PSHE & RSHE

PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) and RSHE (Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education) are taught as part of our Personal Development curriculum offer. 

RSHE has been a compulsory part of school life since September 2020.  The Department for Education has mandated the teaching of Relationships, Sex Education and Health Education in Secondary Schools.  The statutory guidance regarding the teaching of these topics can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-social-health-and-economic-education-pshe.

 As part of this process of RSHE being implemented across schools in the UK, each school is required to develop and consult upon a policy with regards to how the subject will be taught.  Parents, Students and Staff have been consulted upon the policy, which can be found here: Relationships and Sex Education Policy

Purpose - Why do your students study Personal Development?

BSCA students study Personal Development in order to ensure that:

• Students have opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage their lives, now and in the future.
• Students are provided with knowledge and skills that enable them to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society.
• Students are given opportunities to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse and multicultural society.

Curriculum Vision - What will Personal Development Strive to Offer BSCA Students?

Personal Development at BSCA will provide pupils with a suitable skill set so they are able to make safe and informed decisions about their life both now and into the future.

It will be delivered in an inclusive manner, considering the age-appropriate nature of material while being sensitive towards the needs of our students.

Personal Development will develop student’s resilience, well-being and character, whilst promoting their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. BSCA students will develop into well rounded individuals who will be able to tackle any of life’s challenges and achieve their excellence.

Our Curriculum

Personal Development develops a suitable skillset for all of our students — like teamwork, communication, and resilience - their character and well-being whilst promoting their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development to prepare them for the experiences, opportunities and responsibilities of later life so they can make safe and informed decisions.

“Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline.  This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way” (Foreword by the Secretary of State 2020).

These skills taught in Personal Development combined with the values that we have at BSCA will develop our students into well - rounded individuals who will be able to tackle any of life’s challenges and achieve their maximum potential.

When Personal Development was first launched as a subject at BSCA, we used the Jigsaw PSHE programme as our Personal Development curriculum.

As we have reviewed the effectiveness of the curriculum, and to ensure that we offer the best possible teaching to our students, we have 'relaunched' the Personal Development curriculum this year, using the key knowledge, concepts and discussion points of the Jigsaw curriculum to support and ensure we continue to deliver the statutory content in lessons.

Students will continue to engage with a spiral curriculum of four topics across school from Years 7 to 10.  Each year that a student studies Personal Development sees them undertake deeper and broader learning within a topic.

Each topic sees students study a number of core concepts aligned to the original Jigsaw curriculum as listed below:  

Students will now undertake a carousel of nine lessons under each topic, delivered by teachers who are dedicated to teaching that specific topic each time.  This will enable our teachers to use their expert knowledge on how to teach specific Personal Development concepts more effectively.

Personal Development will now be delivered in a dedicated 50 minute lesson after lunch-time on a Wednesday afternoon, which will see students no longer have learning disrupted by split lunches.

Students will also see additional in-depth learning related topics in our Personal Development curriculum, including from valued external partners during our annual Enrichment Week; this includes annual First Aid training for every student in Years 7 to 9.

As the new updated Personal Development curriculum is built, we will add the medium term learning plans and samples of lessons below.

Keeping Parents Informed 

We will keep parents informed of the curriculum as it continues to be developed through Social Media and the Parental Newsletter.  This will include links to Agencies and Charities with resources on the topics that each year group is studying, information about key events within the Personal Development curriculum and also examples of students work.

You can see these Newsletters below: