Vision for PRHE (incorporating PSHE and RSHE)

At St James’ C of E Junior school, we aim develop the love of learning and life in a caring Christian community.  We believe fully in delivering to our children a PSHE and RSHE education that covers health and relationships in order to fully prepare every child for life's challenges and opportunities.  We promote healthy, individual and responsible members of society and encourage all children to play a role in contributing to school life through fundraising, supporting charities, organising events and helping peers and others.  We allow children to express their opinions and remain open-minded - willing to consider new ideas. Through our curriculum, our school environment and our school ethos, we promote pupils’ self-esteem and emotional well-being and help them to form and maintain worthwhile and satisfying relationships, based on respect for themselves and for others, at home, at school, at work and in the community.  As a Church of England School our overarching value is respect (rooted in Jesus’ teachings ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:13) and ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ (Matthew 12:31) and follow the Church of England ‘Valuing All God’s Children’ (2017) guidance. 

Our school's policy on sex and relationship education has been developed in line with the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019, made under sections 34 and 35 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017. In the DfES document, SRE is defined as 'learning about physical, moral and emotional development'. The guidance states, 'It is about understanding the importance of marriage for family life, stable and loving relationships, respect, love and care. It is also about the teaching of sex, sexuality, and sexual health. SRE is part of the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum in our school. When we inform our pupils, through SRE, about sexual issues, we do this with regard to morality and individual responsibility, and in a way that allows children to ask and explore moral questions. We do not use sex education as a means of promoting any form of sexual orientation.  RSHE Statutory Guidance 2019 

In order to provide this we have identified the following curriculum drivers:- 

Oracy

Children at St James’ often join the school with English as an additional language and/or with poor language acquisition. Children will be encouraged to discuss their ideas – Why do you think that? How do you know? Explain your thoughts, and to use sentence stems when answering questions.  Vocabulary will be explicitly explained, displayed and used accurately by teachers and pupils. We provide the children with a language-rich environment where they have access to key knowledge, language and meanings in order to understand PSHE and use it across the wider curriculum. 

Initiative

Children are encouraged to have a ‘Have a go’ attitude and that the view mistakes as a leaning opportunity.  Each class has an Access to Learning area which the children can use at their own choice to help them with their learning and problem-solving. The whole school ethos is to encourage children enquire and ask questions in order to impact on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Children live and breathe our school values and link these to our British Values.  Children are sociable and interact well with each other and adults. 

Futures

We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities, our British values and to appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society.  Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. 

Opening doors to the world-Our pupils need to see how their learning is relevant to their lives and future. We want our children to be productive, valuable members of society and therefore they need the skills and knowledge equal to their peers to access employment. We believe children learn best from real experiences in order to capture their imaginations and encourage curiosity. We try to enhance our curriculum in many ways to ensure this such that children learn from and develop respect for different religions. 

Wellbeing

We have a huge focus on mental health and well-being in and out of the classroom.  Growth mindset being used to promote perseverance and resilience. Children have the opportunity to discuss ideas and values in a safe, caring community enabling them to develop a sense of self-worth such that they can face difficulties and differences of opinion with integrity and respect. Children are taught to think about their own school and personal values and to understand how people of different backgrounds or beliefs may share similar values whilst differing in other values.  Our curriculum and lesson design ensures all children work together through the objectives but with support and challenge where needed. Pupils with SEND have an individual learning plan which ensures that they make progress and feel successful at their own level.  

Curriculum Intent: Our children need the skills and experiences in order to access the same opportunities and experiences as their peers in the future. 

The aims of PRHE 

• Children will be taught the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other peers and adults.  Our teaching will enable our children to become healthy, respectful, independent and responsible members of society.