Intent
At Market Drayton Infant and Nursery School, we believe that PSHE is a fundamentally important area of learning. Our PSHE and RSHE curriculum has been planned to enable children to understand their emotions so they can play an active, positive and successful role in today’s diverse society. We want our children to have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.
As an Infant School, our statutory obligations cover:
- Relationships Education: Compulsory for all primary-aged pupils.
- Health Education: Compulsory for all primary-aged pupils.
Our curriculum aims to:
- Help children develop a secure sense of self-worth, resilience, and kindness.
- Teach children how to form healthy, respectful friendships both in person and online.
- Empower children to recognise boundaries, use correct anatomical terminology for body parts to enhance safeguarding, and know how to ask for help.
- Provide factually accurate, neutral, and age-appropriate information, entirely free from ideological or political bias.
Our PSHE curriculum develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which will enable children to access the wider curriculum and prepares them to be a global citizen now and in their future roles within their communities. It promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, preparing them for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences for later life. Our RSHE curriculum enables our children to learn how to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.
Implementation
To ensure a robust, carefully sequenced, and age-appropriate curriculum, our school utilises the PSHE Association Programme of Study for PSHE education. This curriculum ensures Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education is the school subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills, attributes and agency they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. It helps children and young people to stay healthy and safe, while preparing them to make the most of their lives and careers. PSHE education also helps pupils to achieve their academic potential by removing barriers to learning. The Programme of Study is divided into two main sections: 1. Relationships, Sex and Health Education (which covers the DfE statutory RSHE content) and 2. Economic Wellbeing and Careers Education.
In line with the DfE updates mandatory from September 2026, our infant curriculum specifically embeds:
- Safeguarding-Led Terminology: Children are taught the correct, age-appropriate scientific names for body parts, including external genitalia. This is an essential safeguarding mechanism to ensure children can accurately report any inappropriate touch or distress to a trusted adult.
- Expanded Personal Safety: Beyond basic stranger danger, our Kapow units systematically cover fire, water, road, and rail safety in an age-appropriate manner.
- Enhanced Digital Literacy: Early lessons on online safety focus on screen-time boundaries, recognising when an online game or video makes them feel uncomfortable, and understanding that rules about kindness apply online just as they do in the playground.
In EYFS, the foundations of RSHE are met through the Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) prime area of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. There are sequence lessons which focus on Self-Regulation: Understanding feelings, following instructions, and managing impulses. Managing Self: Independence, resilience, basic hygiene, and personal safety. Building Relationships: Forming positive attachments, playing cooperatively, and sensitivity to others’ needs. Each of these learning experiences build to children meeting the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile.
Children in Year 1 cover:
Making friends: playing and learning together
Mental health and wellbeing
Celebrating me, you and your families
Safety at home
Being healthy
Showing kindness to ourselves and others
Children in Year 2 cover:
Mental health and wellbeing
Keeping safe online
Me, my body and staying safe
Money and work
Safety outside the home
Looking back and moving on
How We Teach RSHE
RSHE is taught through our PSHE curriculum using the planning from the PSHE Association, which provides:
- Age-appropriate lesson plans and resources
- Progressive learning across year groups
- Clear links to statutory requirements
- Opportunities for assessment
RSHE is also delivered through:
- Cross-curricular links (e.g. science, PE, computing, English)
- Assemblies
- Circle time and class discussions
- Responses to current events and issues
- Pastoral support and interventions
- Picture News
PSHE is also linked with our school values and the teaching of our schools ‘Learning Powers’, such as being resilient, collaborating, persevering and questioning. The ‘Learning Powers’ are a fundamental part of our whole school assemblies and school ethos and are incorporated into lessons whenever appropriate. Throughout our PSHE lessons we focus on each learning power and learn how we can use them in and outside of the school environment. As well as our PSHE curriculum we also celebrate special occasions like National Mental Health Day’s and parliament week, to teach children to understand how democracy works and to encourage looking after their own mental health.
The purpose of the PSHE and RSHE curriculum at Market Drayton Infant & Nursery School is to equip children with the necessary skills to enable them to become responsible citizens who are able to establish and sustain meaningful and positive relationships with others. The key areas of mental and physical health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world, ensure that the children can learn the essential life skills required in order to lead a happy and healthy life. It also provides an opportunity for children to grasp a basic understanding of economics, including ways to manage money.
Safeguarding is an integral part of the PSHE curriculum and we encourage children to have the confidence to express their thoughts and feelings through open and honest discussion and to share any concerns they may have within a supportive environment. In order to do this, children need to have a sufficiently developed vocabulary to enable them to share their opinions and describe personal experiences with accuracy and using appropriate terminology therefore, we endeavour to teach the children a rich vocabulary across all subject areas. We ensure that the curriculum is delivered by the teacher to foster the safe and inclusive learning environment needed to discuss and share thoughts within the classroom. We use consistent strategies across the school including the feelings wheel, question box and class characters which ensure a consistent approach to teaching.
SEND and disadvantaged children will have full access to the curriculum which fits in with our school ethos. We recognise at times; pupils require additional support to access the curriculum. This is supported through additional questioning, prior teaching of new vocabulary and adult support in discussions to develop knowledge and understanding.
Impact
By the time our children leave Market Drayton Infant & Nursery School they will:
- be on their way to becoming healthy, open minded, respectful, socially and morally responsible, active members of society
- appreciate difference and diversity
- begin to understand and manage their emotions
- begin to look after their mental health and well-being
- develop positive, healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future
- build respect for themselves and others
- continue to develop a positive self esteem
Here is what we learn in PSHE:
Here is how we progress in PSHE:
Here are some example Knowledge Organisers:
KO – Year 2 Foundations of Wellbeing
KO – The Importance of Hand washing
