PSHE is an integral and important part of any school’s education. Walnut Tree Walk prides itself on the PSHE that it offers it pupils. Through our PSHE lessons, our children become well-rounded, open-minded, and well-informed children who feel part of a growing community.
Each half term, the school focuses on a different PSHE theme for its weekly lessons. The themes throughout the year are:
Autumn Term
Spring Term
Summer Term
These half-termly themes ensure that each class is focusing on the same core subject of PSHE and RSE. Children build on their understanding and knowledge in these subjects each year.
Walnut Tree Walk look to Head-First Org for a lot of their PSHE content and training. Head-First is an organisation focused on the acquisition of skills to help young people identify, self-manage and learn to understand and control their emotions.
At Walnut Tree Walk, we also ensure that we cover in our ‘Changing Bodies’ theme, the renewed statutory RSE education - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.
These lessons are taught by class teachers in school and sometimes by guest nurses or specialist speakers.
With regards to areas of SRE teaching that do not solely relate to science/biology, parents will be made aware of the content and informed of when these upcoming sessions will be taking place.
Walnut Tree Walk is also soon to be a proud member of Stonewall; the LBGTQ+ Charity and ensures that our children know about LGBTQ+ rights and its history.
We also ensure that we cover all areas of PSHE within our daily school life, be it through growing vegetables to cook with and eat in our edible garden to learning about famous activists during our Black History learning, we aim to make each day at school as enriching and unique as possible.
Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence
In the Autumn term of 2021, the Department for Education (DfE) released new guidance for schools on tackling sexual abuse and harassment by children.
This came about due to an Ofsted review which highlighted the scale of the problem.
The guidance sets out ways in which schools should address this important issue.
At Walnut Tree Walk Primary School, we recognise the need for a whole school approach to tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence, such as within our behaviour policy and safeguarding procedures, but also addressing sexual harassment and sexual violence directly, through explicit teaching via our curriculum.
We believe our PSHE education is the key area where this topic can be successfully addressed.
Most reported cases of sexual harassment in school occur in secondary schools however, primary schools still have a significant role to play in tackling this issue.
In most cases children in the primary school will not be taught directly about sexual harassment but lessons will teach related areas such as positive relationships, gender stereotypes, consent and seeking help.
We believe that it is vital that all our staff understand how these lessons build to support children in forming positive relationships and ultimately contribute to the prevention of sexual harassment.
Our PSHE curriculum aims to equip children for later life, and includes, for example, lessons on:
Please note we also address sexual harassment and sexual violence within e-safety learning and on an ad-hoc basis through our behaviour and safeguarding procedures, as well as through assemblies.
