The PSHE curriculum aims to equip our pupils with essential skills for life; it intends to develop the whole child through carefully planned and resourced lessons that progress the knowledge, skills and attributes pupils need to develop in their wellbeing. Through these lessons, pupils will learn how to stay safe and healthy, build and maintain relationships and, engage with or participate in, the community they live in. Lessons in this curriculum have their foundations in seeing each and everybody’s value in the wider community, from appreciation of others in units such as the World I Live In, to promoting strong and positive views of self in Self Awareness and Managing Feelings. Drawing on the PSHE Association; PSHE Education Planning Framework for Pupils with SEND, the curriculum fulfils the requirements of the 2020 Statutory Relationships and Health Education. Unit titles and content have been guided by the PSHE Education Framework for Pupils with SEND, setting these learning intentions in the context of a broad and balanced PSHE curriculum.
The PSHE curriculum is designed to be taught in thematic units taken from the PSHE Education Framework for Pupils with SEND. Within each phase, the themes are delivered through a detailed rolling programme: a 4 year rolling programme for Primary and a 5 year rolling programme for Secondary. In Early Years, PSHE is delivered in line with the requirements of Development Matters through the Personal, Social and Emotional Development strand. In Post-16 provision, the units are mapped on to the Life Skills curriculum area to ensure coverage. Using a rolling programme ensures pupils have the opportunity to over learn and build upon previous learning, exploring the underlying principles of PSHE education regularly at a depth that is appropriate for the age and development stage of the pupil. Units are designed to be delivered using a multi-sensory approach, allowing pupils to build their learning on their pre-existing experience. Regular opportunities to revisit and embedded learning are planned in to each unit. Key to developing pupils sense of community and belonging are whole school events delivered through themed days or weeks. This allows the curriculum flexibility to respond to PSHE needs within our pupils as they arise. To ensure through coverage, coordinators at each phase, oversee and monitor the delivery of the curriculum.
The PSHE curriculum provides a structure for wellbeing. Class environments enable pupils to feel safe and secure; able to communicate through their preferred means of communication and recognise who they can approach for help or support. Through a consistent approach pupils learn to recognise their emotions, progressing through learning to regulate these and ultimately using their understanding to empathise and apply this knowledge to their everyday interactions, from the classroom to the wider community. A wide range of thematic units provides pupils with regular opportunities to understand self-care; how to keep themselves well; recognise dangerous or risky situations and cultivate positive relationships contributing to their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development (SMSC). Through whole school events, a school culture that prioritises PSHE objectives is embedded as well as nurturing pupils sense of belonging and community. Overall the curriculum provides the school with a cohesive whole-school approach that positively impacts on pupils’ wellbeing, safeguarding and SMSC outcomes.
