Intent, Implementation, Impact

Intent

At Haslam Park Primary School, our PSHE curriculum is deliberately designed to meet the specific safeguarding and pastoral needs of our pupils within our local context. We serve a community with:

• Higher-than-average levels of socio-economic disadvantage
• A significant proportion of pupils eligible for pupil premium
• Increasing levels of social, emotional and mental health need
• High levels of access to digital devices and exposure to online content at a young age
• A growing number of pupils requiring additional support for speech, language and communication

As a result, our curriculum places particular emphasis on emotional regulation, resilience, respectful relationships, online safety, and the explicit teaching of safeguarding vocabulary. We deliver PSHE through the progressive framework provided by Kapow Primary, ensuring clear sequencing from Early Years to Year 6. Our curriculum offer is adapted to reflect our school’s safeguarding priorities and contextual risks. Our curriculum is underpinned by statutory guidance, including Keeping Children Safe in Education. Safeguarding is not an add-on; it is woven through every strand. Pupils are explicitly taught:

• How to recognise unsafe or inappropriate behaviour
• The meaning of consent (age-appropriate)
• How to identify trusted adults
• How to report concerns
• The difference between secrets and surprises
• Safe and responsible online behaviours

Our Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) provision meets statutory requirements and has been developed in consultation with parents and carers.

When selecting non-statutory elements, we have carefully balanced parental views, statutory expectations and identified pupil need. This ensures that our curriculum remains inclusive, age-appropriate and reflective of our community, while upholding equality and British values. The intent of our PSHE curriculum is that pupils leave Year 6 with the knowledge, vocabulary, confidence and moral understanding required to navigate both local and wider societal challenges safely and responsibly.

Implementation

PSHE is taught through a carefully sequenced, progressive curriculum using Kapow Primary as the structural spine. Units are mapped to ensure cumulative knowledge building and increasing conceptual depth across year groups. Leaders adapt lessons to respond to and reflect emerging safeguarding trends, pupil voice and pastoral need. For example, where online safety incidents or friendship issues arise, these are addressed explicitly within the planned curriculum. We supplement wherever possible with experiences such as the Hummingbird Project, anti-racism events held by Bolton Wanderers and debt aware projects with our Key Stage 2 pupils. Lessons are delivered in a safe, structured environment where:

• Ground rules are explicitly taught and revisited
• Respectful disagreement is modelled
• Safeguarding boundaries are clearly understood
• Staff follow established reporting procedures in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education

We prioritise oracy and vocabulary development, recognising that many pupils require explicit language instruction to articulate feelings, concerns and moral reasoning. Our intent is to respond proactively to local safeguarding challenges and as such, we have supplemented our Kapow Primary curriculum offer with ‘Pol Ed’ to support our pupils in navigating local safeguarding challenges. Assessment and Retrieval Assessment is purposeful and layered:

• Daily review and retrieval practice activate prior learning and strengthen long-term memory.
• Targeted questioning and discussion provide immediate formative feedback.
• Teachers identify misconceptions — particularly around safeguarding themes — and address them promptly.
• End-of-year summative assessment evaluates knowledge retention and conceptual understanding.

Regular retrieval and revisiting of key concepts ensures knowledge is retained over time and applied in different contexts. Outcomes inform curriculum refinement and identify priorities for the following academic year. This approach ensures that knowledge is not simply delivered but retained and applied.

Impact is measured via our approach to foundation subject assessment which is designed to measure retention. Assessment follows a clear cycle of curriculum coverage, daily reviews, end-of-year ‘Mastermind’ quizzes, targeted teaching and retesting. Daily reviews support knowledge retention, while Mastermind quizzes identify gaps and misconceptions. Teachers address these through targeted teaching in the following autumn term, with spring retests used to evaluate the impact of this approach and check longer-term retention. Ongoing pupil voice, with targeted participation from SEND and disadvantaged pupils, provides further quality assurance of teaching, understanding and retention. Parents are informed in advance of RSE content. Where non-statutory sex education is delivered, parents retain the right to withdraw in accordance with statutory guidance.

Impact

The impact of our PSHE curriculum is visible in pupils’ knowledge, language, behaviour and confidence. By the end of Year 6, pupils can:

• Articulate what constitutes a healthy relationship
• Explain how to stay safe online and offline
• Identify trusted adults and reporting pathways
• Demonstrate respectful discussion, even when viewpoints differ
• Recognise risk and apply taught strategies to manage it

Regular retrieval and revisiting of key concepts ensures knowledge is retained over time and applied in different contexts, enabling pupils to draw upon their learning when faced with real-life situations. Pupil voice indicates that children feel safe in school and understand how to seek help. Behaviour data and safeguarding records show that pupils are increasingly able to report concerns appropriately and use the vocabulary they have been taught. Summative assessment demonstrates strong retention of key safeguarding and health knowledge. Where gaps are identified, curriculum adjustments are made to strengthen progression and revisit priority content. As a result, pupils leave Haslam Park Primary School:

• Emotionally literate
• Safeguarding-aware
• Respectful of diversity
• Increasingly resilient
• Prepared for the next stage of education and life in modern Britain