At St Mary’s, personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is an embedded part of our bespoke curriculum designed to meet the broad and balanced needs of all our pupils. It permeates every aspect of school life. Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC) is at the heart of our school ethos. Our PSHE education enables children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society and prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society, promoting British Values both explicitly and implicitly throughout their school life.
Following our consultation on our new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) programme we teach RSE throughout the year alongside PHSE. Our programme endeavours to raise pupils’ self-esteem, help them to grow in knowledge and understanding of themselves and others, recognising the value of all persons and developing caring and sensitive attitudes to all. The programme we use is’ Life to the Full’ which is a fully resourced scheme of work. Taught with a spiral approach to learning, in which pupils will revisit the similar topics at an age-appropriate stage through their school life, the programme includes teaching about personal health, physical and emotional wellbeing, strong emotions, private parts of the body, personal relationships, family structures, trusted adults, growing bodies, puberty, periods, life cycles, the dangers of social media, where babies come from, an understanding of the Common Good and living in the wider world. The entire teaching is underpinned with a religious understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God – created, chosen and loved by God.
There are 9 protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and all schools should be able to demonstrate that no form of discrimination is tolerated and that pupils show respect for those who share the protected characteristics:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
We ensure that our children are given opportunities to develop age-appropriate knowledge and understanding through a well-planned and delivered curriculum. We believe that children should be able to recognise themselves and their circumstances so they can see their lived experiences validated and valued. Through our RSE Curriculum we ensure our children learn about tolerance and respect for all protected Characteristics.
