Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education, including Relationship and Sex Education and Citizenship
In PSHE, our aim is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every pupil so that they know more, remember more and understand more. At Spa, Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education enables our students to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our students with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. Our students are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.
We expect teachers to use our PSHE to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions. We believe that the purpose of PSHE education is to build, where appropriate, on the statutory guidance outlined in the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education. Teachers are guided by the PSHE skills and knowledge framework to ensure appropriate differentiation and sequences of learning.
PSHE is broadly split into five strands:
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Self- Care, Support and Safety
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Managing Feelings and Self- Awareness
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The World we live in Healthy lifestyles
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Relationships and Sex Education and Changing and growing
British Values and Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) development underpin the entire PSHE curriculum.
In Key Stage 3, students focus on the concepts of friendships, teamwork, safety in the home, school and basic road safety, spending money, stranger danger, RSE, substance misuse, E-safety and personal care as well as keeping their bodies safe. These themes are then developed throughout the students' experience at Spa and are returned to and reinforced as required.
In Key Stage 4, students are also taught about road safety, personal responsibility as a teenager, their role in the wider community, spending and earning, their responsibility towards the environment and healthy lifestyles, RSE including how to form safe relationships, as well as being a safe citizen in the virtual world and learning about government. In Key Stage 4 students have 3 ASDAN weeks a year where they work towards the Transition Challenge ASDAN award.
In Key Stage 5, the themes of being a good citizen, rights and responsibilities, voting, money management and budgeting, keeping safe online and working as part of a group are also explored in more depth. In RSE, pupils will also explore more in depth the expectations of healthy relationships and the responsibilities of becoming a parent. Pupils in Key stage 5 have the opportunity to work towards ASDAN accreditations and Entry levels through the Welsh exam board WJEC which all focus on transferable skills that pupils can use once they leave Spa.
Teaching of the Zones of Regulation have been embedded throughout the school and revisited periodically in all key stages to ensure that all share a common language when describing their own feelings and actions and those of others.
Lots of the teaching in PSHE happens outside of the classroom. For road safety, students use the road markings in the playground and then trips into the local community to practice their skills. We are able to use the Southwark Travel Training bus in the summer term to support pupils generalise these skills. When learning about stranger danger and who can help, students visit local community amenities and practice asking for help in a controlled environment. When learning about money, students will buy things from local shops and visit banks to find out about accounts and services. We have close links with a range of community services including Southwark Community Police Officers, British Transport Police and Southwark Travel Training services
Students have a unit of lessons which focus on relationship and sex education (RSE) once a year. Families are informed in advance of these units being taught and invited to a parent session exploring themes and resources that will be used. Parents have the right to withdraw their child from these sessions and are given the opportunity to do so before the work begins. Topics in RSE are taught across all Key Stages and include work around public and private, body changes due to puberty, keeping safe, appropriate and inappropriate touch, consent and emotional changes due to puberty including developing sexual feelings.
As a result of their PSHE lessons students will demonstrate a healthy outlook towards school, will become healthy and responsible members of society and will be more prepared for the world that awaits them after Spa.
