Intent

At Cedar Park School and Nursery, we value the importance of developing our children as successful citizens. This includes being able to form and maintain healthy relationships, understanding how to maintain a balanced lifestyle, having an awareness of their own bodies and how to keep themselves safe whilst contributing to society.

We do this by:

• providing an atmosphere of trust and security in which effective learning can take place;
• fostering a relationship of respect between children, between children and adults, and between adults;
• preparing children for responsibilities, opportunities and experiences in school and outside school as individuals and members of communities.

PSHE gives children the opportunity to:

• reflect on and understand their personal and social development;
• discuss, consider and examine spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues;
• find out about the main political and social institutions;
• learn about their responsibilities, rights and duties as members of communities;
• understand and respect our common humanity, diversity and differences;
• develop personal and social skills to be effective in learning and life relationships and to enable emotional development and interaction with others as well as making healthy positive choices and actively participating in society;
• clarify and develop attitudes and values that support self-esteem and are positive to health and well-being;
• access relevant and age-appropriate information.

Relationships Education

From September 2020, statutory Relationships Education and Health Education have been part of the taught curriculum within PSHE. This is an essential part of a child’s education and contributes to their personal development. Sex Education is not statutory at primary, but recommended by the DfE. We teach Sex Education as part of our Relationships Education within the planned PSHE curriculum.

High quality Relationships Education will support pupils to:

• Form and maintain positive relationships with other children and adults;
• Understand the importance of positive and healthy relationships on their wellbeing;
• Recognise what makes a good friendship and how to be a good friend in return;
• Strategies to manage the ups and downs of friendships and relationships with others;
• Show respect for others and recognise diversity within relationships, treating each other with kindness, consideration and understanding;
• Develop positive character traits and personal attributes such as self- respect, kindness, honesty, integrity and resilience;
• Understand the principles of positive relationships also apply online, how to keep safe and how to report concerns;
• Understand the importance of recognising and establishing their own personal boundaries and privacy;
• Understand and respect differences and combat all forms of bullying and discrimination;
• Recognise unhealthy relationships, inappropriate behaviour and bullying and to report concerns or abuse and are taught the appropriate vocabulary to do so (including signposting to trusted online support services such as Childline);
• Ask a trusted adult rather than go online with regards to any concerns about relationship issues and avoid viewing any inappropriate material or entering into social media conversations that could cause them harm;
• Recognise intimate physical relationships are for adults.

Sex Education

High quality Sex Education will support pupils to:

• Be taught factual and correct information about this how a baby is conceived and born;
• Explore in a safe and managed environment questions they may have about puberty and give them an age appropriate understanding of sexual development;
• Understand that all intimate relationships should be consensual and based on love and respect;
• Understand the law and be taught that intimate relationships are for consenting adults;
• Understand the importance of marriage and committed relationships and learn about different cultural and religious approaches to this;
• Recognising and establish their own personal boundaries, and privacy relating to their own bodies and are taught the scientific vocabulary for body parts;
• Dispel myths and incorrect information about sex and how a baby is conceived and born.

Sex Education is taught in Year 5 and Year 6 only at Cedar Park School.

Implementation

PSHE and personal development are at the core of everything that we do at Cedar Park and is taught explicitly from Nursery to Year 6 through the Jigsaw PSHE programme.

PSHE is taught weekly by the class teacher – we understand that the content of these lessons relies on a strong, supportive relationship and is sometimes delicate in nature and therefore it is important that they are taught by our most qualified members of staff.

Jigsaw promotes a whole-school mindfulness approach and is delivered through half-termly themes:

As these themes are the same across each year group, there is a natural progression across school and allows for children to build on their knowledge and skills year-on-year.

Lessons are led by the ‘Jigsaw Charter’. The charter provides a base of respectful rules to allow for open, honest and safe communication within the class. The Jigsaw Charter is displayed within classrooms for children to refer to.

Within lessons, teachers will utilise ‘Jigsaw Friends’. Jigsaw Friends are mainly used as the ‘talking object’ in circle discussions. Children and staff pass the particular 'Friend' for their class around the circle and when holding the Jigsaw Friend it is their turn to talk or to offer a suggestion, experience or feeling relevant to the discussion (if you choose to). Additionally, the Jigsaw Friends act as distancing tools so that children can talk about potentially more sensitive issues without referring directly to themselves. By using the Jigsaw Friend, children feel more able to express themselves and to share their concerns. The Friends are also characters in many of the Jigsaw stories contained within the lesson resources.

Impact

At Cedar Park School we are aware that –

• Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
• Interleaving helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.
• Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength

As such, previous skills and knowledge are returned to and built upon in every lesson. Lessons incorporate independent tasks, paired and group work and teacher-led activities. Each lesson can be accessed by all pupils and opportunities to challenge are also built into lessons.

Pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the PSHE curriculum will be assessed according to the provisions outlined in our school’s Assessment Policy. Children demonstrate their ability in PSHE lessons in a variety of different ways and also throughout the school day. Teachers will assess children’s learning and development by making informal judgements as they observe them across the day.

Evaluation of the quality and standards of children’s learning in PSHE can be seen through Learning Walks, observations and pupil and staff voice. Monitoring of general behaviour across the school day, including breaks and lunchtimes, is essential to see where further support can be directed. Regular Pupil Voice can assess where the children see their own Personal, social and health needs are. Monitoring the quality and standards of the teaching will take place in partnership with the headteacher through observations and Learning Walks.

PSHE & RSE at Cedar Park for children with SEND

In order for PSHE to be accessible and inclusive for all, teachers need to anticipate potential barriers for individual learners and consider ways of minimising these to ensure participation.

For some learners, PSHE can be a medium to break down barriers that may exist in other curriculum subjects. The nature of the subject allows freedom and flexibility in classroom set-up, learning activities and how we record them. This is beneficial, not only for personal, social and health development, but for the growth of self-confidence and for the fostering of emotional wellbeing in all learners.

Teachers should always be aware that some children may have sensitivities to some of the PSHE curriculum depending on their background, home life and experiences. Teachers should be mindful of this when approaching any PSHE topic.

At Cedar Park, we provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the individual needs and abilities of each pupil. We will achieve this in a variety of ways, including:

• Pre-expose learners to the content of the lesson, e.g. talk about new vocabulary;
• Ear defenders can enable learners to partake in lessons with more confidence;
• Create opportunities for learning outside of the usual classroom or within the classroom using a different layout;
• Drip-feed key vocabulary and ideas throughout the school day;
• Assigning classroom assistants to individual/groups of pupils, where appropriate, to enable greater one-to-one support;
• Providing extra learning opportunities through bespoke support groups (e.g. one for those with SEND and another for academically more able pupils);
• Using cooperative learning to ensure all children are engaged in their learning;
• Use strategies such as modelling, demonstrating and imitating to help learners understand concepts;
• Use of individual, paired and group activities to support learning;
• Use of different methods of recording to support those who find writing challenging.

Further Personal Development Opportunities at Cedar Park

At Cedar Park, we understand and value that children’s personal development continues beyond taught lessons. Therefore, we place an emphasis on ensuring that our children have access to a range of further opportunities to support them, such as:

• Being Different, Being Equal Week;
• Schools trips, workshops and visitors including those to places of worship;
• Bikeability (UKS2);
• Swimming lessons from Year 1 – Year 6;
• Participation in Road Safety Week;
• Assemblies.

Useful Documents & Links