RSE and PSHE Curriculum Policy

Our Mission

St Malachy’s is a Catholic School where we will all do our best to do the work of Jesus.

Our curriculum is underpinned by a Catholic education based upon the life and teaching of Jesus, in which Gospel values permeate all aspects of school life. We want our pupils to leave St Malachy’s as educated and caring young people who have the knowledge, skills and desire to make the world a better place. Children are at the heart of our curriculum and we work tirelessly to ensure every child reaches their full potential by removing any barriers and ensuring no learning opportunity is lost.

We will study, pray, play and celebrate together

The curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced allowing all pupils to further deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding in all aspects of learning. Co-operative learning is a key feature within teaching and we believe that working together helps children to deepen their understanding and also promotes tolerance and mutual respect, equipping our pupils with the necessary skills to live in modern Britain.

We will care for each other and look after each other, just like a big family.

It is our intention that pupils leave St. Malachy’s with a sense of belonging to a community. Pupils are taught to treat themselves and others with respect and dignity and to support each other in their learning.

It is important to remember that we are all good and clever in different ways

We believe our children possess unique talents, skills and qualities. Therefore, we enhance our curriculum by providing our pupils with a wide range of new and exciting learning opportunities that they may not have the chance to access outside of school. These include learning to play a musical instrument, participating in school performances, sports tournaments, working with an artist, learning to debate and a wealth of extra-curricular clubs as well as attending educational trips and inviting visitors into school.

 We will learn important lessons that will help us when we are grown up

We recognise that the key skills of reading, writing, oracy and numeracy are crucial in preparing our pupils for their future, and given our diverse school context we focus on providing a language rich curriculum. Reading is at the heart of our curriculum and all children are taught to read confidently, fluently and with a good understanding. Pupils are encouraged to develop a habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information through daily practice.

Being situated in central Manchester offers the opportunity to visit world class cultural and sporting venues on our doorstep. We are eager to forge links with these organisations and recognise that this broadens children’s experiences and raises aspirations.

In our school it will be fun and we will strive to make it a safe place.

We believe all children thrive by learning in a safe and supportive environment-we encourage our children to reflect honestly on their performance, question their next steps and be prepared to take risks in and responsibility for their own learning.

Intent

Our PSHE and RSE curriculum has been specifically designed and planned to meet the context of our school which is underpinned by a Catholic education based upon the life and teaching of Jesus, in which Gospel values permeate all aspects of school life.  The PSHE and RSE curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced allowing pupils to become healthy, independent and responsible members of a society who understand how they are developing personally and socially, and given them confidence to tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

Co-operative learning is a key feature within teaching and we believe that working together helps children to deepen their understanding and also promotes tolerance and mutual respect, equipping our pupils with the necessary skills to live in modern Britain.

Our PSHE and RSE curriculum is designed to be broad and balanced, providing all pupils with the opportunity to master their learning and deepen their knowledge. We believe it is vital for children to make sense and give purpose as to why we learn about PSHE and RSE. We aim to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and what will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. As a result, they will:

• Develop learning and acquisition of knowledge and kills which enable children to access their wider curriculum and prepare children to be global citizens now and in their future roles within a global community
• Develop an understanding of RSE ensuring that the children will know how to be safe and to understand and develop heathy relationships both now and in their future lives.
• Promote children’s personal, social and emotional development, as well as their health and well-being.

We plan our PSHE and RSE curriculum using the National Curriculum. We enhance the curriculum using TenTen’s  scheme of work ‘Life to the full’ and also the PSHE Association which has helped to develop our progression grids. We then use our progression grids to develop our long- term planning. Teachers then use these long-term plans to plan units of work and deliver individual lessons catered for the children in their class. In EYFS, the team plan around the Development matters document taking on board the Early Learning Goals for their Personal, Social and Emotional Development. KS1 and KS2 teach discrete, weekly PSHE and RSE lessons. All planning is closely linked to the school’s Age-Related Expectations for each year group which allows a consistent application of the curriculum throughout EYFS and all Key stages. A whole school system is used which links Age-Related Expectations to each child’s own research and classroom studies and assessments.

