PSHE
Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education
Subject Leader - Colette Nicholson
At St Francis CE Primary School, we believe that high-quality PSHE lessons are fundamental to our children’s development as confident, healthy and thoughtful members of our school community and the wider world.
We follow the Jigsaw scheme of work, which offers a mindful approach for supporting children’s personal development, health, happiness and understanding of relationships. Our PSHE curriculum includes age-appropriate aspects of economic education, preparing children to understand spending, saving and the world of work, and citizenship education including British Values, helping children understand their rights, responsibilities and role in society. From the moment children join our school, they also begin to explore emotional literacy, learning to recognise, name and talk about feelings. This foundation grows year by year, helping pupils to manage emotions, develop resilience, and make informed decisions that support their own and others’ wellbeing.
From Early Years to Year Six, Jigsaw PSHE is structured around six core ideas, with one studied each term: Being Me in My World, Celebrating Difference, Dreams and Goals, Healthy Me, Relationships and Changing Me.
In each lesson we are committed to supporting the development of the whole child, providing children with a safe, inclusive environment where they feel valued and able to express themselves. This approach to PSHE aligns with our school values of Courage, Integrity and Love and forms an important strand of our school vision of ‘Living Life to the Fullest’ (John 10:10b). We believe that our PSHE curriculum plays an integral role in helping us to equip children with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to flourish both in school and throughout their lives.
Sex and Relationship Education
We are required by law to teach Relationships Education and Health Education to all primary-aged pupils. We deliver these statutory subjects within our broader PSHE programme. Where we teach about human reproduction (sex education), we do so in line with the principles and approach of the 2025 Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance, in which sex education itself remains non-statutory (but recommended) in primary schools.
