Creating a Safe Environment for PSHE

We create ground rules:

These are negotiated with our children, we ensure these include not sharing personal information or naming other people and what can and cannot be kept confidential.

We employ distancing techniques:

When having discussions in lessons, children should not be talking about their own experiences. We want to ask them to consider what might happen to people similar in age to them or what they might do in certain situations.

We provide sources of help and reporting:

While reporting individual concerns is not appropriate in a lesson, children still need to know where to get help. We ensure the lesson tells them whom they can talk to in and out of school. We make sure they understand what will happen if they report concerns.

We are open to questions:

We give children the opportunity to ask questions in the sessions and provide anonymous opportunities such as a question box. Children might also use this to report concerns, so we make sure it is regularly monitored.

We ensure lessons are age-appropriate: Our lessons are balanced to ensure they are realistic about what children may have experienced (or seen others experiencing) but not frightening them. We consider carefully any resources we select to ensure they meet the needs of the children in our school.

We create balance in lessons: we are consistent in not creating a blame culture. The focus of lessons is on how everyone deserves respect and what children can say or do to make sure this is the case.