Implementation

PSHE and RSE is taught through the framework of the 2014 National Curriculum. To assist our teaching, we also use by the scheme of work ‘Life to the full’ and the PSHE Association. We implement this in the following ways:

• Clear and comprehensive scheme of work- The PSHE curriculum has three core learning themes: health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world. It also incorporates the RSE policy and identifies links to British Values, Cultural Capital, SMSC and school’s Key skills into the curriculum.
• Vocabulary- Within classroom key vocabulary is displayed throughout the school. Each class have developed their own class charters displaying appropriate vocabulary to refer to. This enables the children to make links across the wider curriculum.
• Big Questions- Which allow children to reflect on their topics.
• Provision in EYFS- Children are given secure grounding in the Prime Areas of Learning, ensuring they have a good foundation on which to build through the specific areas, including Physical, Social and Emotional learning. Areas of provision are enhanced to ensure vocabulary understanding, and to develop understanding of the past, present and the difference between the two.
• Resources- Children have access to a wide range of books in the school library, access to the scheme ‘Life to the Full’ and PSHE association toolkit, sessions with outside agencies such as the school nurse, road safety team to enhance their learning further as well as whole class sessions with our qualified school play therapist
• Assessment- Class teachers prepare pre-topic assessment which are given out to the children at the beginning of each new core theme. At the end of the theme, children are then given the same assessment task to complete looking at the new learning acquired through their learning journey. They also use our assessment grids and Age-Related Expectations to make informed decisions on where the children are at. We also work on in-house moderation to consolidate judgements.
• Assemblies- Whole school assemblies always make a link with PSHE, British Values and SMSC including house meetings where we have regular competitions.
• Wider Curriculum- All subjects make a link to PSHE and SMSC and the language is used consistently by all staff.
• Approaches to teaching- We use a wide variety of teaching approaches to ensure our children make good progress. We ensure that a good balance of kagan work, independent enquiry and whole class learning is evident in our planning and teaching
• Cultural Capital- We plan visitors and involvement in the community to provide real life first-hand experiences to support children with their learning. We ensure that these visits clearly link in with the statutory PSHE and RSE requirement to further develop the children’s learning.
• Clear and comprehensive RSE scheme of work within PSHE in line with the new recommendations of teaching RSE in National Curriculum (Feb 2019)
  The teaching and learning of RSE is planned explicitly within each year group so that children know more, remember more and understand more.
• RSE programme of work is explicitly resourced.
  Children will become more aware of RSE and know the purpose of it.
• Parent Consultation
  Parents are informed of the content of the RSE programme of work during the class transition meetings, planned information sessions, and further support / clarification will be given if required.

Impact

Outcomes in topic and literacy books, evidence a broad and balanced PSHE and RSE curriculum and demonstrate the children’s acquisition of identified key knowledge.

Children review their Age-Related Expectations at the end of each topic with assessment quizzes and compare their acquired knowledge to that of their base lone assessment. Children are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with the support from class teachers. Through the implementation of our curriculum the planned impact is:

• Children will know more and remember more about PSHE/RSE.
• Children will recognise and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and Liberty.
• Children will demonstrate a healthy outlook towards school – attendance will be at least in-line with national and behaviour will be good.
• The large majority of children will achieve age related expectations across the wider curriculum in addition to the core subjects.
• Children will develop positive and healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future.
• Children will understand the physical aspects involved in RSE at an age appropriate level.
• Children will have respect for themselves and others.
• Children will have positive body images.

The impact and measure of this is to ensure that children at St Malachy’s RC are equipped with the life skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.

We want the children to have thoroughly enjoyed learning in PSHE and RSE, therefore encouraging them to undertake new life experiences now and in the future.