Key Stage 2 PSHE explained

This area builds on what children have learned in KS1. Children should have the opportunity to learn:

• What positively and negatively affects their physical, mental and emotional health, how to make informed choices about them, and the basics of a ‘balanced lifestyle.’
• The skills to make their own choices about food, including the benefits of a healthy diet.
• To recognise how images in the media and online don’t always reflect reality, and can affect how people feel about themselves.
• To reflect on and celebrate their achievements, recognise their strengths and areas for improvement, and set high aspirations and goals.
• To understand good and not so good feelings, extend their vocabulary for talking about them, and recognise they might experience conflicting emotions, including how to manage them.
• About change, including transitions between Key Stages and schools, loss, separation and divorce, and bereavement.
• To differentiate between ‘risk,’ ‘danger,’ and ‘hazard,’ to predict and assess risks in different situations, and to manage them responsibly.
• That increasing independence means increased responsibility to keep themselves and others safe.
• How bacteria and viruses affect health, and how to reduce their spread.
• How pressure to behave in unacceptable, unhealthy or risky ways can come from a variety of sources, including people they know and the media.
• To recognise when they need help and how to ask for it, and to use basic techniques for resisting pressure to do something they think is wrong.
• School rules about health and safety, basic emergency aid procedures, and how to get help.
• What is meant by ‘habit’ and why habits can be hard to change.
• About substances and drugs including alcohol, tobacco and energy drinks, and how they affect health and safety.
• How bodies and emotions change approaching and during puberty.
• About human reproduction.
• About taking care of their body, including protecting it from unwanted contact, getting support if they have fears for themselves or others, and about female genital mutilation (FGM).
• Strategies for keeping physically and emotionally safe including road safety, cycle safety (Bikeability), rail, water and fire safety, and online safety.
• About the people who are responsible for helping them stay healthy and safe.
• About the responsible and safe use of mobile phones.
• How to manage requests for images of themselves or others, and what to do if things feel uncomfortable or inappropriate.

Pupils should learn:

• To recognise and respond appropriately to a wider range of feelings in others.
• That their actions affect both themselves and others.
• To recognise different types of relationship, including acquaintances, friends and family.
• What constitutes a positive, healthy relationship, and how to form and maintain them.
• How a relationship can be unhealthy, and how to get support.
• About civil partnerships and marriage, and how no one should be pressurised or forced into marriage; that forced marriage is a crime.
• That two people who care love each other can be in a committed partnership without being married or in a civil partnership.
• To judge what type of physical contact is acceptable or unacceptable, and how to respond.
• The concept of keeping things confidential or secret, whether they agree to this, and when it’s right to break a confidence or share a secret.
• To listen and respond respectfully to a wide range of people; to raise their own concerns; to consider other people’s feelings; and to respect and constructively challenge others’ views.
• To work towards shared goals.
• To resolve disputes and conflict through negotiation and compromise, and to give constructive feedback.
• About the differences and similarities between people, including family, cultural, ethnic, racial and religious diversity, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability.
• To recognise and challenge stereotypes.
• The terms associated with sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• About the nature and consequences of discrimination, bullying, teasing and aggressive behaviour.
• To recognise and manage ‘dares.’
• To recognise bullying and abuse, including online and through social media.
• To understand personal boundaries, identify what they are willing to share, and that we all have rights to privacy.

In KS2, this core PSHE area should cover:

• Researching, discussing and debating topical issues, problems and events.
• Why and how rules and laws are made and enforced, why different rules are needed in different situations, and how to make and challenge rules.
• The basic human rights we all share, and that children have their own special rights; that these rights are there to protect everyone and take precedence over laws and family/community practices.
• Why some cultural practices (e.g. FGM) are against British law and human rights.
• The consequences of antisocial, aggressive and harmful behaviours such as bullying and discrimination, and strategies for getting support for themselves and others.
• The different responsibilities, rights and duties that they have at home, at school, in the community and towards the environment, and to develop the skills to exercise these responsibilities.
• Resolving differences by looking at alternatives, considering others’ points of view, making decisions and explaining choices.
• Being part of a community, and recognising the roles of voluntary, community and pressure groups.
• The range of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the UK, the lives of people living in other places, and people’s different values and customs.
• The role money plays in life, including how to manage it, being a critical consumer, and developing an initial understanding of interest, loans, debt and tax.
• How resources can be allocated in different ways, and that these economic choices affect individuals, communities and the sustainability of the environment across the world.
• What is meant by enterprise, and early development of enterprise skills.
• Exploring and critiquing how the media present information.
• Critically examining what they see in social media, how this information can misrepresent and mislead, and why they need to be careful about what they forward to others.