At East Boldon Infant School, we hope to provide our children with high quality PHSCE education which enables pupils to develop their knowledge, skills and attributes needed to keep themselves healthy and safe and prepared for future life. We know that a well delivered and embedded curriculum can have an impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for all children.

PHSCE is an essential and necessary part of all pupils’ education helping them to become independents and responsible members of society. Alongside the curriculum, our ethos and values as a school underpin our expectations for all of our children. We are an accredited Kindness School (2024) and are beginning to work towards becoming a School of Character

https://character-education.org.uk/Schools-of-Character-Information-Pack.pdf

We are also a registered Kidsafe School and implement this programme across school. This complements the curriculum we offer within school.

Our curriculum has been developed to provide opportunities for our children to learn about the society they grow up in, to foster respect for others, rights and responsibilities and understand and appreciate what it means to be a part of a diverse society. Teachers are expected to use the PHSCE curriculum to equip pupils with the knowledge and skills they need to make safe and informed decisions. We believe that the purpose of PHSCE is to educate children to be well rounded citizens who are confident to make decisions that both affect them and the world around them. 

At East Boldon Infant School we aim to: 

  • Promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of all pupils 
  • Prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life 
  • Encourage pupils to value themselves and others 
  • Allow pupils to acknowledge and appreciate difference and diversity 
  • Teach pupils how to make informed choices 
  • Prepare pupils to be positive and active members of a democratic society 
  • Teach pupils to understand what constitutes a safe and healthy lifestyle 
  • Provide a framework in which sensitive discussions can take place 
  • Promote safety in forming and maintaining relationships 
  • Provide pupils with a toolkit for understanding and managing their emotions 
  • Provide pupils with the opportunities to consider issues which may affect their own lives and/or the lives of others 
  • Help pupils to identify the characteristics of healthy relationships, how relationships may affect mental and physical health; and how to stay safe online 
  • Prepare pupils for puberty, and give them an understanding of sexual development and the importance of health and hygiene 
  • Help pupils develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy 
  • Create a positive culture around issues of sexuality and relationships ∙ Teach pupils the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by clear skills and progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year by year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. We teach RSE, through supporting all young people to be happy, healthy and safe – we want to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society.

Through using the guidelines from the national curriculum and the school curriculum we cover the areas:

  • Health and Well being
  • Relationships
  • Living in the Wider World

These are broken down within key areas:

Health and Well Being

Healthy lifestyles, mental health, Ourselves, rowing and changing, Keeping safe and Drug, alcohol and tobacco education.

Relationships

Families and close positive relationships, managing hurtful behaviour and bullying and Safe relationships

Living in the wider world

Shared responsibilities, communities, media literacy and digital resilience, economic well being – money, aspirations, work and career.

Within EYFS, PHSCE is taught in accordance with the PSED framework and is a Prime area of learning. Managing feelings and Behaviour, Making Relationships and Self Confidence and Self awareness make up these areas and is an integral focus of the Reception year in school.

We intend to build a curriculum that enables children to know more, remember more and understand more. As a result our intention is for all children to know how to be safe and understand how to develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.

Ongoing assessments take place throughout the year. Teachers use this information to inform future lessons; ensuring children are supported and challenged appropriately. This data is analysed on a termly basis by the Subject Lead for PHSCE to inform and address any trends or gaps in attainment.

Children in Foundation Stage are assessed within Personal, Social and Emotional Development  and their progress is tracked termly using the Evidence Me tracker system. Age related expectation levels are reported to parents at the end of the reception year.

Across PHSCE staff will look at ways that the curriculum can be enhanced further. This may take the form of visitors into school or out of school. We regularly work with the Police, Fire Brigade and School Nursing Service to provide experiences for our children. We work closely with the local church and care home to make sure children have an awareness of the wider community that they live in. We take part in events across the year such as Norah’s North Pole at Christmas and The Key Project Food Bank collection at Harvest time to make the children aware of others less fortunate than themselves.

Teachers will assess children’s work in PHSCE by making informal judgements through observations during lessons. On completion of a piece of work, the teacher assesses it, and uses this assessment to plan for future learning. Written or verbal feedback is given to the child to help guide his/her progress.  

Children are assessed at the end of each strand of work to determine progress against expected levels of achievement. 

Evidence Me may be used to evidence practical elements of the PHSCE curriculum

Monitoring of PHSCE will be carried out in line with our monitoring programme for school. Monitoring will include:

  • Lesson observations 
  • Scrutiny of children’s work and planning 
  • Tracking of pupil progress 
  • Use of Assessment Data
  • Discussions with pupils – Pupil Voice
  • Discussions with staff – Staff Voice
  • Monitoring of subject development plans by subject leads
  • Link governor visits 

Monitoring will in particular include focus on:

  • Specific areas linked to the School Improvement Plan
  • The lowest 20% of children
  • The Pupil Premium children
  • The SEND children
  • Effective challenge
  • Timely adapting to the needs of the children
  • Effective use of resources
  • Engagement and focus of the children