At Walkern Primary School we aim to create a happy, purposeful and supportive environment where children are enabled to become successful learners, develop their full potential and achieve the highest educational standards they can.
Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) are central to our school’s ethos, supporting children in their development, and underpinning learning in the classroom, school, and in the wider community. Values are fundamental expressions of what we think and believe.
PSHE education is taught as a planned, developmental programme of learning through which children acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future. As part of a whole-school approach, PSHE education develops the qualities and attributes pupils need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society. It can help reduce or remove many of the barriers to learning experienced by pupils, significantly improving their capacity to learn and achieve. RSE (Relationship and sex education) has now become statutory for all children, although it is recommended that RSE is taught within the wider PSHE curriculum.
PSHE education also makes a significant contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development, their behaviour and safety, and to their emotional wellbeing. PSHE education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.
As a school within our PSHE teaching, we encourage children:
- To think about personal and social values;
- To become aware of, and involved in the life and concerns of their community and society, and so develop their capacity to be active and effective future citizens.
- To equip children with the knowledge, understanding, skills and strategies required to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives.
- To encourage them to be enterprising
- To support them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices, and in achieving economic wellbeing.
- To provide opportunities for children to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes, and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future.
- To gain accurate and relevant knowledge.
- To have opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding.
- To have opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities.
- To develop the skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.
At Walkern we follow the ‘1decision’ programme of study as it incorporates the revised RSE government requirements and the children find it very engaging and enjoyable. Each unit has online videos that allow the children time to reflect and make choices about what the characters should do next. This 1decision curriculum framework for PSHE ensures that we meet the needs of our pupils in today’s changing society.