At Cromwell Academy, we understand that pupils need to lead confident, healthy lives to become informed, active, and responsible citizens. PSHE is taught in the context of relationships and promotes self-esteem and emotional health and well-being to help children form healthy meaningful relationships, based on respect for themselves and for others. The pupils' development of PSHE is spread across the entire curriculum, however, distinct PSHE lessons are taught using the Kapow programme. All of our resources are adapted and personalised where needed. 

Each half-term there is a different unit of learning. The children visit the same units each year when learning is revisited and developed. The units are as follows:

Kapow Primary’s RSE and PSHE scheme of work has been designed as a spiral curriculum with the following key principles in mind:

✓ Cyclical: Pupils revisit the five key areas throughout KS1 and KS2.

✓ Increasing depth: Each time a key area is revisited, it is covered with greater depth and increasing maturity.

✓ Prior knowledge: Upon returning to each key area, prior knowledge is utilised, so pupils can build on previous foundations, rather than starting again.

What about sex education?

Sex education is not compulsory in primary schools, beyond what is laid out in the National Curriculum for Science:

Year 1: Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense.

Year 2: Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults

Year 5: Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals; describe the changes as humans develop to old age [They should learn about the changes experienced in puberty.]

The Kapow Primary scheme of work includes two Year 6 lessons which parents have the opportunity to withdraw their children from all/part of the lesson: Safety and the changing body: Lesson 5: Conception and Lesson 6: Pregnancy and birth.

Parents will be informed about the content of these lessons prior to teaching them, to provide them time to consider the content and to withdraw their child if they so wish.

Does my child learn about LGBTQ+ Relationships?

 Relationships Education should ensure that the needs of all pupils are appropriately met, and that all pupils understand the importance of equality and respect. Schools must ensure that they comply with the relevant provisions of the Equality Act 2010 under which sexual orientation and gender reassignment are amongst the protected characteristics. In addition, since November 2014 all schools have been expected to actively promote the fundamental British values and our PSHE and RSE curriculum supports the promotion of these values. Promoting respect for people of diverse and sometimes unfamiliar backgrounds is nothing new and Ofsted states that:

‘All primary and secondary schools…should be able to demonstrate that no form of discrimination is tolerated and that pupils show respect for those who share the protected characteristics. Schools will not be able to demonstrate this by pointing to a general policy of encouraging respect for all people.’

Representations of all groups of people with protected characteristics are fully integrated into the programme of study used at Cromwell Academy. We ensure that our lessons are sensitive and age-appropriate in approach and content. Whilst we do not explicitly teach any lessons about LGBTQ+ representations, such as families with same-sex parents, these are depicted in representations such as stories, photographs, and videos. These lessons may lead to further discussions of topics related to LGBTQ+ which we would support in an age-appropriate way. This helps children understand what prejudice and discrimination are and why they are wrong. It also aims to develop the British Value ‘To respect and appreciate diversity and understand that everybody has different views and beliefs.’