RSE and PSHE

RSE stands for Relationships and Sex Education.

PSHE stands for Personal, Social, Health and Economic education and often includes Citizenship.

Together, RSE & PSHE will support pupils to understand themselves, their relationships with others and the world around them. Through this learning, pupils develop the knowledge and skills needed to build healthy relationships, care for their physical and mental wellbeing, understand their role in society and stay safe in a range of situations, including online.

Intent

At Leiston Primary School, we follow the KAPOW scheme of learning. The scheme supports pupils’ wellbeing, relationships and safety, while meeting statutory guidance. This content is combined with the PATHS Programme for Schools to provide a behaviour curriculum designed to support children developing their social and emotional intelligence. PATHS (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies) is a programme that explicitly teaches self-control, emotional awareness, peer relations, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. The purpose of the PATHS programme is to facilitate educational processes in the classroom to enhance social competence and social understanding in children

RSE & PSHE creates a safe space for pupils to ask questions, explore ideas and reflect on real-life situations. Revisiting key themes each year allows learning to build gradually, helping pupils to develop confidence, understanding and strategies for everyday life.

PATHS and PSHE work together to deliver the eight core competencies within the EAST Relationship and Behaviour Policy. PATHS provides explicit, carefully sequenced teaching of emotional and social skills, while KAPOW enables pupils to apply this learning within relationships, health, safety, community and citizenship.

Learning builds progressively across these key areas:

• Emotional literacy – Recognise, name and communicate emotions in themselves and others.
• Self-regulation - Regulate emotions, manage impulses, tolerate frustration and seek support.
• Positive relationships - Build relationships based on kindness, empathy, respect and trust.
• Belonging - Contribute to inclusive, respectful and welcoming classrooms, schools and communities.
• Responsible decision making - Reflect on choices, consider consequences, solve problems and keep people safe.
• Resilience - Persevere, manage mistakes, overcome obstacles and recover from setbacks.
• Independence - Develop self management, personal agency and responsibility for learning and behaviour.
• Citizenship - Understand impact, fairness, diversity, equality and responsibility within society.

Implementation

Leiston Primary will implement the required Statutory objectives in PSHE and RSE using both PATHS and KAPOW. The weekly lesson structure will be as follows:

In addition to discrete lessons, RSE & PSHE learning is often reinforced through day-to-day school life. Teachers will naturally revisit and apply their learning in response to real-life situations that arise, such as issues on the playground, in the classroom or during discussions, helping pupils to make meaningful links between taught content and real experiences.

Every child gets a chance to be Pupil of the Day throughout the year. The pupil is chosen at random and will be given roles throughout the day which will support the teacher. They will be identified by a badge so that the rest of the school community is aware that they are the Pupil of the Day. At the end of the session the Pupil of the Day will receive their compliments from their peers and an adult in the class, these will be written on a compliment letter and shared with parents.

Impact

KAPOW Primary’s RSE & PSHE lessons include ongoing assessment opportunities, such as questioning, retrieval practice and interactive activities. These tools allow teachers to assess understanding in real-time and adjust their teaching accordingly.

Much of pupils’ learning in RSE & PSHE is not captured through written outcomes. Instead, progress is often evident through pupil talk, class discussions, role play and the way pupils apply learning in everyday situations across school life. This may include how pupils communicate with others, manage emotions, resolve conflict or make safer choices. Therefore, at Leiston Primary School we use class floor books to highlight the key learning from each lessons.