PSHCE and RHE

Whilst PSHCE education is not a statutory requirement, at Abbott we believe that it promotes the Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural, Mental and Physical development of pupils at our school and prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

We currently follow the Young Citizens cross curricular PSHE and Citizenship programme, raising standards across the curriculum by stimulating children’s imaginations, developing empathy and providing opportunities for critical thinking and problem solving.

The curriculum:

• Deals with real issues of concern to children
• Helps children recognise and explore their talents and values
• Develops understanding towards other people
• Empowers children to become proactive citizens
• Raises aspirations and prepares children for the wider world

Young Citizens is about developing caring and concerned citizens with the confidence and skills to make a difference to their communities, both locally and globally. Young Citizens helps children understand how societies function and provides opportunities for them to imagine unfamiliar situations and explore attitudes beyond their own. They learn how they can take action in a meaningful way to make the world a better place, as we have witnessed in many schools.

At the end of each academic year, children also learn through the Manchester Healthy Schools Partnership programme: ‘Growing and Changing’. This helps children to learn about keeping themselves healthy and safe as well as learning about how our bodies change as we get older. As part of this unit of work, the school also uses the Barnardo’s resource: “Real Love Rocks” addressing issues around grooming and child sexual exploitation.

Relationships Education

The statutory guidance from the Department for Education states that all primary schools are required to teach pupils about different families, including single parents and same sex couples. It also advises that schools are strongly encouraged to cover LGBT content when delivering relationships education.

At Abbott, LGBT content is woven throughout our curriculum with explicit references being made and is not delivered through standalone sessions. This begins in Early Years, where we learn about different families, caring friendships and respectful relationships and progresses throughout school with key references being made in our Young Citizens curriculum.

Schools should be safe places for children and safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do, so we believe it is imperative to support all members of our community. Please see our long term plan, Relationships policy and assessment documents for more information regarding the delivery of Relationships Education at Abbott.