Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE)

PSHE provision at Walney School is an integral part of our broad and balanced curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of students at Walney School, and which prepares our students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences that they already face, and for adult life.

Walney School aims to give students the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives and to become informed, active, responsible citizens. Students are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of our school and community. We are a Values Based Education school, and we are passionate about ensuring that our students are fully prepared to deal with whatever life throws at them, now and in the future. We do these by actively encouraging our students to develop the Walney Ways, so that our students become (among other things) aspirational, curious, wider thinking, resilient, self-motivated, self-aware, and communicative.

Through our PSHE programme we aspire to help our students to:

Health and Wellbeing:

Relationships and Sex: (see our RSE section and policy for more details)

Living in the Wider World (Careers & Citizenship) - (see our careers section for more details)

Know the importance of responsible behaviours and actions.
Be responsible and independent members of the school community.
Be positive and active members of a democratic society.
Know about the importance of respecting and protecting the environment.
Develop self-confidence and self-esteem and make informed choices regarding personal and social issues.
Develop good relationships with other members of the school and the wider global community.
Know about where money comes from, keeping it safe and the importance of managing it effectively.
Have a basic understanding of enterprise.

Curriculum provision

We deliver our PSHE curriculum in a spiral programme as part of a whole school approach to promoting PSHE, which includes:

Personal Development lessons	RE lessons	Food lessons (KS3)
Teaching PSHE through all subjects	Assemblies	PSHE activities and school events
Pastoral care and guidance	Visiting speakers	Extra-curricular activities and visits

Relationships and Sex Education

What is relationships and sex education?

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is learning about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, sex, human sexuality and sexual health.

A comprehensive programme of RSE provides accurate information about the body, reproduction, sex, and sexual health. It also gives young people essential skills for building positive, enjoyable, respectful and non-exploitative relationships and staying safe both on and offline.

At Walney School we recognise that RSE is an important part of our PSHE curriculum. Our RSE provision is intended to support students to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, informed and independent lives, with due regard to the value of family in all its forms.

Aims

Walney School aims to:

help students to understand the values of loving, diverse and stable relationships along with developing an understanding of their own sexuality and sexual health
prepare students to progress from adolescence to adulthood with an awareness of the rights of others, and to develop the capacity to make choices in a caring and sensitive manner
enable students to conduct personal relationships with a full understanding of the meaning of responsibility
enable students to conduct their lives with confidence, knowing their own legal rights

Content

Our provision aims to build on primary school provision, and in an age-appropriate programme, deliver the following topics:

Families	Respectful relationships, including friendships	Online and media
Being safe	The Law	Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health
Internet safety and harms	Mental wellbeing	Physical health and fitness
Healthy eating	Drugs, alcohol and tobacco	Health and prevention
Basic first aid	Changing adolescent body

Curriculum delivery

Our RSE curriculum is delivered in the following ways:

Personal Development (PD) lessons, which are taught once a week.
Other curriculum lessons including Science, RE, PE, Food.
Assemblies.
RSE activities and school events.
Pastoral care and guidance.
Visiting speakers.
Extra-curricular activities and trips.

Working with parents

Walney School believes that our RSE programme is of the utmost importance for all students. We recognise that parents are the key people in teaching their children about sex, relationships and growing up. We believe that the key to delivering effective RSE is a strong working partnership between home and school.

Under the Education Act 1993, parents have the right to withdraw their children from either part, or all, of the sex education delivered as part of statutory Relationships and Sex Education (this does not include aspects of sex education covered by the Science National Curriculum). There is no right to withdraw from Relationships or Health Education.

Parents are very welcome to meet members of staff to discuss any concerns they may have and to view our teaching materials. Parents wanting to exercise the right of withdrawal are invited to write to the Headteacher in the first instance.

Relationships and sex education policy