Rationale

At Holy Trinity School, PSHE is a key curriculum subject that equips pupils with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy, safe, resilient and prepared for the challenges of life. Through explicit teaching and wider school experiences, pupils develop confidence, emotional literacy, critical thinking and interpersonal skills required to form healthy relationships and flourish as responsible, socially aware citizens.

Our PSHE curriculum promotes the values of equality, respect, dignity and inclusion, reflecting both our Christian ethos and UK law, including the Equality Act (2010). We believe that high‑quality PSHE, taught through a carefully sequenced and evidence‑based programme, positively influences both academic and non‑academic outcomes. It supports pupils’ wellbeing, self‑belief, behaviour, attitudes to learning and long‑term personal development.

Intent

At Holy Trinity School, PSHE supports children’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual growth within a safe, nurturing environment. As pupils progress through school, the curriculum enables them to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings and behaviour, build resilience and self‑esteem, and develop the skills to form healthy and respectful relationships.
 

We use the Kapow Primary PSHE/RSE curriculum, which provides a structured, spiralling, whole‑school approach covering:
 

• Families and Relationships
• Health and Wellbeing
• Safety and the Changing Body
• Citizenship
• Economic Wellbeing
• Identity (Year 6 only)

This organisation ensures pupils revisit themes regularly, deepening their understanding as they mature, fully meeting statutory Relationships Education and Health Education requirements and supporting the delivery of our school’s RSE Policy (October 2025).

We promote the British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of others across the curriculum, including PSHE and RE, ensuring they are embedded in everyday school life.

Our curriculum is also designed to support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development by enabling them to reflect on moral choices, respect diversity, consider different viewpoints and understand their responsibilities within their community.

PSHE contributes to our whole‑school focus on:
 

• Ethos and environment
• Curriculum, teaching and learning
• Pupil voice
• Staff development and wellbeing
• Identifying need and monitoring impact
• Working with parents and carers
• Targeted support
• Leadership and management
   

These priorities reflect the whole‑school approach recommended by Public Health England’s Promoting children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing (2015).

Implementation

PSHE is taught weekly in every class and enhanced through assemblies, themed weeks, school projects, community links and wider pastoral work.

Using Kapow’s high‑quality, carefully sequenced lesson plans, teachers deliver a progression of learning that is age‑appropriate, inclusive, safe and fully aligned with the statutory 2025/26 RSE guidance.

Lessons include a wide range of teaching approaches: discussions, scenarios, stories, debates, role‑play, problem solving and reflection. Visuals, vocabulary lists and scaffolds ensure SEND pupils can fully access learning. Cross‑curricular links are also used to enrich PSHE learning. At Holy Trinity, we aim to incorporate PSHE into the following subjects:

• Science – body changes, puberty, growth and reproduction
• Computing – online safety, digital resilience and responsible communication
• Geography – community roles, sustainability, local environment
• PE – physical health, fitness and links to mental wellbeing

PSHE is taught both explicitly (through timetabled lessons) and implicitly through:
Assembly themes

• Behaviourial expectations
• Restorative conversations
• Anti‑bullying initiatives
• Pupil leadership groups (School Council, Eco Warriors, Worship Team)

Assessment and Evidence

Assessment in this subject is ongoing and based upon:

• Pupil voice
• Teacher observations
• Class discussions
• Quizzes or task outcomes
• Floorbooks, which capture whole‑class learning, key vocabulary, reflections, photographs, pupil ideas and recorded dialogue

Floorbooks provide rich evidence of progression, whole‑class engagement and children’s personal development. They demonstrate building knowledge over time, retrieval of prior learning, children’s reflections and responses, and vocabulary development.

Leaders monitor coverage, sequencing and impact through:

• Floorbook reviews
• Lesson visits
• Staff feedback
• Pupil voice

This ensures consistency, quality and alignment with Ofsted’s expectations for an ambitious, well‑sequenced PSHE curriculum.

Impact

By the end of their time at Holy Trinity, pupils will:

• Be confident, self‑aware and ready for secondary school
• Understand how to maintain their physical and mental wellbeing
• Recognise healthy and unhealthy relationships
• Know how to stay safe, online and in the wider world
• Demonstrate empathy, respect, compassion and moral awareness
• Show resilience, independence and problem‑solving skills
• Value diversity, equality and inclusion
• Understand they have a voice and feel empowered to use it

Our pupils leave at the end of Year 6 with the knowledge, values and character needed to flourish academically, socially and spiritually, and to contribute positively to their communities.

Holy Trinity - SEND PSHE Adaptations

At Holy Trinity, we ensure all children can access PSHE by providing clear structures, visual support, and personalised approaches that reflect our inclusive Christian ethos and our commitment to meaningful participation for every learner. These adaptations help pupils understand sensitive concepts, express themselves with confidence, and engage fully in discussions and reflection. They also align with our whole‑school expectations for vocabulary development, scaffolded learning, and the use of floorbooks to capture shared understanding.

• Make Concepts Visual: Use symbols, storyboards, pictures, puppets or props to make abstract PSHE ideas clear and concrete.
• Support Vocabulary: Pre‑teach key PSHE language, provide vocabulary mats and visual definitions, and revisit these words through floorbook reflections.
• Scaffold Discussion: Offer emotion cards, sentence starters, talking frames or structured choices to support children in expressing feelings and opinions.
• Use Stories & Role Play: Teach concepts through simple stories, social narratives and step‑by‑step modelled scenarios, using puppets or acted examples where helpful.
• Chunk Tasks: Break learning into manageable steps using Now–Next–Then boards, clear visual sequences and short, structured activities.
• Emotional Regulation: Provide access to familiar safe spaces and calming strategies, use break cards where needed, and prepare pupils for sensitive or potentially challenging lesson content.
• Alternative Recording: Capture learning through drawing, photographs, scribed pupil voice, sorting tasks or matching activities rather than expecting written outcomes.
• Personalised Scenarios: Use simplified and relatable examples linked to real school experiences, routines and relationships within the Holy Trinity community.
• TA Partnership: Ensure TAs and teachers share a consistent approach, with clear roles that prioritise prompting, modelling and independence rather than over‑support.
• Retrieval Support: Reinforce learning through visuals, recap routines, emotion prompts and the use of PSHE floorbooks to help pupils revisit and build on previous discussions