Why do we teach Personal Social and Health Education and Relationships and Health Education? 

PHSE stands for Personal, Social and Health Education.  Under the umbrella of PHSE we also teach Relationship and Health Education (RHE).  Both are compulsory subjects and enable us to support children morally, socially and culturally and physically.  

At Westcliff we do PHSE because it supports our children in becoming successful and happy adults who will make a meaningful contribution to society.  

 

How do we deliver PHSE and RHE? 

We have carefully selected a scheme of work (called Jigsaw) because not only does it support our children in navigating some tricky issues but it also promotes mindfulness, encouraging children to focus on the present moment and accept their feelings and thoughts.  We think, as parents, you will agree that by integrating mindfulness into the school curriculum we can arm our children with lifelong skills that support their current and future mental health and wellbeing. 

There were big changes to the PHSE in September 2020 with the introduction of Relationships and Health Education.  A big part of this was to ensure that children were exposed to a health education and exploring different relationships and family dynamics.  At Westcliff our PHSE (including RHE) curriculum involves the children discussing and finding out about:

 

  • Basic first aid

  • Being safe

  • Caring friendships

  • Changing adolescent body

  • Drugs, alcohol and tobacco

  • Family and people who care about them

  • Health and prevention

  • Health eating

  • Internet safety and harms

  • Online relationships

  • Physical health and fitness

  • Respectful relationships

 

Clearly, these topics are not only covered in PHSE and RHE. There are overlaps with many other subjects, including science, PE and RE and we feel that this emphasises how vital we feel it is to promote learning around these areas in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of our children. 

 

Below is a link to the policy for PHSE and RHE which outlines our curriculum in further detail:

Policy for Relationship and Health Education (RHE)

 

Through the Jigsaw Scheme of Learning, teachers will provide learning opportunities for the pupils in their class in the following areas over the course of the academic year:

  1. Being Me 

  2. Celebrating Difference

  3. Dreams and Goals

  4. Healthy Me

  5. Relationships

  6. Changing Me