Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
incorporating Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
At Clacton County High School, we take pride in our varied and interesting Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) provision. We are committed to facilitating excellent teaching and learning through three simple rules: Ready. Respectful. Safe. These simple rules permeate across all aspects of our behaviour and academic curriculum and lie at the heart of our approach to the teaching and delivery of our Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE). Both these are an integral part of the curriculum at Clacton County High School and is specifically designed to educate our students about the topics od Personal, Social, Health, Economic, Relationships, and Sex Education.
Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education
Through the delivery of a wide range of PSHE topics, we give our students the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. PSHE lessons help students to understand relationships in order to thrive as individuals, as family members and as members of society. From making sensible decisions about alcohol, to succeeding in their first job, PSHE helps students to recognise and cope with many of the challenges and responsibilities they will face growing up.
PSHE education enables our students to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to encourage them to be a critical thinker and to understand how they are developing personally and socially, tackling many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. Students are provided with opportunities to learn about rights and responsibilities and to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse society, developing a sense of self-worth by contributing to school life and the wider community.
Through our PSHE curriculum, we aim to develop key character skills, including decision making, informed risk taking, good communication and self-regulation strategies. We encourage the exploration of, and respect for, values held by different cultures and groups within our local community, and promote the development of positive attitudes. We highlight the importance of honesty and respect in all relationships, and nurture sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others. We aim to enable students to develop a deepening knowledge and awareness of their own health and wellbeing, including their mental and physical health.
The ultimate aim of our broad and diverse PSHE curriculum is to help our students to achieve their academic potential, and leave school equipped with a starter pack of skills that they will continue to develop throughout their lives.
At Key Stage 3, PSHE lessons are timetabled into the curriculum. Students receive direct teaching of PSHE lessons via a fortnightly lesson that is taught by the timetabled subject teacher.
At Key Stage 4, the school uses direct teaching via a fortnightly rolling programme of study. Students are taught by the same subject teacher for the majority of their PSHE lessons.
D
uring the academic year, PSHE sessions focus on a variety of topics including:
• World Mental Health Day
• World Human Rights Day
• Relationships Education & Teen Pregnancy/Parenting
• Extremism, Racism and Tolerance
• An introduction to Sign Language
• Internet safety
• First Aid and CPR Training
• Ethics - Animal Testing & Human Rights
• Democracy
• An introduction to the Open University
• Money - including payday loans and creating a budget
• Careers - CV writing, careers fair, options available post-16
• Revision Techniques
In addition to their timetabled lessons, a weekly PSHE form tutor programme is also in place. Every week students will be provided with an activity that supports, builds on, or further enriches their PSHE curriculum offer.
Key Stage 4 form tutors also spend time with their groups consolidating knowledge from previous lessons, addressing any misconceptions, and measuring the extent to which students can apply this knowledge to situations.
There is an element of PSHE in pastoral care and the school will ensure that PSHE and pastoral care teams work together to ensure that students feel comfortable indicating that they may be vulnerable and at risk.
Relationships, Sex and Health Education
Our approach to the teaching and delivery of our Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) goes beyond providing biological information but also focuses on developing skills to understand, manage and maintain healthy, positive relationships. We aim to give students the knowledge to make appropriate and well-informed decisions. Through our teaching about respectful relationships, kindness and understanding, the value of acceptance of others is central, regardless of differences in belief, culture or race. We encompass the notion that ‘mutual respect does not mean having to agree with someone’.
RSHE encourages students to consider their physical, moral and emotional development as they progress through different stages of their lives. It is about developing positive beliefs, values and attitudes and understanding the importance of healthy relationships (including friendships), gender issues, conception and birth processes, contraception, sexually transmitted infections, prejudice and stereotyping in a safe and secure environment.
Teachers provide balanced, factual and unbiased information about relationships, reproduction and wider contexts including emotional, ethical, religious, and moral dimensions for a range of topics. Through our curriculum delivery we encourage students and teachers to share and value each other’s views, in an atmosphere where questions and discussion on sexual matters can take place without any stigma or embarrassment, correcting any misinformation students may have gained. We are aware of different approaches to sexual orientation, without promotion of any particular family structure. It is not about the promotion of sexual orientation or sexual activity.
Our RSHE curriculum aims to equip young people with essential skills for building positive, enjoyable, respectful and non-exploitative relationships and staying safe both on and offline. It involves acquiring information on what the law says in regards to relationships and sexual activity, and free speech whilst respecting the views of others.