Personal, Social, Health Education & Citizenship

At the Ridgeway School, the PSHE & C curriculum underpins the whole ethos of The Ridgeway School and is incorporated in all curriculum subjects. PSHE & C, including Relationship Education is taught throughout the school. Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) is taught with parental permission from 16-19 years old if appropriate. Citizenship is a statutory requirement for Key Stage 3 and 4 and is delivered through the PSHE & C curriculum. The curriculum takes into account pupils’ age, stage and learning styles.

Through the PSHE & C curriculum and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) aspects of learning, including British Values we aim to support the development of the skills, attitudes, values and patterns of behaviour to live a healthy, safe, fulfilling and responsible life within a community.

The curriculum builds on the PSHE Associations 3 core areas of PSHE & C education:  Health and Wellbeing, Living in the Wider World and Relationships. The school’s PSHE & C linear milestones make up the curriculum with key skill descriptions and examples of suggested activities. The curriculum is broad and provides opportunities to develop pupils’ ability and understanding in the following areas: independence, attention, health (physical and mental), wellbeing, safety, medicine, drugs and alcohol, money, Citizenship and Relationship and Sex Education.

We have just completed a whole school trialling of the Zippy’s Friends programme which teaches resilience, good solutions to help in difficult situations and social skills. It is taught alongside other areas of PSHE & C curriculum linked to individual and class learning needs and following a review with all staff has been adopted a as a valuable addition to our ‘toolkit’. Alongside Zippy's Friends, the PSHE & C strands curriculum and RSE we are also supporting resilience through the Resilience Doughnut. The Resilience Doughnut looks at the factors which enable a person to be resilient, looks for the 3 strongest factors in children's lives and focuses on developing them.

A broad range of adapted Equals topic based schemes of work are available for staff to use if required to inform more personalised planning and teaching.

The PSHE & C curriculum provides opportunities to develop Engagement (deeper learning) and Thinking Skills (independent learning).

PSHE & C is part of the Creative Arts Faculty which holds a focus week annually. Other whole school PSHE & C events include raising money for charities through mufti days and sponsored activities, Student Council, CAMHS Feeling Good days and assemblies.

An open evening with the PSHE subject leader and learning disability nurse is held annually for parents of pupils in Key Stage 3 and above to share the schools approach to RSE and allow opportunities for sharing concerns, experiences, ideas and information.

Assessment of PSHE & C at Ridgeway is achieved through our online Assessment tool: COMPAS, which records the pupil’s Linear Milestones, Thinking Skills, (depth of learning measure) and Engagement Steps.

View full PSHE & C Curriculum Statement PDF document.