PSHE and RSE at St Matthias

At St Matthias, the PSHE and RSE curriculum is engaging, purposeful, relevant to the real world and equips our pupils with age appropriate knowledge and skills which reflects the needs of our school community. We want to empower our pupils to respect themselves as individuals, whilst developing an understanding, tolerance and acceptance for others and their differences. It is our goal to develop a clear set of values (Christian and British), including honesty and kindness, as well as establishing a strong moral code, in order for our pupils to value themselves and others as unique human beings, capable of spiritual, moral, intellectual and physical growth. Our curriculum sets out to develop pupils’ varied abilities and talents, as well as developing pupils into active members of a family and their wider communities.

We, like many other schools, have chosen to follow the Jigsaw scheme of work. However, we have changed or moved some units so that they are appropriate to our children and setting, taking into consideration feedback from parent and carer consultations. Everything we teach uses age and developmentally appropriate language and resources.

All lessons start with a class charter, where children go over ground rules so that everyone feels safe. There is no pressure for children to share or speak if they don’t want to, as long as they still participate in the learning.

Teachers have had training on how to deliver PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) and RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) so that children always feel safe and listened to. A lot of what is taught is done through stories or scenarios so that it’s distanced from the children and they can apply their discussions to someone else’s situation.

There are six Puzzles in Jigsaw (quickly identified by their colour scheme) designed to progress in sequence from the beginning of each academic year:

• Term 1: Being Me in My World
• Term 2: Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
• Term 3: Dreams and Goals
• Term 4: Healthy Me
• Term 5: Relationships
• Term 6: Changing Me (including Puberty and Human Reproduction Education)

Please see our PSHE and RSE 2024-25 for coverage and PSHE and RSE Progression of Skills 2024-25 for progression with the Jigsaw PSHE and RSE programme that we follow. Letters will go out to parents and carers before we teach anything that is not compulsory, which will be in the summer term. Our policy can be found on our Federation website.

Following on from our parent consultation, we have put together some possible questions that you may have, along with any resources you may want to look at. These can be found in the PSHE and RSE coverge document. If you would like to request any of the resources, please contact the school and we can see what we can provide.