Priory Infant School

Personal, Social and Health Education

At Priory Infant School we seek to provide a safe, secure learning environment for PSHE that enables children to gain accurate knowledge, develop their own values and attitudes, and develop skills to grow into happy confident successful adults. Our aim is to develop the “whole child”, which includes intellectual, physical, aesthetic and spiritual development. This is the basis of the school’s curriculum, but underlying this is each child’s emotional, moral and social development.

Our PSHE and citizenship curriculum enables children to become healthy, responsible, independent members of society. We purposely adopt a practical and play-based approach to PSHE topics and involve drama and role play as much as possible, believing this to be the best way forward for young children to explore the issues involved. All staff at Priory Infant School are aware of the need to develop these aspects whenever the opportunity arises. We aim to encourage each child to develop as an individual and grow in confidence as they learn to deal with and cope with the more difficult emotional experiences of life. We encourage each child to respect other children and adults and be sensitive to their views even if they differ from their own. We promote the need to consider the thoughts and feelings of others and try to build a good relationship with them. We help each child understand the need for authority and to adhere to rules.

The PSHE curriculum focuses on 3 core strands:

1. Relationships

2. Living in the wider world

3. Health and wellbeing

Our health education is taught discreetly but it is also integrated into topic work. Children are taught about: 

  • Physical health: Keeping healthy, Food and exercise, Hygiene, sleep and sun safety
  • Growing and changing: Knowing what makes you special, naming body parts, life cycles and transitioning
  • Keeping safe: rules, online, emergencies and safety in different environments