PSHE Curriculum Statement of Intent

At Chudleigh School our PSHE curriculum is rooted in our school values and Christian Foundations ensuring that our school is ‘A place for all to Grow and Flourish’. Children’s well-being is at the heart of all we do, with a focus from Foundation Stage through to year 6 on educating children about how to look after themselves and teaching about the ‘10 a day choices’ for balancing our mental health. We take part in ‘Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week’ and ‘Anti-bullying week’ each year where the children will explore the focus theme through assemblies and class based activities. Our children are given a voice through our school council, curriculum ambassadors, community ambassadors and well-being ambassadors.

In Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 each unique child is celebrated through a chance in the year to be ‘Star of the week’ and achievements in key stage 2 are celebrated through ‘Learner of the day and week’. Where possible we welcome links with our local community, including links with CAR (Chudleigh against Racism). Our children are offered visits and assemblies, these have included visits from the RNLI, Fire Service, First Aid Training and the charity ‘Young Minds’.

We have an inspiring curriculum and use a range of resources alongside our enquiry based curriculum where the children will experience ‘being a philosopher’.

Our PSHE covers-

• Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
• Mental Health and Well-being
• Global Citizenship
• Relationships education
• Health Education
• Sex and Relationships Education
• Participation in Focus Week’s including Anti-Bullying week/Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

We use a programme called ThoughtBox to deliver our PSHE curriculum. ThoughtBox offers a ‘Think and Thrive, Triple Well-being Curriculum’ aiming to develop essential life-skills to support the well-being of people and the planet. This curriculum fosters:

• CURIOSITY Helping children learn how (not what) to think.
• COMPASSION Helping children develop empathy and connect with their emotions.
• CONNECTION Helping children understand the bigger picture behind some of the issues happening around them, making sense of complexity and exploring different relationships in the world.

Topics are taught from three key themes – Self-Care, People-Care and Earth Care.

Please click here for a parent’s guide and more information about the ThoughtBox curriculum.

This link will take you to a section of the ThoughtBox website containing free resources for ‘Teaching for a Better World’, these can be used at home and cover thinking skills, changing global issues, teaching climate change and talking about equality. If you are interested please take a look!

Relationships and Health Education:

Relationships Education

Relationships education helps to teach children about what a positive relationship is and understand that positive relationships are likely to lead to happiness and security. Relationships education became a statutory part of the Primary Curriculum in September 2020 and includes teaching on the content of;

• Families and people who care for me
• Caring relationships
• Respectful Relationships
• Online Relationships
• Keeping Safe

Please click here for a more detailed parent’s guide to ‘Relationships Education in the Primary School’.

Our school vision and values as a Church school and everyday practices encourage and develop children’s understanding of how to nurture positive mental health and relationships. Our Foundation Stage introduces children to the many ways that will help them to develop meaningful relationships including how to co-operate, share, turn take, listen to and respect others, manage emotions and operate and manage themselves within boundaries. Friendship and family relationships that are meaningful to the children are explored through circle time and stories. Beyond Foundation our PSHE and SRE forms the basis of our direct teaching about relationships. As a school we encourage the respect of staff and others through the use of our KS1 Rainbow and KS2 Traffic light positive behaviour systems and we celebrate small steps and large strides in many ways including stickers, Star of the Week and Learner of the Week. We also teach the children about the ‘10 a day’ choices for balancing our mental health. These are regularly revisited and discussed in assemblies and class so the children can an understanding of what they are from a young age. Please click here for the ’10 a day’ poster.

Health Education

Health Education includes teaching children the knowledge they need to make healthy choices for themselves, to recognise any issues for themselves and others and how and when to seek support for themselves and others. Teaching includes content on –

• mental wellbeing
• internet safety and harms
• physical health and fitness
• healthy eating
• facts and risks associated with drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• health and prevention
• basic first aid
• changing adolescent body

Our curriculum for Relationships and Health Education is taught through our ThoughtBox Topics and ‘Growing up with Yasmin and Tom’, an age-appropriate, interactive programme for children aged 5–11. The characters Yasmine and Tom are brought to life through animation as they cover topics including the body, relationships, families, friendship, online and offline safety, and puberty. Please see the ‘Sex and Relationships Education’ section of our website for more information.

Please click here for The St Johns Ambulance First Aid Curriculum plan we teach at Chudleigh.