Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE)

At Ruskin Academy the RSE Curriculum is taught and delivered through our school’s Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum. PSHE is taught weekly.

In addition, some aspects of the RSE Curriculum will also be covered through other areas of the wider curriculum and/or events such as:

• Science curriculum
• Computing curriculum
• Circle times
• Assemblies
• Stories
• PE in the context of health and hygiene

We believe that PSHE is an integral part of our school life. PSHE helps our children to develop into confident, happy, healthy and independent members of society. It helps shape our children into individuals that are able to deal with moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. It gives them the opportunity to immerse themselves in scenarios that may arise and it gives them the strategies to be able to overcome such situations. 

Through the delivery of our PSHE curriculum, we aim to provide children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives and to become informed, active and responsible citizens. In providing children with an understanding of healthy and respectful relationships and appropriate boundaries, we consider effective RSE to be a fundamental part of our approach to supporting pupils to grow into confident, caring, responsible and respectful young citizens.

RSE is lifelong learning about personal, physical, moral and emotional development. It should teach children and young people to develop and form positive values, attitudes, personal and social skills, and increase their knowledge and understanding of how to make informed decisions and life choices. 

The aims of Relationships and Health Education (RSE) at our school are to:

• Provide a consistent standard of relations and health education across the school
• Help pupils develop feelings of self-respect, confidence and empathy
• Promote responsible behaviour
• Create a positive culture of communication around issues of relationships
• Teach pupils the correct vocabulary to describe themselves and their bodies
• Provide a framework in which sensitive discussions can take place
• Prepare pupils for puberty and the importance of health and hygiene
• Ensure that all pupils, by the time they reach secondary school age, are well equipped and on an equal footing, to deal with the secondary RSHE curriculum
• To provide all pupils with knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to make positive and healthy choices concerning relationships as they grow up and deal with risk
• Combat exploitation

These aims complement those of the National Curriculum for Science in KS1 and KS2.