“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
Aristotle
At Cavendish Church of England Primary School, Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) plays an important role in helping our children understand themselves, build positive relationships, stay safe, make informed choices and flourish as members of their community.
We want children to develop the knowledge, vocabulary and confidence they need to look after their physical and mental health, recognise healthy and unhealthy relationships, understand their changing bodies, manage increasingly independent lives and know when and how to ask for help.
PSHE reflects our school vision: We Learn. We Love. We Belong. Children learn about themselves and the world around them; they learn how to treat themselves and others with dignity and respect; and they develop the knowledge and confidence to participate positively in their families, friendships, communities and wider society.
Our PSHE and RSE Curriculum
We use Kapow Primary PSHE and RSE to support our curriculum, organised into a carefully sequenced two-year mixed-age programme.
Our curriculum is mapped to the statutory requirements for Relationships Education and Health Education, with relevant learning also connected to National Curriculum Science and Computing.
Across their time at Cavendish, children progressively explore important areas including:
- Connecting with others
- The online world
- My healthy self
- Health protection
- Staying safe
- Citizenship
- Growing up
- Economic understanding
- Sex education, where appropriate in upper Key Stage 2
Learning is revisited and developed with increasing depth and maturity so that pupils can connect new understanding with what they have learned previously.
Our Mixed-Age Class Structure
Our curriculum is carefully organised around the mixed-age structure of Cavendish.
Robins – EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2
Reception children develop their personal, social and emotional understanding through areas such as self-regulation, feelings, relationships, managing challenges and wellbeing. Year 1 and Year 2 progressively explore emotional health, citizenship, caring for themselves and others, growing and changing and making safe choices.
Wrens – Year 3 and Year 4
Children deepen their understanding of physical and mental health, rights and responsibilities, health protection, healthy choices, money and the physical and emotional changes associated with growing up.
Owls – Year 5 and Year 6
Children encounter increasingly mature learning about physical and mental wellbeing, citizenship, rights, relationships, growing and changing and preparation for greater independence. In Year 5/6, our planned curriculum also includes age-appropriate sex education exploring how people become parents and carers.
Our mixed-age organisation is carefully managed so that learning remains age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate, particularly when teaching sensitive content.
The Cavendish 5 in PSHE and RSE
As in all subjects at Cavendish, our Cavendish 5 underpin high-quality teaching and learning in PSHE.
Retrieval
Children revisit important vocabulary, previous learning and strategies so that essential knowledge about relationships, health, wellbeing and safety can be remembered and applied.
I Do, We Do, You Do
Teachers explicitly model appropriate language, strategies and responses, explore examples together and support pupils towards increasingly independent decision-making.
Purposeful Practice
Children have meaningful opportunities to practise communication, problem-solving and strategies for managing emotions, relationships and challenging situations.
High-Quality Questioning
Children are encouraged to explain, reflect, consider consequences, recognise different perspectives and think carefully about choices.
Feedback
Sensitive, timely feedback helps pupils clarify misconceptions, develop appropriate vocabulary and strengthen their understanding.
PSHE in the Early Years
Personal, Social and Emotional Development is central to children's experience in Reception.
Children learn to understand and regulate their emotions, build relationships, develop confidence, manage their own needs and recognise the feelings and perspectives of others.
Our planned EYFS learning includes My feelings, Special relationships, Taking on challenges, My family and friends and My wellbeing, alongside the rich opportunities for personal and social development that occur throughout everyday life in Reception.
These early foundations prepare children for increasingly complex learning about relationships, health, safety and citizenship as they move through school.
Relationships and Belonging
Healthy relationships sit at the heart of our PSHE curriculum.
Children learn about families, friendships, kindness, respect, personal boundaries and how their actions can affect other people. As they grow, they explore what makes relationships healthy, how to stand up for themselves and others, and how people can communicate respectfully.
They learn that families and relationships may look different and that every person should be treated with dignity and respect.
Relationships Education is statutory for primary-age pupils.
Health and Wellbeing
Our curriculum helps children understand how to care for both their physical and mental health.
From learning to recognise and manage emotions in younger year groups, pupils progress towards understanding how choices and habits can affect their future wellbeing.
Children explore healthy choices, self-care, emotional wellbeing, resilience, illness prevention and where to seek support.
