Intent

At Woodfield, we believe that PSHE is a fundamentally important area of learning. Our PSHE and RSHE curriculum has been planned to enable children to understand their emotions so they can play an active, positive and successful role in today’s diverse society. We want our children to have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

As an Infant School, our statutory obligations cover:

1. Relationships Education: Compulsory for all primary-aged pupils.
2. Health Education: Compulsory for all primary-aged pupils.

Our curriculum aims to:

• Help children develop a secure sense of self-worth, resilience, and kindness.
• Teach children how to form healthy, respectful friendships both in person and online.
• Empower children to recognize boundaries, use correct anatomical terminology for body parts to enhance safeguarding, and know how to ask for help.
• Provide factually accurate, neutral, and age-appropriate information, entirely free from ideological or political bias.

Our PSHE curriculum develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which will enable children to access the wider curriculum and prepares them to be a global citizen now and in their future roles within their communities. It promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, preparing them for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences for later life. Our RSHE curriculum enables our children to learn how to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.

Implementation

To ensure a robust, carefully sequenced, and age-appropriate curriculum, our school utilises the Kapow Primary RSHE & PSHE scheme of work.  Kapow operates on a spiral curriculum model, meaning key themes are revisited annually with increasing depth and maturity, building directly on prior learning.

In line with the DfE updates mandatory from September 2026, our infant curriculum specifically embeds:

• Safeguarding-Led Terminology: Children are taught the correct, age-appropriate scientific names for body parts, including external genitalia. This is an essential safeguarding mechanism to ensure children can accurately report any inappropriate touch or distress to a trusted adult.
• Expanded Personal Safety: Beyond basic stranger danger, our Kapow units systematically cover fire, water, road, and rail safety in an age-appropriate manner.
• Enhanced Digital Literacy: Early lessons on online safety focus on screen-time boundaries, recognizing when an online game or video makes them feel uncomfortable, and understanding that rules about kindness apply online just as they do in the playground.
• Grief, Loss, and Change: Recognizing that young children experience complex emotions, our curriculum includes gentle frameworks for understanding change, transitions, and loss (including the death of a pet or bereavement).

In EYFS, the foundations of RSHE are met through the Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) prime area of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. Kapow organizes this into three core areas:

• Self-Regulation: Understanding feelings, following instructions, and managing impulses.
• Managing Self: Independence, resilience, basic hygiene, and personal safety.
• Building Relationships: Forming positive attachments, playing cooperatively, and sensitivity to others' needs.

Children in Year 1 and Year 2 cover: My Healthy Self, Connecting with Others, The Online World, Citizenship, Health Protection, Staying Safe and Growing Up, Careers Education and Economic Wellbeing.

How We Teach RSHE

RSHE is taught through our PSHE curriculum using Kapow Primary, which provides:

• Age-appropriate lesson plans and resources
• Progressive learning across year groups
• Clear links to statutory requirements
• Opportunities for assessment

RSHE is also delivered through:

• Cross-curricular links (e.g. science, PE, computing, English)
• Assemblies and collective worship
• Circle time and class discussions
• Responses to current events and issues
• Pastoral support and interventions

PSHE is also linked with our school values and the teaching of our schools ‘Learning Powers’, such as being resilient like Albert the armadillo and learning to co-operate like Sadie the squirrel.  The ‘Learning Powers’ are a fundamental part of our whole school assemblies and school ethos and are incorporated into lessons whenever appropriate. Throughout our PSHE lessons we focus on each learning power and learn how we can use them in and outside of the school environment. As well as our PSHE curriculum we also celebrate special occasions like National Mental Health Day’s and parliament week, to teach children to understand how democracy works and to encourage looking after their own mental health.

The purpose of the PSHE and RSHE curriculum at Woodfield Infant School is to equip children with the necessary skills to enable them to become responsible citizens who are able to establish and sustain meaningful and positive relationships with others. The key areas of mental and physical health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world, ensure that the children have the opportunity to learn the essential life skills required in order to lead a happy and healthy life.  It also provides an opportunity for children to grasp a basic understanding of economics, including ways to manage money.

Safeguarding is an integral part of the PSHE curriculum and we encourage children to have the confidence to express their thoughts and feelings through open and honest discussion and to share any concerns they may have within a supportive environment. In order to do this, children need to have a sufficiently developed vocabulary to enable them to share their opinions and describe personal experiences with accuracy and using appropriate terminology therefore, we endeavour to teach the children a rich vocabulary across all subject areas.

SEND and disadvantaged children will have full access to the curriculum which fits in with our school ethos.  We recognise at times; pupils require additional support to access the curriculum.  This is supported through additional questioning, prior teaching of new vocabulary and adult support in discussions to develop knowledge and understanding. 

Impact

By the time our children leave Woodfield Infants School they will:

• be on their way to becoming healthy, open minded, respectful, socially and morally responsible, active members of society
• appreciate difference and diversity
• begin to understand and manage their emotions
• begin to look after their mental health and well-being
• develop positive, healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future
• build respect for themselves and others
• continue to develop a positive self esteem