PSHE & Citizenship

Welcome to the PSHE & Citizenship page for 2025/26

Our PSHE & Citizenship Curriculum

Our teaching at St Edward’s is driven by the desire for every child to fulfil their potential as a child of God and to establish their place and role within both the local and worldwide community. The delivery of PSHE (Personal Social and Health Education), alongside the broader remit of Citizenship, is woven into all of our teaching and learning experiences. PSHE & Citizenship are not taught in isolation. Our intention is for the broader themes to be woven into all of the work we do as a Catholic school. In this way, the children are encouraged to become responsible and respectful citizens with a conscience to better our God-given world.

In addition, all children from Reception to Year 6 have discrete curriculum time each week dedicated to PSHE and Citizenship. Their experiences vary from:

· The examination of character virtues in relation to topics such as Caring for Others, Helpfulness, Co-operation, Stress, Exercise and Peer Pressure.

· Studying current affairs both locally, nationally and internationally such as environmental concerns, areas of conflict.

· Community involvement with charity work, Junior PCSO work and the School Council.

· Whole school focus activities eg: Mental Health Awareness Day, Anti-Bullying Week, Black History Month, Parliament Week, Internet Safety Week, Road Safety Week and Healthy Eating Week.

· Outside visitors to school eg: charity workers, various occupations (Vocations Week).

· Outdoor days which are used to incorporate the virtues explored in PSHE and Citizenship eg: leadership, problem solving skills, collaboration and resilience.

· Displays around school which celebrate our teaching of the topics and the children’s work.

The lessons we teach and opportunities we offer are designed to inspire the children to discuss issues important to them, to develop leadership qualities and to make a positive difference in our ever-changing modern world.

We are extremely proud to be a My Happy Mind school at St Edward’s.  

This PSHE curriculum is grounded in the latest science and research about what it takes to create positive wellbeing for pupils from EYFS to Year 6. Myhappymind is taught across five modules and each introduces a new set of content and habits to help children build resilience, self-esteem and confidence. They include; Meet your brain, celebrate, appreciate, relate and engage.  As this is our second year, we will be building on these skills and learn about a new chapter called My Happy Place.

Here are the skills taught within each module.

We are also extremely happy to offer a parent platform for you to support your child and further explore strategies at home. Attached below are the parent newsletter and instructions to support your downloading the app at home.

In addition to MyHappyMind, we also supplement our PSHE and Citizenship with Picture news. This supports our pupils who may see stories in the news they are curious or confused about. This can sometimes be tricky to explain. Picture News finds the positives in current affairs by turning world events into learning opportunities. 

 
By exploring and debating topical issues, pupils will exercise British Values by learning to respect and tolerate the views of people around them. Each photo pack connects to and explains a British Value to explore further.  

Anti-bullying 
This year’s message from the anti-bullying alliance is ‘Use your power for good’. 

All children attended a special assembly led by Mrs Collins who explained the meaning behind the theme and that we all have a part to play in ensuring bullying does not happen here at St Edward’s. 
We discussed the forms of bullying such as social, physical, verbal and online and reiterated the key message – Several Times On Purpose = Start Telling Other People.

We also talked about bullying as a group activity – that research from the anti-bullying alliance shows us that its not just bullying and victim but that roles such as the reinforcer, bystander and outsider all have a part to play. We encourage all children to speak up and use their power for good to end any unkind behaviour towards others. We ended the assembly with scenarios using our school setting and asked how power for good could be used.

The children came up with clear examples such as including others who look alone and speaking up for someone who looks upset and we see them lived out every day here in school.
Each Key stage then completed a task to reinforce this message, this has created a new display board in school so children are continuously reminded that we need to use our power for good to end all forms of bullying. 

Every child in our school completes a safeguarding Paw to remind them of who they can speak to if they are ever concerned about bullying. 
 

Road safety

We were so fortunate this year to work with the company AXA as they have rolled our their first ever road safety initiative in schools; ‘The Backseat Boss’. 

We were delighted to be joined by Saffiya, Hamza and Ellie who guided us through the meaning of Backseat boss and how we as children can ensure the adults who drive us around are staying safe on the roads. 
Once we had learned the meaning with actions to help us, we completed some fun filled activities to further reinforce the message. 

Children had to choose a card and decide whether what they saw was safe or dangerous. They also role played driving a car with three backseat bosses in the back, reminding them of how to be safe.
Finally, they watched a video and crossed off all the good practices they could see in order to play bingo. 
All of our children from Year 1-6 took part and really took on board the vital messages, which we hope they will remember far into the future, perhaps when they may be drivers themselves. 

Children completed a homework piece to share their learning at home, and created some lovely visual reminders which will be displayed in the KS2 corridor.