As children mature, they are also taught accurate, age-appropriate information about growing and changing, including puberty.
Keeping Safe – Online and Offline
Safety is deliberately revisited throughout our curriculum.
Children learn how to recognise safe and unsafe situations, make appropriate choices and identify trusted adults who can help them.
Our curriculum recognises that children's lives increasingly move between the online and offline worlds. Pupils therefore explore how they spend time online, how to communicate respectfully, how to stay safe, how online content can influence them and how to decide what information can be trusted.
These important messages are reinforced through Computing, safeguarding and our wider school culture.
Citizenship and the Wider World
PSHE helps children understand that they are part of communities extending beyond themselves.
Children progressively explore belonging, helping others, caring for the environment, rights and responsibilities, careers, money and making a positive difference within their communities and beyond.
As children move through school, they are expected to think increasingly deeply about the consequences of choices, the rights of others and their own responsibilities as citizens.
Growing Up and Sex Education
Learning about growing up is taught gradually and sensitively.
Children develop the vocabulary and knowledge needed to understand and respect their bodies, recognise changes and know where they can seek reliable help and information.
Our Year 5/6 curriculum includes age-appropriate sex education exploring how people become parents and carers.
Primary schools may provide sex education beyond statutory Relationships and Health Education and National Curriculum Science. Parents have the right to request withdrawal from this additional sex education, but not from statutory Relationships Education, Health Education or relevant National Curriculum Science.
Further information about the content taught and parental rights can be found in our PSHE/RSE Policy and Long-Term Plan.
A Safe Environment for Learning
PSHE lessons provide a safe, respectful environment in which children can discuss important and sometimes sensitive issues.
Teachers establish clear expectations for discussion, use accurate and age-appropriate vocabulary and ensure that questions are handled sensitively.
Children are not expected to share private or personal experiences. They are taught that they can speak to a trusted adult if something worries them, and normal school safeguarding procedures are followed whenever a concern arises.
Inclusion, Equality and Respect
PSHE and RSE are for every child.
Teaching recognises that pupils come from different families, cultures, communities and experiences. Children learn to respect difference and recognise the dignity and worth of others.
Teachers adapt teaching for pupils with SEND through strategies such as explicit vocabulary teaching, visual support, repetition, social stories, careful modelling and developmentally appropriate examples.
Support removes barriers while maintaining the important knowledge that all pupils need for healthy, safe and increasingly independent lives.
Assessment in PSHE and RSE
Assessment in PSHE focuses on the knowledge, understanding, vocabulary and strategies pupils have been taught.
Teachers use discussion, questioning, scenarios, reflective activities and pupil voice to establish what children know, understand and can apply.
We do not assess children's private feelings, beliefs or family circumstances.
Instead, assessment helps teachers identify misconceptions, revisit important knowledge and ensure that pupils understand the key messages relating to relationships, health, wellbeing, safety and citizenship.
Working in Partnership with Parents and Carers
We recognise parents and carers as children's first educators and value an open and transparent partnership with families.
Our PSHE/RSE Long-Term Plan sets out what pupils learn across each phase and when key areas are taught. We provide clear information about sensitive content, particularly learning relating to growing and changing and sex education.
Our PSHE/RSE policy provides further information about our approach and the statutory rights of parents and carers.
PSHE, RSE and Our Christian Vision
Our Christian vision calls us to recognise the worth and dignity of every person.
PSHE and RSE give children practical opportunities to understand what it means to care for themselves and others, build healthy relationships, make responsible choices and contribute positively to their communities.
Children learn about compassion through caring for others, courage through speaking up and asking for help, wisdom through making informed choices and responsibility through recognising how their actions affect those around them.
Our aim is for every child to feel known, valued, safe and able to belong.
The Impact of PSHE and RSE at Cavendish
By the time children leave Cavendish, we want them to have the knowledge, confidence and strategies they need to navigate the next stage of their lives safely and positively.
They should understand what healthy relationships look like, know how to care for their physical and mental health, recognise risks, understand boundaries and know where to seek help.
They should be increasingly confident in making informed choices, managing challenges, respecting difference and contributing positively to their community.
Most importantly, we want children to recognise both their own value and the value of others, and to leave Cavendish confident that their voice matters and that they have the right to feel safe, respected and able to belong.
We Learn. We Love. We Belong.