At Bishop’s Waltham Junior School the health, safety and well-being of every child is our top priority.

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

National Curriculum Aims for PSHE

• Families and people who care for me
• Caring friendships
• Respectful relationships
• Online relationships
• Being safe
• Mental wellbeing
• Internet safety and harms
• Physical health and fitness
• Healthy eating
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Health & Prevention
• Basic first aid
• Changing adolescent body

These key outcomes come under 3 main overarching themes

- health and wellbeing

- relationships

- living in the wider world.

PSHE at Bishop's Waltham Junior School

Intent

• We are aware of the way that PSHE supports many of the principles of safeguarding and links closely to schools Safeguarding, SMSC and British Values Policies.
• To build a PSHE curriculum, which develops learning, and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills, enabling children to access the wider curriculum, work collaboratively with others and make a positive contribution to the life of the school.
• Prepares children to be a global citizen in a diverse society and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences for later life.
• We build on the statutory content already outlined in statutory guidance and follow the ‘3 Dimensional’ scheme of work to provide consistency throughout our school, support staff with subject knowledge and reduce teacher workload.
• We have chosen key lessons to ensure coverage across our school and the infant school. We have tailored the scheme to suit our needs as a school to ensure lessons are taught well and not being dropped off
• As well as managing workload Teaching and learning in the classroom should show progression across within the PSHE core themes: health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world.
• We expect teachers to use a PSHE programme to equip pupils with an age-appropriate, sound understanding of risk, with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions and to recognise the importance of their own mental health and well-being.
• Our PSHE curriculum will incorporates an age appropriate understanding of RSE, as set out in the statutory guidance,  and we follow the Christopher Winter Project. This enables all children to be safe and to understand and develop healthy relationships both now and in their future lives.

Implementation

• We follow the Three Dimensions scheme of work and select the sessions covered during each phase to ensure coverage of key objectives but also ensuring teacher workload and curriculum time
• We follow the Christopher Winter Project for RSE and enhance this with Living and Growing materials.
• The Christopher Winter Project provides staff with clear guidance on content to discuss as well as all handouts and clear lesson plans
• The objectives covered during Relationship & Sex Education are shared with parents and they have the right to withdraw with the exception of the statutory objectives as set out in the government guidance.
• Our Internet safety and harms & online relationships, units are covered each year through our Computing unit and a scheme called Gooseberry Planet.
• There are always occasions where teachers may feel it necessary to teach PSHE as a result of an issue arisen in their own class. Our academy environment reinforces the PSHE curriculum through questioning, vocabulary and discussion topics on displays throughout school.
• PSHE is an important part of school assemblies were children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural curiosity is stimulated, challenged and nurtured. We use Picture News within our assemblies and discuss a range of PSHE themed topics
• Links with the local church and communities, fundraising opportunities and visitors provide enrichment opportunities to contextualise learning.

Impact

As a result of our whole school PSHE curriculum, pupils of Bishop’s Waltham Junior School will:

• All children understand the importance of PSHE, SMSC and British Values and the effects it can have on life in and out of school
• By teaching pupils to stay safe and healthy, and by building self-esteem, resilience and empathy, an effective PSHE programme can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils.
• PSHE enables our learners to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society.
• It helps 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.
• Our curriculum allows pupils to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society.
• Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

Success will be monitored through:

• Pupil voice through School Council and pupil conferencing show level of engagement and enjoyment
• PSHE coverage in Topic Books monitoring by the curriculum leader
• Learning walks to show coverage and confidence in teaching

Our PSHE Curriculum Overview

Click here for downloadable version

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

First Aid sessions are now taught by Meon Valley HeartStart. They bring in 2 volunteers who have all worked or continue to work in medicine – doctors, paramedics, first aiders, nurses. Children received 3 sessions each (1 in Year 3) this year, 2024. This will be repeated every 3 years with the next sessions being in 2027.

Promoting Spritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC) at BWJS

Bishop’s Waltham Junior school recognises that the personal development of pupils, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve.  

At BWJS, the spiritual development of our pupils is shown by their:

• ability to be reflective about their own beliefs, religious or otherwise, that inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values
•  sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them
• use of imagination and creativity in their learning
• willingness to reflect on their experiences.

At BWJS, the moral development of our pupils is shown by their:

• ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to readily apply this understanding in their own lives, recognise legal boundaries and, in so doing, respect the civil and criminal law of England
• understanding of the consequences of their behaviour and actions
• interest in investigating and offering reasoned views about moral and ethical issues and ability to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others on these issues.

At BWJS, the social development of our pupils is shown by their:

• use of a range of social skills in different contexts, for example working and socialising with other pupils, including those from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds
• willingness to participate in a variety of communities and social settings, including by volunteering, cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively
• acceptance and engagement with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs; they develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain.

At BWJS, the cultural development of our pupils is shown by their:

• understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and those of other
• understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures within school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain
• knowledge of Britain’s democratic parliamentary system and its central role in shaping our history and values, and in continuing to develop Britain
• willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities
• interest in exploring, improving understanding of and showing respect for different faiths and cultural diversity and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity, as shown by their tolerance and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities. 

Our school values tie in very closely to the definitions above. This reinforces and promotes SMSC throughout our school.

We therefore aim to provide an education that provides pupils with opportunities to explore and develop:

• their own values and beliefs
• spiritual awareness
• high standards of personal behaviour
• a positive caring attitude towards other people
• an understanding of their social and cultural traditions
• an appreciation of the diversity and richness of other cultures.

Safeguarding within the BWJS Curriculum

Great importance is placed on identifying opportunities in the taught curriculum for children to learn about safeguarding. Our broad curriculum gives pupils opportunities to experience life in all its diversity, to acquire knowledge, understanding and skills that significantly impact on personal development, behaviour and welfare and equips every child with the knowledge and skills required for personal safeguarding. Our PSHE curriculum covers a wide range of areas linked to Safeguarding. We are sensitive in our teaching and recognise that some more sensitive subjects need to be taught at an age appropriate level, or at a small group or 1:1 level where a more urgent need arises.

We plan to constantly challenge children to think deeply about safeguarding matters and their own personal physical and mental wellbeing. We value pupils’ questions and give them space for their own thoughts, ideas and concerns. We give them opportunities across the curriculum to explore values, personal rights, responsibilities and equal opportunities that develop moral concepts that impact positively on safeguarding, promote British values and prevent radicalisation and extremism.

There are many opportunities throughout our learning in school to explore safeguarding issues.

Examples of safeguarding opportunities which are planned into our curriculum

• Internet safety – Gooseberry Planet (an online educational platform) is used throughout the school to teach children about how to use the internet safely, there is a particular focus on how to report concerns. At the start of every lesson where the internet is used staff say to children “if you see anything you do not feel comfortable with you must tell an adult”
• Bullying – there are specific topics in Yr 3 & 5 and in addition every year the school participates in Anti-bullying week which includes a range of activities including who to talk to and how to report it
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco – covered in Yr 5 & 6
• First aid and how to call emergency services – this is a recurring theme throughout all year groups, mental health is also included in this topic and children are told about calling the 111 mental health service
• Water and Fire safety – as all children swim at school water safety is covered regularly and in Yr6 they learn water survival skills and lifesaving skills, the fire brigade visit the school to discuss fire safety
• Road safety – discussed as appropriate on school trips and outings, and Bikeability work with children in Yr 6.
• Relationships and sex education – there are statutory and non-statutory elements to learning about relationships and sex education, topics covered include different types of relationships, different types of touch, respectful relationships, when it is appropriate to share private/personal information in a relationship, and how and where to get support if an online relationship goes wrong

External visitors are invited into school to discuss issues concerning safeguarding, this includes:

• Emergency services – Fire & Rescue Service and PCSO
• School nurse
• NSPCC – talk with each year group and topics are differentiated for lower and upper school
• Bikeability
• RNLI