PSHE, RSE and Careers

At Belgrave School our curriculum aims to provide a flourishing, empathetic and challenging community, which is promoted within our PSHE/RSE curriculum and is designed with the specific needs of our learners at the forefront. We believe that the subject has a key part to play in the personal, social, moral and spiritual development of our young learners.

Here at Belgrave, our learners receive one lesson a week which is taught by our PSHE teacher who delivers an adapted and personalised curriculum using the Jigsaw Programme as its basis. Lessons are based around 6 topics which, in general, are taught across the 6 terms. Each class follow the same format and builds upon the previous years’ material. As PSHE is now an assessed subject, our ‘Summary Lessons’ are devised to assist learners in recalling information learnt within a topic and designed to meet their specific needs. This may be through a poster, role play, wordsearch or Powerpoint presentation.

Learners are taught and continually encouraged to respect other people, with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010. Learners study a variety of topics, which develop necessary skills and attributes, including self-esteem, resilience, risk management and teamwork.

Lessons encourage all learners to contribute to class discussions, allowing them to develop their confidence in expressing their feelings, thoughts and opinions in an open and safe environment, and to develop empathy towards others in society. We encourage our learners to be inquisitive and to feel that they can ask any questions or discuss any issue, even those which may not directly be within the content of our curriculum.

We, therefore understand that PSHE lessons need to be fluid when dealing with topical situations in the lives of our learners, and current affairs that may affect them. We will not hesitate to change the content of lessons should the need arise, for example if a learner has lost a parent, we will be sensitive when discussing families. If situations arise in the playground and a learner uses discriminatory language, we will use our PSHE lessons to educate learners around this topic. We actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

The topics covered in each class are:

Term 1 – Being Me in My World

Term 2 – Celebrating Difference

Term 3 – Healthy Me

Term 4 – Relationships

Term 5 – Changing Me

Term 6 – Dreams & Goals

At Belgrave School we also work closely with our local Community Police and regularly invite them to the school to deliver educational workshops to our learners on various topics, including those that link to real events within our local community. We also deliver extra sessions outside the main PSHE/RSE curriculum to educate our learners about puberty and staying safe while in relationships.