Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) and Mental Health

At Greenhill Primary School, PSHE is an important part of how we prepare children for life. Our aim is to develop happy, healthy, confident and resilient children who understand themselves and others, know how to build positive relationships, make informed choices and contribute positively to their school, local community and wider society.

PSHE supports our wider commitment to belonging. We want children to understand who they are, recognise their own strengths, respect difference and develop the skills they need to form healthy relationships and participate positively in their communities.

Our PSHE provision brings together Jigsaw PSHE, MyHappymind and our Purple Mash online safety curriculum. Together, these provide a progressive approach to relationships, physical and mental health, wellbeing, personal development and keeping safe, including in the digital world.

Jigsaw PSHE

Jigsaw is our main scheme for the teaching of PSHE and Relationships Education. It provides a whole-school, progressive approach, with learning revisited and developed as children move through school.

Jigsaw is organised into six half-termly units, known as Puzzles:

Being Me in My World – helping children understand themselves, their place within their class, school and wider community, and their rights and responsibilities.
Celebrating Difference – developing respect for difference, understanding individuality, challenging stereotypes and learning how to respond to bullying.
Dreams and Goals – developing aspirations, resilience, motivation, teamwork and the ability to set and work towards goals.
Healthy Me – learning about physical and mental health, making healthy choices, keeping safe and understanding how our choices can affect our wellbeing.
Relationships – exploring families, friendships and other relationships, including how to build and maintain healthy relationships, recognise when something is not right, resolve difficulties and seek help.
Changing Me – understanding change as a natural part of life, including growing up, changes to our bodies, puberty and, at an age-appropriate stage, aspects of human reproduction.

Through these Puzzles, children revisit important concepts at increasing levels of depth and maturity. This helps them build knowledge over time rather than experiencing PSHE as a series of isolated topics.

Mental health and wellbeing

Alongside Jigsaw, we use myHappymind to strengthen children's understanding of their own mental health and wellbeing.

The programme introduces children to five areas: Meet Your Brain, Celebrate, Appreciate, Relate and Engage. Children learn how their brain works and how this connects to emotions and behaviour; identify and celebrate their individual character strengths; develop gratitude and positive habits; understand the importance of positive relationships; and learn how to set meaningful goals and remain resilient when things are difficult.

This supports our aim for children to increasingly recognise and regulate their emotions, understand themselves and develop strategies that they can use independently when they encounter challenge.

Online safety

Learning how to keep safe and behave responsibly online is an essential part of preparing children for modern life.

Our Purple Mash online safety curriculum provides age-appropriate learning from Reception to Year 6 in a sequence curriculum in each year group across the school year. Children explore areas including privacy and security, online relationships, cyberbullying, misinformation, digital wellbeing and making safe and responsible choices online.

Online safety is not treated as a one-off lesson or event. Messages about keeping safe, respectful relationships, appropriate boundaries and seeking help are reinforced through PSHE, Computing, safeguarding and wider school life.

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)

Relationships Education is an important part of our PSHE curriculum. Our aim is to give children accurate, age-appropriate knowledge while developing the confidence, vocabulary and skills they need to keep themselves safe and build healthy relationships.

There are four main aims to our teaching of RSE:

to enable children to understand and respect their bodies;
to help children develop positive and healthy relationships appropriate to their age and development;
to support children to develop positive self-esteem and body image; and
to empower children to keep themselves safe and know how to seek help when they need it.

RSE is developed progressively through Jigsaw, particularly within the Relationships and Changing Me Puzzles. Learning builds carefully from children understanding themselves, their families and their bodies to preparing them for puberty and, as they reach the later primary years, developing an age-appropriate understanding of human reproduction.

What children learn in each year group

Reception

Children begin with themselves and their own experiences of growing and changing. They explore their bodies, how they have changed since they were babies, growing up and how they feel about change. They learn to value and respect their own bodies and begin to develop the vocabulary and confidence needed to talk about themselves and their feelings.

Year 1

Children learn about life cycles and consider how they themselves have changed since they were babies. They learn that growing up is a natural process and that people grow and change at different rates.

Children learn the correct terminology for parts of the body, including private body parts, and develop an understanding that parts of their body are private. Learning also helps children understand and manage feelings associated with change.

Year 2

Children build on their understanding of life cycles and growing from young to old. They revisit the physical differences between boys and girls and the correct terminology for body parts.

There is an increased focus on privacy, personal boundaries and assertiveness. Children learn that some parts of the body are private, develop confidence in expressing when they are uncomfortable and consider how to respond to situations that do not feel right.

Year 3

Children begin to explore in greater depth how humans grow and change. They learn how babies grow and develop and consider what babies need in order to grow.

Children are introduced to the physical changes that occur as boys and girls grow older and begin to develop an age-appropriate understanding of puberty. They also consider personal hygiene, changing responsibilities and stereotypes associated with families and gender.

Year 4

Learning develops into a clearer understanding of the physical changes associated with puberty. Children learn about internal and external reproductive body parts and the changes that happen as children begin to become young adults.

Girls' puberty and menstruation are taught explicitly so that children understand menstruation as a normal part of growing up. Children explore physical and emotional change and develop strategies for managing change positively.

Year 5

Children learn about puberty in greater depth, including the physical and emotional changes experienced by both boys and girls. Learning supports children in understanding their changing bodies, developing positive body image and preparing confidently for adolescence.

Children are also introduced to conception in an age-appropriate way, building on their previous learning about bodies, puberty and reproduction.

Year 6

Children consolidate and extend their understanding of puberty, including the physical and emotional changes that take place as they move towards adolescence.

Their learning about human reproduction develops to include an age-appropriate understanding of conception, pregnancy and the development of a baby through to birth. Children also explore changing relationships and feelings, self-image and the transition towards greater independence and secondary school.

A carefully sequenced approach

The progression through Jigsaw is deliberate. Children are not presented with information in isolation or before they are ready for it. Each year builds on previous learning, using appropriate language and increasing the level of detail as children's understanding and maturity develop.

Correct terminology for body parts is introduced from an early age. This is taught sensitively alongside learning about privacy, personal boundaries and safeguarding so that children have the vocabulary and confidence to communicate clearly if they are worried or need help.

We recognise that RSE can involve sensitive subjects. Lessons are taught within a safe and respectful classroom environment, with clear expectations around discussion and appropriate opportunities for children to ask questions. Staff use their knowledge of their pupils when planning and delivering learning, including considering additional needs and making appropriate adaptations where necessary.

Working with parents and carers

We recognise parents and carers as important partners in children's PSHE and RSE education. We want families to understand what children are learning, why it is being taught and how learning develops as children move through school.

We are committed to being open and transparent about our RSE curriculum and to providing parents and carers with information about the content being taught. Where appropriate, we will provide opportunities for families to understand curriculum materials and support conversations at home.

Our aim is for children to experience consistent messages between home and school and to know that growing up, relationships, health and wellbeing are subjects that can be discussed openly, sensitively and safely.

Ultimately, our PSHE and RSE curriculum is about equipping children for life. We want children to leave Greenhill knowing themselves, valuing others, understanding how to keep themselves safe and healthy, and having the confidence, resilience and sense of responsibility they need to build positive relationships and play an active part in their community and wider society.

A Parent's Guide to RHSE in Primary Schools Family Knowledge Organisers for Changing Me Jigsaw Knowledge Content Overview