At Woodside Academy, we endeavour to equip all children and young people with the skills and knowledge they will need to understand the world and their place in it when they leave. RSHE is woven into all elements of daily life at Woodside to ensure that our children and young people develop a solid understanding of themselves both emotionally and physically. We strive to build resilience so that they know how to overcome any obstacles and challenges they may face in the wider world. In line with our values, we want our children and young people to be honest, kind, respectful, independent and positive members of the community who are clear about who they can trust. We know that for each pupil this is different and tailor our teaching to the needs of each individual pupil. We want our children and young people to be as independent as they can be; managing their own emotions and having positive relationships with others. At Woodside Academy, we create a safe environment where children and young people are able to ask questions and differing opinions are respected.

There are Zones of Regulation displays in every classroom for children to check in at. These are, again, tailored to the needs of the children in each class with limited zones or emotions shown in the younger classes. These give children an opportunity to express their emotions without needing to verbally communicate them. Some classes make this check-in part of their daily routine so that staff can be aware if a child is coming into school in the yellow zone, for example, they can then support them before any behaviour escalates.

There are displays dotted around the school to remind children of the things they may have learnt linked to RSHE. For example, all departments have an NSPCC PANTS display to remind the children and young people what is private and who is available to help them if they feel unsafe. We have used resources from the NSPCC Speak Out Stay Safe programme to ensure that the same language is used across the school. We use work that has been completed during focus weeks, such as friendship week, to show the children that this work is valued and it can be used as a reminder for the right thing to do if there have been issues at playtime. Each class has a safe circle to show who the children can go to if they are experiencing a problem. 

We introduced the RSHE tracker in September 2021 based around the PSHE Association planning framework for pupils with SEND. The aim of this is to allow us to track the progress of children throughout their time at Woodside Academy. We are also able to monitor any gaps of learning in the tracker and they can be added to medium term plans. It will also be a helpful tool when handing over to the pupil’s next teacher.

PLPs are used to ensure that individual children have personalised areas that they are working towards. These areas are linked to their EHCPs and also draws upon knowledge of the child from both staff and parents.

The school uses Wellbeing Plans to ensure staff have a good understanding of each pupil and these also identify how to maintain a positive relationship with each child, these are also linked to the EHCPs and knowledge of the child. The Wellbeing Plans are shared with parents, allowing them to make additions and is a live, working document.

Each half term, the RSHE focus for the whole school will be the same section from this framework: self-awareness, self-care, support and safety, managing feelings, changing and growing, healthy lifestyles and the world I live in. The framework ensures that although learning will be recapped, the children will be at a different stage in their learning. There are 6 progressive stages:

The trackers will be used to directly inform planning and fill any gaps on an individual, personalised basis.

In each class from Upper Key Stage 2, there are anonymous question boxes where children and young people are able to write a question they want to know the answer to without having to ask in front of the class. The teacher has the opportunity to answer the question appropriately and address the issue as a class.

In each class from Key Stage 2, there are sets of guidelines for how children should participate effectively in their RSHE lessons to ensure all views are respected. For example, these include not including names when discussing friendship issues.

The progress we would like to see in RSHE for the Discovery and Explorer assessment routes can be found here.