PSHE & RHE
PSHE is a crucial part of a child’s education. We want pupils to have the knowledge and skills to keep themselves happy, healthy and safe; have a good understanding of their own bodies and how these will change as they grow, and prepare them for future life and work.
At James Brindley the teaching of our PSHE curriculum including RHE is taught through the use of SCARF (safety, caring, achievement, resilience, friendship) resources. This whole school approach ensures that by the time our children leave school they are well-rounded individuals who possess the necessary skills to continue to thrive in the wider world. Alongside PSHE sessions, yearly workshops delivered by SCARF educators take place to further enhance our PSHE curriculum. This also further supported through our wider curriculum as well incidental day to day occurrences, stimulating further opportunities for purposeful discussion and reflection.
The school also uses the Barnardo’s resource: “Real Love Rocks” with Year 6 to address issues around grooming and child sexual exploitation, and promotes children and young people’s rights to healthy, consensual and safe relationships with peers, partners, their family and across their community.
Children’s mental health and well being is of the utmost importance at James Brindley and we have been recognised as a school as being an emotionally friendly school (achieving the Emotionally Friendly School Award in 2022). We aim to ensure that all children are happy, healthy and able to cope with everything that life may throw at them. We acknowledge that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable, and that anyone in our community may need additional emotional support from time to time. We believe that supporting one another, both through embedded whole school practises and targeted individual support, we can bring about a more positive environment in which the mental health of all is nurtured and can positively grow.
To celebrate diversity and inclusivity we regularly take part in awareness days/weeks such as world down syndrome day, dyslexia friendly day, anti bullying week and mental health awareness week.
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 James Brindley, 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, through our 'No Outsiders' programme. Through the use of carefully selected texts we promote the celebration of diversity and inclusivity. We aim to make sure everyone feels safe and welcome in our community regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and physical and mental capabilities.