KS1 & KS2 RSHE (PSHE) curriculum

Aims and purpose

What are the aims and purpose of our curriculum?

This curriculum aims to equip pupils with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health, and relationships. The curriculum enables pupils to build and develop knowledge over time while also providing opportunities to learn, question, and evaluate a broad range of experiences. We adhere to statutory guidance, ensuring that teachers are able to deliver correct and well-informed content.

Oak curriculum principles

What overarching curriculum principles inform the design of our curriculum?

Knowledge and vocabulary rich

This principle recognises the important role that knowledge, and vocabulary as a particularly important type of knowledge, plays in learning. We identify and map vocabulary across the curriculum, both in terms of the introduction of new vocabulary and the necessary repetition of vocabulary that has gone before. New vocabulary, called keywords, are signalled in bold in our lesson materials to indicate their importance.

Sequenced and coherent

A careful and purposeful sequencing of our curriculum content underpins its design, ensuring that pupils are able to build on and make links with existing knowledge. At its simplest this means ensuring, for example, that when teaching First Aid, pupils are taught to be able to make an emergency call and deal with common injuries, before building their knowledge to be able to administer CPR and explain the purpose of a defibrillator. Attention is paid to vertical coherence via threads, which map the developments of concepts over time. For example, in the thread ‘Wellbeing’, pupils learn about basic self-care, emotions, and how to understand their own feelings and those of others. As they advance, they delve into more complex topics such as mental wellbeing, strategies for managing stress, and resilience. This includes teaching pupils how to recognise and talk about their emotions, understand the importance of physical health, and develop First Aid skills.

Evidence-informed

Our evidence-informed approach enables the rigorous application of research outcomes, science of learning and impactful best practice both in education in general and at a subject specific level. For example, the design of our resources reflects findings from Sweller’s cognitive load theory and Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning whilst our lesson design draws on Rosenshine’s principles of instruction. We also draw on findings from research organisations such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). At the subject level, we align with the DfE statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE), and health education, meaning that our curriculum meets the necessary requirements for teaching RHE and RSHE.

Flexible

Our flexible approach enables schools to use our resources in a way that fits their context and meets the varying needs of teachers and their pupils. Our curriculum can be used in its entirety or units can be selected to complement existing curricula. Our resources are adaptable so that teachers can add local context, can edit or add checks for understanding, or adapt practice tasks to better reflect the prior knowledge of their pupils. Our curriculum can be delivered in lessons, form or tutor time, and through assemblies. Whilst flexible, our lessons will always adhere to the statutory guidance on relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE), and health education.

Diverse

Our commitment to breadth and diversity in content, language, texts, and media can be seen throughout the curriculum, for example in the group of diverse school age characters that feature in our resources. We incorporate a wide range of examples and case studies from various cultures and societies to ensure pupils understand and appreciate diversity. Lessons feature stories and scenarios from different cultural backgrounds, promoting empathy and global awareness. Pupils learn about the importance of equality and legal protections against discrimination based on race, disability, religion, and other protected characteristics. This approach educates pupils about their rights and responsibilities while encouraging respect and valuing differences.

Accessible

Our curriculum is intentionally designed to facilitate high-quality teaching as a powerful lever to support pupils with SEND. Aligned with EEF guidance, our resources have a focus on clear explanations, modelling and frequent checks for understanding, with guided and independent practice. Lessons are chunked into learning cycles and redundant images and information are minimised to manage cognitive load. Our resources are purposefully created to be accessible, for example by using accessible fonts, colours with good contrast, and captions in our videos. We use characters and case studies that relate to real-life situations, such as discussing approaches to staying safe online, helping pupils to see the relevance to them.

Oak subject principles

What subject specific principles inform the design of our curriculum?

Focuses on the knowledge and skills specific to RSHE, including:

• Ensuring that all content is grounded in the statutory RSHE guidance and the law;

• Keeping children safe and happy.

Our curriculum is grounded in statutory guidance and the law, so that all content is relevant and compliant. For example, our lessons on online safety and media influence provide pupils with the knowledge to help keep them safe online and teach them about their responsibilities. Each lesson begins with ground rules to support teachers to set conditions where pupils feel safe to participate. To help children feel safe, we also provide examples and opportunities for pupils to talk about their emotions and experiences. We teach pupils how to ask for advice or help and how to report concerns.

Applies our diversity curriculum principle by encouraging pupils to understand, appreciate and analyse a broad range of viewpoints.

Our lessons include case studies and scenarios representing different backgrounds and communities from across modern Britain. For example, in key stage 2 pupils explore the contributions of the Windrush Generation to our society. Our curriculum empowers pupils to make informed choices about their own lives. For example, pupils learn about topics including drugs, alcohol and tobacco. By carefully explaining risk-taking behaviour and encouraging thoughtful discussion, pupils learn to evaluate options and consider the consequences of their decisions, encouraging responsible and informed decision-making.

National curriculum

How does our curriculum reflect the aims & purpose of the national curriculum?

Our curriculum is aligned with the statutory guidance on relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education. All content is comprehensive, relevant, and appropriate. We cover essential topics such as mental wellbeing, online safety, and respectful relationships. As part of our curriculum, we teach pupils aspects of social and emotional learning (SEL), for example by teaching them to name and manage their emotions. Our curriculum fully integrates the teaching of fundamental British values (FBV).

Curriculum delivery

What teaching time does our curriculum require?

Our curricula for key stages 1-3 are designed for 36 weeks of curriculum time across the school year, leaving time for other activities both within and beyond the curriculum such as assessments or school trips. At key stage 4, year 10 also has 36 weeks of curriculum time, but year 11 has only 24 weeks (approximately 2 terms) to recognise that schools will not be teaching new content in the run up to the GCSE exams.

Our primary RHE curriculum has been designed to teach one weekly lesson approximately 40 minutes long in key stage 1 and 50 minutes to an hour in key stage 2. Our secondary RSHE curriculum is designed for one lesson to be taught every week, with lessons approximately 50 minutes to an hour. We understand that exact time dedicated to RSHE can vary greatly between schools due to differences in curriculum planning, resource allocation and school-specific priorities. Therefore we fully expect and encourage teachers to adapt our curriculum and resources to best suit their needs, available curriculum time and format.

Curriculum coherence

What are 'threads'?

We use threads to signpost groups of units that link to one another, which together build a common body of knowledge over time. We use the term thread, rather than vertical concepts, themes, or big ideas because it helps to bring to mind the visual concept of a thread weaving through the curriculum.

Our RHE and RSHE threads that weave through both our primary and secondary curricula are:

• Community
• Relationships
• Online safety
• Wellbeing
• Growing up

By using these threads in our RHE and RSHE curricula, we ensure pupils are prepared to successfully navigate a wealth of real-life situations. For example, the threads on ‘wellbeing’ and ‘relationships’ teach pupils the appropriate vocabulary to name their own emotions, with the curriculum later developing how pupils might manage these emotions in different contexts. Consistent threads across our primary and secondary curricula can enable more effective transition, helping pupils to bridge their knowledge and understanding from primary to secondary. For example, the ‘relationships’ thread starts by teaching about friendships and family at primary school, and then moves on to more complex topics such as romantic relationships and consent at secondary.

Recommendations from subject specific reports

How does our curriculum address and enact recommendations from subject specific reports (e.g. EEF guidance reports & Ofsted Research Review)?

We make use of the available research on approaches to RHE/ RSHE, for example the research on communication and language highlighted by the EEF. We recognise the value of teaching different emotions and how children can manage them as part of our primary RHE curriculum. In our primary curriculum, pupils will develop a toolkit to provide the right language to communicate and manage their own emotions. We begin by teaching pupils to recognise their emotions, before understanding them. Following this, pupils are taught to label their emotions, and to understand the intensity of each emotion they might be feeling. Finally, we teach pupils to manage their emotions, encouraging children to develop a toolkit of strategies.

Subject-specific needs

How does our curriculum deal with elements that arise from the specific needs of the subject?

Why do we call the subject RSHE (PSHE)?

Schools have a statutory requirement to teach relationships and health education in primary and relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education in secondary. Schools often decide to teach this as part of a broader PSHE curriculum. We call our curriculum RSHE (PSHE) across both primary and secondary because teachers and pupils are familiar with the language.

What is the same and what is different about the primary and secondary curricula?

In our primary curriculum pupils are taught relationships and health education (RHE). Sex education does not form part of our primary curriculum. At secondary pupils learn about relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education. Our spiral approach to both curricula means that topics are revisited with increasing levels of complexity. For example, online safety is introduced early in the primary curriculum and revisited with more advanced issues, such as cyberbullying and digital footprints, in the secondary curriculum. This compliments our computing curriculum and reinforces the importance of safe online behaviour.

How does our RHE and RSHE curricula link to our curricula in other subjects?

Our RHE and RSHE curricula link to many other subjects. Healthy eating and lifestyles are taught as part of our ‘wellbeing’ thread, with connections to science, cooking and nutrition and PE. For example, our year 6 unit on ‘risky substances: why do people use alcohol and drugs?’ pupils learn about the reasons for alcohol and drug use and the associated risks, to encourage informed choices. This links with our year 6 science unit on keeping healthy where pupils learn to recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function.

How is sensitive content dealt with?

Our RHE and RSHE curriculum is grounded in the law. Lessons that include sensitive content are labelled as such on our website. Where lessons may contain sensitive content, suggestions of ‘ground rules’ are included and external support groups and organisations are signposted such as Childline for example.

How is e-safety taught in our RHE and RSHE curricula and where does it link to our computing curriculum?

Within our thread 'online safety', pupils are taught throughout the curriculum how to be safe online. For example, in key stage 1, pupils learn about careful sharing, scary things and getting a healthy balance online. Our computing curriculum revisits and reinforces the learning from RHE and RSHE lessons.