Welcome to Personal, Social, Health and Emotional Education (PSHE)

Teaching Personal, Social, Health and Emotional Education (PSHE) is a fundamental and statutory element of the curriculum.

At Ark Castledown we know that the key to being a well-rounded member of society is being able to form effective and fulfilling relationships. We recognise that mental health and its management is becoming a key issue in today’s society. All children will have the opportunity to learn to manage emotions and stress in safe and positive way through the teaching of practical strategies.  Children will leave us with the knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and skills they need to reach their potential as individuals and within the community. 

PSHE will be taught using the Life Lessons Scheme that enables pupils to build on their prior learning by revisiting themes to further develop knowledge, values and skills in an age and stage-appropriate manner.  Some themes are repeated as children move through the school to enable a deeper exploration of the related issues.

They are:   

Understanding Myself 

• Wellbeing 
• My body and me 
• Healthy Choices 

Self with others 

• Healthy Relationships 

Self within the world 

• Identity and Community 
• Digital Lives 
• Aspiration and Money 

The vast majority of PSHE is compulsory. There is no right to withdraw from Relationships Education or Health Education.

Parents and carers are only able to request that their child is excused from Sex Education, taught outside of the national curriculum for science. If a parent wishes their child to be excused from some or all of the non-statutory Sex Education, they should discuss this with the Head of School, making clear which aspects of the programme they do not wish their child to participate in. The Head of School will outline to parents/carers the benefits of receiving this important education and any detrimental effects that withdrawal might have on the child. This could include any social and emotional effects of being excluded as well as the likelihood of the child hearing their peers’ version of what was said in the classes rather than what was directly said by the teacher (although detrimental effects may be mitigated if the parents/carers propose to deliver sex education to their child at home instead).

Once a decision has been made, parents/carers must inform the school in writing stating their reasons as to why they would like their child withdrawn. Once these discussions have taken place, except in exceptional circumstances, our school will respect a parent/carers’ request to have their child excused from non-statutory sex education. The school will document this process. 

Parent Consultation

We are currently undergoing our parent consultation (that will end on 30th September) we invite parents and carers to complete the feedback survey here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=dBTLADSljUaCn2NuzjLCTPb85FfxeFVKuX-lR-3U1LNURU9WTk02VENEU1QwR0ZSMUw5NEdRSEpaMy4u

Following this we will invite parents to a further information sharing workshops in October along with share our consultation feedback of 2025.  In this session our PSHE lead will talk through our proposed PSHE Policy, our approach to teaching and the curriculum content to be delivered to our pupils.

All Reception subjects 

All Year 1 subjects 

All Year 2 subjects 

All Year 3 subjects 

All Year 4 subjects

All Year 5 subjects 

All Year 6 subjects