PSHE

Purpose of study
PSHE education is a planned, developmental programme of learning through which children and young people acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future.

As part of our whole-school approach, PSHE education develops the qualities and attributes pupils need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society.

PSHE education can help us to reduce or remove many of the barriers to learning experienced by pupils, significantly improving their capacity to learn and achieve. The PSHE education programme makes a significant contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development, their behaviour and safety and the school’s statutory responsibility to promote pupils’ wellbeing.

PSHE education equips pupils with the knowledge, understanding, skills and strategies required to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of PSHE education is providing opportunities for children and young people 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.

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.

Aims
The overarching aim for PSHE education is to provide pupils with:

• accurate and relevant knowledge
• opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding
• opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
• the skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.

Our programme of study is based on three core themes within which there will be broad overlap and flexibility:
1. Health and Wellbeing
2. Relationships
3. Living in the Wider World

Exploring the meaning of ‘Britishness’ is gaining importance and we include it throughout our curriculum. We aim to get pupils to develop (through their own inquiry) learning through the process of exploring ‘what it means to be British’.

We are developing a focus of inquiry with pupils and through peer group interaction encouraging learners to:

• describe their own identities and the groups that they feel they belong to;
• recognise different identities and experiences;
• appreciate that identity consists of many factors;
• recognise that each person’s identity is unique and can change; and
• begin to understand the idea of stereotypes.

UNICEF – Rights Respecting Schools Award
The Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of a school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos. A rights-respecting school not only teaches about children’s rights but also models rights and respect in all its relationships: between pupils and adults, between adults and between pupils.

The school has just begun its journey to achieve this award.

Sex Education Policy
The children are expected to display politeness and good manners towards each other at all times and to respect each other’s ‘private space’, building an awareness of each other’s needs.

The children complete their education programme by the end of Year 6.  Currently, Mrs Peake delivers the final sex and relationship sessions to girls whilst the HT delivers the sessions to boys. The sessions are based around the ‘Rollercoaster’ puberty pack.  ‘Rollercoaster’ evolved from work that Rotherham LA were doing around puberty with Year 6 pupils in Rotherham schools.  School nurses and teachers have been using many of the activities in the programme for many years.

Parents have a right to withdraw their child from any sex education provided by the school, upon request.  A copy of the sex education policy is available for inspection by parents upon request.

Staff are aware that the older girls in school may at some stage need reassurance and explanation at the onset of menstruation.  At such a time the female members of staff will deal with this.

School Health Advice
The School Nurse visits regularly for sight, hearing and medical checks. Parents are kept informed of any impending medical examinations. If you have any concerns about your child’s health or development please contact the school as appointments can be made with the appropriate department – Nurse, Speech Therapist, etc.

Routine hair inspections are no longer carried out so we urge parents to inspect their child’s hair every day.  If you should find any head lice don’t panic, they like clean hair!  Please inform the school.  Special solutions are available from the local clinic and it is a good idea to use a fine tooth comb regularly.

If your child’s performance at school may be affected by something please inform us so that we can take this into account.  Similarly if there are any symptoms and/or treatments of medical conditions please inform the school as this knowledge may be invaluable in an emergency.

It is also very important that you inform the Head Teacher of any infectious diseases as other parents may wish to take preventative measures.

If your child needs regular medication then please bring these into the school office.  Mrs Mathieson will administer or supervise the administration of any tablets or medicines and they will be kept in the school office and returned to the child at the end of the school day.  Parents must give a written request before any medication can be given to a child.

The principal School Medical Officer has provided the following list, as a guide to the time children should be away from school if they have any infectious illness:

Infectious Diseases
Chickenpox                                    Six days from onset of rash
German Measles                              Four days from onset of rash
Measles                                         Minimum of seven days (until swelling goes)
Whooping Cough                             21 days from onset of paroxysmal cough
Infective Jaundice                           Should be excluded from school for not less than seven days following the appearance of jaundice or until clinical recovery.

Streptococcal Tonsillitis                    Until clinical recovery

Contagious Diseases
Conjunctivitis                                  Until recovered
Impetigo                                        Until skin has healed
Lice                                              Until treatment has been received
Verrucae                                        Exclusion unnecessary
Ringworm of feet
and Athletes Foot                           No barefoot activities.  Exclusion unnecessary
Scabies                                         Until treatment has been received
Threadworm                                   Exclusion unnecessary.  Treatment advisable.
Dysentery                                      Until clinical recovery

PLEASE DO NOT SEND CHILDREN TO SCHOOL IF THEY HAVE HAD VOMITING AND/OR DIARRHOEA UNTIL THEY HAVE BEEN CLEAR FOR AT LEAST 48 HOURS