Personal Development and Wellbeing
At Two Gates Primary School the personal development and wellbeing of pupils is at the heart of our curriculum. This encompasses all learning and experiences within our Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education Curriculum, our Relationships Curriculum and the range and quality of extra-curricular and enrichment activities we offer.
All learning and experiences are planned progressively to ensure pupils’ knowledge and skills are developed within the context of the whole curriculum and are age appropriate. We refer to the National Curriculum and Government Guidance and also selected quality resources to support teaching and learning. Through this comprehensive, taught programme children acquire the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practical skills necessary to make informed choices about how to live happy, healthy, safe, productive and fulfilled lives, both now and in the future.
We actively encourage children to have a voice in their school experience and regularly make opportunities for them to talk about issues important to them, helping them relate these to wider events, past and present. Through this, pupils will learn how to influence their future in a positive way, developing character and citizenship.
We want our pupils to leave Two Gates Primary School confident and ready for the next stage in their lives and education with firm foundations laid for lifelong learning and success.
Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
We teach PSHE in a variety of ways: as a discrete subject, through the progressive PSHE curriculum and also through wider school experiences such as assemblies, circle time and discrete links with other subjects /areas such as Religious Education, History, Geography, English, Maths, Science, Relationships Education as well as through educational visits, community work and activities.
From years 1-6 the content of the PSHE and Relationships, Sex ad Health Education Curriculum is delivered under these six themes:
- Me and My School
- Me and My Safety
- Me in the World
- Me and Other People
- Me and My Relationships
- Happy and Healthy Me
The content also covers a wide range of topics relating to physical and mental health, wellbeing and safeguarding.
The PSHE curriculum in EYFS is explored through the different aspects of the personal, social and emotional development prime area and health and self-care aspect of the physical development prime area. Children develop skills that form crucial learning for later teaching of PSHE/Relationships in Key Stage One.
Relationships and Health Education
From September 2020 the Department for Education has made the teaching of Relationships and Health Education compulsory in all primary schools. At Two Gates School, we follow a progressive scheme of work which we have developed using current guidance and content. As a school we have been successfully teaching Relationships Education and Health Education for several years, keeping everything under review so that we are always teaching a relevant and current curriculum in our ever changing world.
At Two Gates School we adhere to the ATLP Relationships, Sex and Health Education Policy policy which can be viewed below:
The focus in primary school 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. Health education is defined as teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing, focusing on recognising the link between the two and being able to make healthy lifestyle choices.
The curriculum is planned progressively to ensure pupils’ knowledge and skills are developed within the context of the whole curriculum and are appropriate for the age and stage of development of pupils.
By the end of primary school, pupils will know:
Families and people who care for me
- that families are important for children growing up because they can give love, security and stability.
- the characteristics of healthy family life, commitment to each other, including in times of difficulty, protection and care for children and other family members, the importance of spending time together and sharing each other’s lives.
- that others’ families, either in school or in the wider world, sometimes look different from their family, but that they should respect those differences and know that other children’s families are also characterised by love and care.
- that stable, caring relationships, which may be of different types, are at the heart of happy families, and are important for children’s security as they grow up.
- that marriage represents a formal and legally recognised commitment of two people to each other which is intended to be lifelong.
- how to recognise if family relationships are making them feel unhappy or unsafe, and how to seek help or advice from others if needed.
Caring friendships
- how important friendships are in making us feel happy and secure, and how people choose and make friends.
- the characteristics of friendships, including mutual respect, truthfulness, trustworthiness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences and support with problems and difficulties.
- that healthy friendships are positive and welcoming towards others, and do not make others feel lonely or excluded
- that most friendships have ups and downs, and that these can often be worked through so that the friendship is repaired or even strengthened, and that resorting to violence is never right.
- how to recognise who to trust and who not to trust, how to judge when a friendship is making them feel unhappy or uncomfortable, managing conflict, how to manage these situations and how to seek help or advice from others, if needed.
Respectful relationships
- the importance of respecting others, even when they are very different from them (for example, physically, in character, personality or backgrounds), or make different choices or have different preferences or beliefs.
- practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships.
- the conventions of courtesy and manners.
- the importance of self-respect and how this links to their own happiness.
- that in school and in wider society they can expect to be treated with respect by others, and that in turn they should show due respect to others, including those in positions of authority.
- Marriage in England and Wales is available to both opposite sex and same sex couples. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 extended marriage to same sex couples in England and Wales. The ceremony through which a couple get married may be civil or religious.
- about different types of bullying (including cyberbullying), the impact of bullying, responsibilities of bystanders (primarily reporting bullying to an adult) and how to get help
- what a stereotype is, and how stereotypes can be unfair, negative or destructive.
- the importance of permission-seeking and giving in relationships with friends, peers and adults.
Online relationships
- that people sometimes behave differently online, including by pretending to be someone they are not.
- that the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-toface relationships, including the importance of respect for others online including when we are anonymous.
- the rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them.
- how to critically consider their online friendships and sources of information including awareness of the risks associated with people they have never met.
- how information and data is shared and used online.
Being safe
- what sorts of boundaries are appropriate in friendships with peers and others (including in a digital context).
- about the concept of privacy and the implications of it for both children and adults; including that it is not always right to keep secrets if they relate to being safe.
- that each person’s body belongs to them, and the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact.
- how to respond safely and appropriately to adults they may encounter (in all contexts, including online) whom they do not know.
- how to recognise and report feelings of being unsafe or feeling bad about any adult.
- how to ask for advice or help for themselves or others, and to keep trying until they are heard.
- how to report concerns or abuse, and the vocabulary and confidence needed to do so.
- where to get advice e.g. family, school and/or other sources.
Please click the link below for the latest overview of our PSHE Curriculum
Sex Education
The Department of Education recommends that all primary schools should have a sex education programme tailored to the age and the physical and emotional maturity of the pupils, although it is not a requirement to teach sex education outside of the science curriculum at primary level. At Two Gates we do teach pupils sex education outside of what is required in the science curriculum. The guidance states that the programme should ensure that both boys and girls are prepared for the changes that adolescence brings and – drawing on knowledge of the human life cycle set out in the national curriculum for science – how a baby is conceived and born. We teach about the main external parts of the human body, how it changes as we grow from birth to old age, including puberty.
Please follow the link below for frequently asked questions about Relationships Education.
A formal consultation with parents closed on September 1st 2019. No comments were received regarding the Relationships Education Curriculum proposed by Two Gates
Curriculum Coverage for Personal Development and Wellbeing including Relationships Education can be viewed in the appendix of the Relationships, Sex and Health education Policy on our policy page or by clicking the link below.
Detailed information about the content, progression and key vocabulary in the Health Education and Sex Education strands of the Relationships and PSHE Curriculum at Two Gates will be sent directly to parents annually prior to teaching.
Please click the link below to view specific content of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education Policy:
