Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education at the school is based on Christian values and complements the programme of study for other lessons that aim to help our students develop life skills, promoting and supporting the whole school ethos and policies.

 

A whole school approach is taken in which one PSHCE session is taught once per cycle by form tutors, external agencies and / or speakers. We have some full and half day sessions to teach more delicate material such as relationship and sex education. The themes we cover are citizenship, careers and economics, personal well-being, health, relationships and managing risk. We deliver information sensitively and selectively. 

 

The reason for teaching in themes is to show clear progression in each area from Year 7 to Year 11, as well as full coverage of all key statutory areas.

 

We have scope within the themes to cover topical areas which arise and change over the course of the academic year. Some changes are national alterations include the addition of British Values, changes in the RSE education framework and the recent additions to drug and alcohol education. Staff training is also provided in these areas where necessary and policies can be amended. We have some topics which have been added as a result of local and school data/internal areas which we feel are relevant to our students including the dangers of sunbed use and road safety. Data is obtained from Newcastle JSNA, SHEU (behaviour questionnaire), Public Health Director and What About Youth. Internal data is from surveys and other inputs. This data allows us to compare Sacred Heart with other schools both locally and nationally.  We are also able to compare different year groups to determine which groups may require further input in key areas.

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We also partake in the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire on a biannual basis which is conducted by Healthy schools on behalf of Public Health England, and allows local and national comparison of behaviour trends at Sacred Heart to other schools.

 

We also provide small group intervention targeted at specific students for areas such as careers and managing risk.

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There is a close collaboration between planning and delivery of key topics in PSHCE (such as RSE and Risk Management) between KS4 and 6th form, to ensure a smooth transition that is age appropriate and meets students needs. 

 

The document linked below shows which subjects are covered in each theme for each year group: