At Swaffham Primary Academy, we recognise that Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education plays a crucial role in shaping well-rounded, emotionally intelligent, and resilient young people. We have recently reviewed and refreshed our PSHE curriculum to ensure it is meaningful, relevant, and reflective of our school’s ethos – The SPA Way, which underpins all that we do.

Led by Syreeta Rice, our dedicated PSHE/RSE Lead and school Mental Health Champion, our curriculum supports children in developing the emotional literacy, social understanding, and personal resilience they need to navigate an ever-changing world. Syreeta works closely with Carla Curtis, our Student and Family Support Lead, to ensure the emotional and social wellbeing of our pupils is supported holistically.

As part of this work, we listen carefully to the views of our pupils and their families, and we respond to the unique needs of our community. Through open dialogue and community input, we shape a curriculum that is inclusive, supportive, and empowering. We also incorporate the Zones of Regulation across our provision, helping children to recognise and manage their emotions, build self-awareness, and develop healthy coping strategies.

This aligns closely with our whole-school vision – to inspire our children, families, and staff to SHINE, LEARN, BELIEVE and BELONG. We want every child at Swaffham Primary Academy to leave us as a confident, happy and resilient learner, ready to take on the next step in life. We believe that with knowledge, anything is possible.

Our PSHE and RSE curriculum plays a vital role in achieving this vision. It provides pupils with the time, space, and support to think, talk and reflect about themselves, their relationships, and the wider world. Through this, they learn how to stay safe, healthy and happy, how to form and maintain positive relationships, and how to recognise their place and impact within a diverse global society.

We want our pupils to become emotionally literate, equipped to identify and understand a wide range of emotions – what causes them, how they feel, and how to manage them effectively, particularly during challenging times. We teach them how to make informed, safe and healthy choices that support their physical and mental wellbeing, and we nurture a strong sense of self-worth and self-esteem.

Our PSHE and RSE curriculum is designed to empower pupils to build and maintain healthy friendships and family relationships. They learn what makes a good relationship, how to show empathy and respect, how to recognise unsafe or unhealthy relationships – including negative peer pressure – and, most importantly, how and where to seek help when needed.

We want all our pupils to thrive in the wider world. Our curriculum helps them to understand the value of their own voice and actions, to be aspirational, and to set achievable goals for themselves. We promote resilience, a growth mindset, and a sense of personal responsibility and motivation.

At Swaffham Primary Academy, we see diversity as a strength to be celebrated. We want our children to be curious, respectful and knowledgeable about individual differences – whether in families, cultures, relationships, or communities – and to explore these topics with open minds and hearts. We also recognise the importance of broadening our children’s horizons, offering opportunities to connect with the world beyond their immediate environment.

Through our PSHE and RSHE curriculum, we want our pupils to develop their skills to: 

Learn – know and understand how to stay healthy and safe, form appropriate relationships and connect with the wider world in a positive and confident manner

Believe – recognise similarities and differences and that diversity is a positive thing.  Also to recognise that they need to be respectful to others, to respect people’s lifestyles, appearance, identity and culture and to recognise and use the language of respect

Belong – recognise where they belong in their families, their communities and in the world, and to know their rights and responsibilities

Shine - celebrate themselves as individuals whilst also celebrating and respecting the uniqueness of others.

To achieve our intent, we use the PSHE Association guidance and resources to ensure full coverage of everything we believe our children need to know. This is grouped into the areas of Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World. This is supported by the excellent teaching resources provided by Educator Solutions to teach high quality RSE across all year groups with key milestones that form our Big Ideas.

Our Big Ideas are:

Relationships

Self-awareness

Self-care, Support and Safety

Managing Feelings

Changing and Growing 

Healthy Lifestyles; physical and mental

Living in the Wider World

These are carefully planned and incorporated into wider planning to ensure our children can make links and apply the skills they are learning. There are also discrete teaching opportunities to ensure the content is given the importance it needs, especially when of a sensitive nature.  We may vary our curriculum in response to emerging issues and to reflect the rapidly changing world in which our pupils are living and learning.

Teaching RSE and PSHE

When teaching any lesson that deals with potentially sensitive subjects, teachers will begin by creating a safe and secure learning environment.  This will help children to feel confident to share their ideas, values and attitudes without fear of negative feedback from their peers.  A safe learning environment with clear boundaries also helps teachers to manage discussion on sensitive issues with greater confidence.

To do this we:

• establish a working agreement based on our school values 
• depersonalise discussions by using distancing techniques- stories, role- play, scenarios of real situations but with fictional characters and storylines
• have a question box in class so children can ask questions anonymously
• small group discussions

Consulting with Staff, Parents/ Carers and Pupils

A full consultation with parents, staff and governors took place following the publication of the new guidance for RSHE in 2020 and in 2021.  As part of our on going curriculum planning and development, we regularly seek the views of staff, parents/ carers and pupils.  These views are used to support our curriculum planning and implementation.

RSE Parent Consultation planned for 2025/2026 - more information coming in Autumn term 2025 

RSE Parent Consultation 2021/2022

Thank you to all parents/ carers who responded to our consultation.  We had 39 questionnaires returned in total.

The overall response to our questionnaire was very positive.

Here is a summary of the responses:

You can find our RSE policy in the policies section of our website - please click the link below: