At Horncastle, we believe that crucial skills and positive attitudes can be developed through comprehensive Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and is critical to ensuring children are effective learners. There is a proven link between pupils’ health and wellbeing, and their academic progress. As educators we recognise how important these skills and attitudes are in unlocking pupils’ potential, helping to raise achievement and closing the gap in educational attainment.
We use the ‘Jigsaw’ programme to help us teach our PSHE curriculum. Jigsaw approaches PSHE in a spiral, progressive and fully planned scheme of work, giving children relevant learning experiences to help them navigate their world and to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
With strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health, we are equipped to deliver engaging and relevant PSHE within a whole-school approach. Jigsaw lessons also include mindfulness allowing children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
Relationships and Health Education became a statutory requirement for all primary schools from September 2020. At Horncastle, we have been delivering Relationships and Health Education within our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum for many years. We have carefully planned our RSE curriculum so that the links are made with PSHE wherever possible.
Relationships Education is designed to help children to have positive and safe relationships with family, friends and online.
Health Education will help children to make good decisions about their health and wellbeing and enable them to know how to seek support if any health issues arise for themselves or others.
We have also updated our Relationships and Sex Education policy to reflect the new statutory status for Relationships Education, and we did this in conjunction with parents.
Keeping Safe: Our Safeguarding Curriculum
At Horncastle Primary School, the safety and protection of our pupils are at the heart of everything we do. Our PSHE and RSE curriculum is a vital tool in our safeguarding strategy, providing children with the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe, recognize when they are at risk, and understand how to get help.
Through our ‘Jigsaw’ programme and bespoke sessions, we explicitly teach:
-
Recognising Risks: Children learn to identify “early warning signs” in their bodies when they feel unsafe or uncomfortable.
-
Consent and Boundaries: Pupils are taught about personal space, the right to say “no,” and that their body belongs to them (including the use of correct anatomical terminology as per statutory guidance).
-
Online Safety: Integrated with our Computing curriculum, we teach children how to navigate the digital world safely, recognizing “stranger danger” online and the importance of keeping personal information private.
-
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships: Children learn to distinguish between healthy friendships and relationships that are coercive, controlling, or harmful.
-
Trusted Adults: We regularly identify “trusted adults” both in and out of school. Children are taught that they should never keep a “secret” that makes them feel worried or uncomfortable and are encouraged to use our “Helping Hands” approach to identify people they can talk to.
-
Specific Safeguarding Issues: At an age-appropriate level, we cover topics such as peer-on-peer abuse, the importance of privacy, and how to challenge stereotypes and bullying.
By empowering our pupils with a voice and the vocabulary to describe their experiences, we ensure that safeguarding is not just something we do to protect children, but something we teach children so they can protect themselves.
Why is it right for the children at Horncastle?
Horncastle is a small town in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The school caters to a hardworking and caring community. Over the years, the demographics of the town has changed and so have the needs of our children. Therefore, we want our curriculum to teach our children to develop personalities, skills, qualities and worldviews that set them up for life in a fast changing world inside and outside Lincolnshire. Through our PSHE lessons, the children will also be able to challenge prejudice, discrimination and racism and become more tolerant and respectful to all people despite their differing beliefs and ideas. They will learn to become resilient, self-confident, self-reliant and responsible citizens of our society. The curriculum also encourages the children to ask questions and become reflective learners who are empathetic to other people.
