Legal Requirements of Schools

It is a statutory requirement for primary schools to deliver Relationships Education and the Department of Education (DfE) encourages schools to deliver Relationships and Sex Education that ensures children are prepared for the changes 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. Health Education is also statutory in all schools.

We at Leigh St Mary’s C of E Primary School acknowledge that under the Education Act 2002/Academies Act 2010 all schools must provide a balanced and broadly-based curriculum and wish to have a policy that not only covers the statutory content but covers all aspects of our Personal, Social, Health Economic (PSHE) Education provision. We use a teaching resource named SCARF Coram Education to help us to plan and deliver PSHE and RSE lessons throughout school. We also use guidance and information from a wide variety of sources including the DfE and the NSPCC. 

What Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education including Relationships Education, is:

Our PSHE education, including statutory Relationships and Health education, and non-statutory sex education, as recommended by the DfE, provides a framework though which key skills, attributes and knowledge can be developed and applied. This promotes positive behaviour, good mental health and wellbeing, resilience and achievement, helping children to stay safe online, develop healthy and safe relationships, making sense of media messages, challenging extreme views and having the skills and attributes to negotiate and assert themselves now and in the future.

The school’s PSHE provision supports the school’s aims of developing confident citizens and successful learners who are creative, resourceful and able to identify and solve problems. The social and emotional development of pupils is embedded throughout the entire school’s curriculum and culture. The school has a powerful combination of a planned thematic PSHE program, built around a spiral curriculum of recurring themes, designed to:

1. Give pupils the knowledge and develop the self-esteem, confidence and self-awareness to make informed choices and decisions;
2. Encourage and support the development of social skills and social awareness;
3. Enable pupils to make sense of their own personal and social experiences;
4. Promote responsible attitudes towards the maintenance of good physical and mental health, supported by a safe and healthy lifestyle;
5. Enable effective interpersonal relationships and develop a caring attitude towards others;
6. Encourage a caring attitude towards and responsibility for the environment;
7. Help our pupils understand and manage their feelings, build resilience and be independent, curious problem solvers;
8. Understand how society works and the laws, rights and responsibilities involved.

We know there is a proven link between pupils' health and wellbeing, and their academic progress. Crucial skills and positive attitudes developed through comprehensive Personal, Social, Health and Economic education are critical to ensuring children are effective learners.