Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education

Personal, Social and Health Education 

‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 22 v 39)

The greatest commandment Jesus taught was to love God and to love your neighbour. Within this commandment is the foundation of the Christian view of relationships. At St James’ Church of England School our relationship education seeks to live out this command and explore how we can ‘love our neighbour’ through what we say and do. Our school focuses on the importance of relationships and the qualities and character needed to sustain the best relationships that honour each other whether within a friendship or family relationship. 

Each child is a unique being, a child of God, loved and accepted. As such, our school seeks to enable children to develop through an inclusive programme of teaching that is based on Christian principles, which both respects the human body and seeks to ensure health and well-being. 

St James’ school’s approach to statutory guidance on Relationships Education, Health Education (HRE) and all non-statutory elements of PSHE is outlined: 

• Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education) helps to give pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives and to become informed, active, responsible and moral citizens.
• Relationships Education is the programme of work that forms part of the basic curriculum. It covers all types of relationships including online, peer to peer, family and carer relationships. It also covers respect for others and staying safe.
• Health Education is a programme of work about puberty, physical health and fitness, healthy eating, mental wellbeing, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
• The Science curriculum covers human reproduction.

PSHE is important because it is a core part of wider work for helping children and young people to understand ways to live that are fulfilling and life giving. High-quality relationships education helps create safe school communities where pupils can grow, learn, and develop positive, healthy behaviour for life.

At St James’ Church of England Primary School, PSHE is taught as a discrete subject through PSHE lessons but is also embedded throughout our daily life and rooted in Collective Worship and other subjects such as RE, History, Geography, Literacy, Maths and Science, outdoor educational visits, community and charity work. School has a vital role to play in supporting children and adults to be resilient and mentally healthy. Wellbeing is promoted through the curriculum alongside spiritual development.

St James’ PSHE programme promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils in line with the Church of England’s vision for Education 2016:

- educating for dignity and respect: the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person, treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth; and
- educating for community and living well together: a core focus on relationships, participation in communities and the qualities of character that enable people to flourish together.’
 

Whilst promoting these values, we will ensure that pupils are offered a balanced and contextualised programme of learning by using relevant and local data and school information related to relationships, health, PSHE education to inform planning and address the identified needs of the whole school community. For example, Public Health Data on road traffic accidents, career and life chances and social deprivation. 

The curriculum for Health and Relationships Education (HRE) became mandatory from September 2020. This included a section on HRE which makes clear that in primary schools the focus should be on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships and relationships with other children and with adults. As per the guidance, St James’ has decided not to teach Sex Education beyond the science curriculum. 

Due to the COVID pandemic, schools could choose to focus the HRE teaching in the 2020-2021 academic year to focus on the immediate needs of their pupils. At St James’, our HRE curriculum for this year has focused on being safe and staying healthy with the full comprehensive HRE programme being followed in September 2021. Whilst the curriculum is statutory and there is not an option to withdraw, we will, as always, be sensitive to the faith element of the community we serve. We follow the school’s mission statement as ‘together we value, inspire and develop each other within a happy, safe community’ and show respect to everyone (Peter 1 2.17).

See below for how PSHE including HRE is planned to be delivered across the school from September 2021.

For more guidance about HRE, please see the guidance from the Department for Education.

The school has also worked with Governors, Blackburn Diocese, Staff, Pupils, Parents and local schools to establish a PSHE Policy on how PSHE is delivered at St James.’

St James’ PSHE Policy

If you require any further information on PSHE and HRE at St James,’ please contact the school office and a member of the Senior Leadership Team will be more than happy to discuss. 

PSHE Events

As part of our curriculum, we enjoy welcoming into school, companies and professionals to support us with our learning. 

Oral Hygiene

Year 3 and 4 have worked this half term with local dentists and Blackburn Rovers Community Trust to look at how to keep our teeth healthy and how to eat a balanced diet and keep active. The children really enjoyed listening to the story 'Max's Not So Sweet Dream' as read by the actor, Gayle Knight and listening to the dentist and dental nurse from 'Bateman and Best' on how to look after their teeth.