Curriculum Intent

At Barnham Broom, our school vision, 'Reach for the Stars - let your light shine! Serving, believing, growing.' permeates through all we do, especially our PSHE and RSE teaching. 

We use the Twinkl Life scheme for discrete PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) lessons and the Norfolk County Council's RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) lessons. 

Our PSHE and RSE lessons cover the full range of topics that children need to learn about to become confident, tolerant, healthy and informed members of society, able to help their community and achieve highly in the future. Our PSHE and RSE lessons covers all aspects of the curriculum in a clear and logical progression building on prior learning and developing knowledge, skills and building deeper understanding.

We also recognise that PSHE  and RSE lessons are just a small part of a school’s role in developing children’s physical, social and mental wellbeing. One of the strengths of being a small school is that all staff know all pupils very well, so we are able to provide both a nurturing and challenging environment for all pupils, whatever their experiences, strengths and challenges. This means PSHE learning is constantly being consolidated and developed throughout the school day, including over lunches and breaktimes. Teaching assistants cover all of these, meaning that the important social skills and relationship building that develops during these times can be developed and supported. Our school takes a restorative approach to behaviour and conflict resolution - see more detail about this in our behaviour policy. There is a real family feel to our school, and children generally love to support and help each other, both their peers and younger children, something that we encourage and support by regularly running mixed age activities, such as our Christmas craft day and older children reading with Class 1. 

We further develop children's PSHE skills and learning through daily Collective Worship, developing both Christian and British values. We also regularly do activities supporting charities and special days, such as Children in Need, Save the Children's Christmas Jumper day and working with RSPCA, to help children develop their knowledge and empathy of different experiences and challenges that other people face. 

For more detail about our school's approach to PSHE, including how we teach RSE, please see our PSHE policy on the policies page. 

Access and Inclusion

At Barnham Broom CofE VA Primary School we recognise the fact that we have pupils of differing ability in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all pupils by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:

• Setting common tasks which are opened ended allowing for a variety of responses

• Providing a range of challenges and a variety of resources

• Using additional adults to support the work of individual pupils or small groups

Please click on the table below to open in a new window, in order to view the full four-page document.

RSE Implementation

RSE will be taught using a range of teaching methodologies including story-telling, drama, discussions, individual private reflection, quizzes, fact finding, value spectrums, debating, independent research and artistic presentations etc. This wide range of teaching strategies promotes engagement by all pupils, irrespective of preferred learning styles. Distancing techniques, such as the use of characters within RSE, avoids pupils feeling under pressure to participate or disclose information beyond that which is appropriate or feels comfortable. This strategy makes RSE more accessible to all pupils, including those who may have experienced unhealthy relationships and/or abuse. The school’s responsibility to safeguard pupils through a curriculum that prepares them to live safely in the modern world will remain central to curriculum content, teaching methodologies and supporting resources.

At Barnham Broom C of E VA Primary School we actively celebrate the diversity of our pupils, their families and the wider whole school community. RSE will always be taught in a non-judgemental, non-biased and fully inclusive manner through clear, impartial, scientific information as well as covering the law. Through consultation, continual assessment and regular reviews of the curriculum, we ensure that we continually recognise and respect pupils’ different abilities, levels of maturity and personal circumstances including gender identity, faith or culture and that of their family, friends and the wider whole school community.

At the end of every lesson, pupils will be provided with an opportunity to ask questions as a class and can also ask anonymous questions through the use of an ‘ask it basket’. Teachers will answer questions as fully as they feel age and stage-appropriate, based on the level of knowledge demonstrated by pupils during the lesson. Teachers may ask a pupil to wait for a response to a question if they need time to consult with a colleague, or the school leadership team, to construct an appropriate answer.

Teachers can refuse to answer a question that they feel is inappropriate. Teachers will not answer personal questions about their own body, personal circumstances or lifestyle choices. If a teacher does not answer a question, the pupil will have the reasons for this decision clearly explained. The teacher will work with the pupil to identify suitable sources of information, where they can safely obtain an answer to their question.

At the end of every lesson, teachers will signpost pupils to information relevant to the topic being taught to ensure safe sources of information, advice and guidance are provided. Teachers will also work closely with the schools' pastoral system to advise of topic coverage. This will ensure the school can be responsive to pupils’ pastoral needs, and safeguarding arrangements can be actioned efficiently if required. If the school has any reason to believe a pupil is at risk of harm, we are required to respond in accordance with the school’s safeguarding policy.

Pupils’ learning will be assessed at the end of every topic. This will ensure that pupils are making sufficient progress building on prior teaching and learning and that teaching strategies and resources remain relevant and effective. Assessment activities will be implicit, forming part of a normal teaching activity to ensure that pupils do not feel under pressure. The evaluation of teaching and learning assessments will be shared with pupils and parents as appropriate.