and practice of resilience and perseverance, self-respect and self-worth. Pupils are also helped to develop personal attributes including honesty, integrity, courage, humility, kindness, generosity, trustworthiness and a sense of justice. Pupils are taught about positive emotional and mental wellbeing, including how friendships can support mental wellbeing.

They also learn about safe relationships, focusing on boundaries and privacy and ensuring that they understand that they have rights over their own bodies. This also covers understanding boundaries in friendships with peers, in families and with others, in all contexts, including online. In 3D PSHE, pupils are clearly taught how to report concerns and seek advice when they suspect or know that something is wrong. Of paramount importance is ensuring the balance between informing children about making sensible decisions to stay safe (including online) without frightening them unnecessarily, whilst also making it clear that it is never the fault of a child who is exploited or abused, and why victim blaming is always wrong.

As a school, we follow the RSE scheme A Journey in Love.   It has been written as a progressive scheme of work that supports the Religious Education, PSHE and Science curriculum taught within the school. It focuses on friendship, family, community, relationships and spirituality. The content is age appropriate and is taught with sensitivity, taking into account the children’s level of maturity in regard to the delivery of lessons.