Intent

We understand the purpose of statutory Relationships Education and Health Education to be to equip pupils with the knowledge, skills and positive attitudes to grow up as responsible members of society who are empowered to make decisions about their own lives, who are understanding and respectful of beliefs and lifestyles different to their own, whilst recognising what constitutes respectful and positive relationships with others.

We have adopted Coram Life Education SCARF curriculum for RHE/PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education). The acronym reinforces the areas where we want our children to succeed. We want children to be Safe and know how to be safe, we want our children to have empathy and to be Caring members of our community, we want children to be the best they can be and Achieve, we want children to develop Resilience and we want our children to forge meaningful and lasting Friendships

We promote a supportive ethos in school, based on the understanding that all children need the foundations of positive mental health to be able to fulfil their potential in every area including personally, socially, physically, and economic wellbeing. We pursue this aim using both universal, whole school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at supporting individual children.

We view the delivery of quality Relationships Education and Health Education as not only a tool to support wellbeing but also a tool to safeguard children.

We will ensure that teaching is inclusive, and differentiated where appropriate, to meet the needs of all students, including those with special educational needs and disabilities and those identified as living with a specific vulnerability or safeguarding concern. If any taught content leads to the disclosure of a child protection issue, staff have had training on how to deal with this, including consulting with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

We ensure our Relationships Education is inclusive and meets the needs of all pupils. This includes lesson content relating to gender equality and LGBT+ equality. We are fully committed to ensuring our values and curriculum support the protected characteristics as detailed in the Equality Act 2010.

We believe our policy is sensitive to the range of religious and cultural views present in our community whilst ensuring pupils have access to the learning necessary to prepare them for adult life.

The key aim in developing this curriculum model is to meet the needs of all pupils to prepare them for adult life in Modern Britain. Our curriculum promotes the teaching of spiritual, moral, social and cultural content.

This is reflected in our UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Silver award and continuing Rights Respecting School journey. We promote and are aware of the UNICEF Convention which lists 54 articles. These cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, social and cultural rights that children everywhere are entitled to.

In creating this policy, we have consulted with staff, the governing body, and parents as well as pupils, however the needs of pupils (as identified within school and following national guidance) takes precedence over any sensitivities of adults, where there is a safeguarding element to any curriculum theme.

Implementation

Curriculum Content Overview

Coram Life Education is the leading provider of health, wellbeing, relationships, and drugs education to almost half a million children across the UK, delivered under the strapline ‘Helping Children Make Healthy Choices.’ Trained Educators use evidence-based, interactive, creative methods and resources to stimulate curiosity and imagination amongst children in 1 in 10 English and Scottish primary schools (2,004 schools).

Walmley Infant School and Nursery has adopted Coram Life Education to provide an online scheme for RHE/PSHE through SCARF (an acronym for Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship). SCARF provides a whole-school approach to building these essential foundations – crucial for children to achieve their best. Mapped to the RHE Statutory requirements and PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) Association programmes of study, SCARF is a framework consisting of lesson plans, online planning and assessment tools which embed a comprehensive RHE/ PSHE and Wellbeing programme throughout the primary years. SCARF is a whole-school approach to promoting behaviour, safety, achievement, and wellbeing.

SCARF Lessons

Ground rules will be agreed by pupils and teachers prior to commencement of the lessons. No personal information will be shared and distancing techniques such as using fictional case studies and the third person will be used.

There are 5 non-negotiables in RHE through the SCARF Curriculum. These consist of:

  1. Retrieval- at the beginning of the learning so that past learning is constantly revisited, and children are supported to remember skills and knowledge. A reminder of the acronym SCARF-Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship will be given at the beginning of the lesson, and this will be supported by an object of reference (physical scarf).
  2. Learning Outcome/s-are shared and reinforced at the beginning of the SCARF lesson.
  3. Vocabulary- words that will be used in the lesson will be written on the Smart Board. Word meanings will be explored and shared.
  4. Key Questions- are raised in the Introduction.
  5. Subjects, Issues and links to UNICEF Articles and British Values are shared and direct reference is made to UNICEF articles. These are taught alongside the SCARF curriculum as they connect and reinforce both the RHE/PSHE curriculum and teach The Convention on the rights of the Child.

Pupils will be taught that parents are a vital source of support and learning in the topic of Relationships Education.

Relationships Education and Health Education lessons will be taught using a range of resources and teaching methods. Students are taught not only factual knowledge about the curriculum area but also to reflect on, and develop, their skills and attitudes to subject matter. This may include challenging stereotypes and learning to resist peer pressure for example.

Pupils will have the opportunity to ask any questions they have both during and after the lesson with any member of staff. Staff will feed back any potential safeguarding concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead on the same day. Pupils will be told (as part of the ground rules) that no information can be guaranteed to be kept confidential for this reason.

If students have questions which are outside of the typical content for their age and stage of development teachers will use their professional judgement to determine whether the question will be answered in the whole class setting, in a private conversation with the student involved or whether the topic is deemed to be outside of the appropriate content for that student’s age and development in which case the question will not be answered and the student will receive feedback as to why.

Staff have received training on the teaching and appropriate content of Relationships Education and their judgements will be based on this professional knowledge.

We will ensure that the curriculum content is matched to the needs of our pupils through student voice, participation into curriculum design and through regular monitoring of lessons and resources used.

Assessment of lesson delivery and outcomes will take place by the subject and assessment leads and pupil outcomes will be monitored regularly by class teachers.

Resources will be differentiated for students with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) as necessary, following liaison between classroom teachers and staff with responsibility for SEND provision in school. We believe the students with SEND have an entitlement to age and stage appropriate Relationships Education and so students will be taught with their peers but will be supported with a more personalised approach to lessons and their outcomes.

Where it is known that a situation in a student’s personal life may affect their engagement with a particular topic within Relationships Education (for example some specific safeguarding issues), staff will work with students in advance to prepare them for the topic area and give the student ownership of how much, if any, of the lesson content they wish to access with their peers.

In addition to dedicated lesson times, assemblies may refer to themes in Relationships Education. This is in line with established good practice in RHE/ PSHE and developing on themes previously encountered.

External agencies who visit the school to support the curriculum in this area will be informed of our safeguarding practice and will work under the close supervision of school teaching staff. This will ensure that content and delivery styles reflect our school approach.

Parents will be informed about the policy and lesson content both through material publicly available on our website and via meetings with class teachers.

Impact

Outcomes will be sought through a variety of means. The Pupil Voice will indicate how the children feel about their personal development in RHE. Here are a few examples of children’s thoughts and feelings of RHE/SCARF from Nursery to Year 2.

‘Harold and SCARF help us to learn and to be safe.’

‘We talk about being kind.’

‘It helps you be a better person.’

‘We make new friends and care about each other.’

‘…helps us with our children’s rights.’

Questioning will elicit the children’s responses to RHE topics, whether at the end of a SCARF lesson, assembly, circle time or general discussion

Children in Year 1/2 draw or write their reflections on a SCARF reflections page found in their topic book so they can contemplate their emotions and express their responses to topics taught in SCARF.

Classroom displays reflect the importance of RHE and celebrate children’s individuality, emotional wellbeing, diversity, inclusion, safeguarding and interests.

Reviews will be used to reflect on practice in the past review cycle, acknowledging both successes and areas to be improved, which will be reflected in any policy change.

Checks will be made to ensure the policy follows the latest national guidance and advice and that it meets the needs of pupils and wider school community.

In addition, lesson delivery and student outcomes will be regularly carried out by the subject lead and designated governor.

In each review period provision will be audited to evaluate provision and coverage and feedback from staff, pupils and parents will be considered to evaluate coverage.

The long-term impact of RHE will be an improvement in children’s emotional and physical wellbeing, both academically and socially, in preparation for adulthood.

Reception Curriculum

Year 1 Curriculum

Year 2 Curriculum