We have revised our Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education (PSHE) curriculum to ensure that its meets the needs of all our unique learners. Topics within it cover the core learning that all Oaklands pupils need to be self aware, safe and engaged, and for Willow children it forms their core curriculum, alongside communication and early Maths and reading. In Cherry and Chestnut classes PSHE, communication and reading will be taught alongside more formal Maths and some subject-specific learning related to half termly topics. 

We have used Department for Education guidance, the PSHE Association and other high quality frameworks to define our Oaklands PSHE curriculum.

PSHE topics are:

We know that having healthy safe relationships in the real and online worlds can be even more challenging for Oaklands’ children for many reasons. However we also know that they have a lot of offer to the world and a right to experience friendship, love, work and other relationships that their mainstream peers might take for granted. Our special children are in relationships with trusted adults and peers every day that give multiple opportunities to develop tolerance of others, resilience, social skills and to learn tools for social safety such as consent, public & private, and who is a safe helper.

Within PSHE falls Relationships & Sex Education (RSE) and the government have made this statutory, meaning all pupils must have access to information about how to have healthy & safe relationships. At Primary age, there is no sex education element of RSE and therefore no child can be excused from RSE by parental request. The Department for Education recognises that “Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. (RSE Statutory guidance 2019)”.

The mass media can present young people with very unrealistic ideas about relationships and the frequent use of ‘friend’ on social media can be confusing for our pupils. Understanding different types of ‘friend’ and the steps to healthy relationships and increasing intimacy/ privacy is vital for our children if they are to independently protect themselves from abusive behaviour. For this reason we are a SoSafe! School.

SoSafe! is designed for use with SEND learners and is a very clear rules-based approach to social safety. It uses a standardised framework of symbols, visual teaching tools and concepts to teach strategies for moving into intimate relationships in a safe and measured manner, and provides visual communication tools for reporting physical or sexual abuse.