Tag: Discovery Education Health and Relationships

A whole school programme for primary RSHE

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Lee Chapel Primary School in Basildon uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to teach PSHE. Assistant Head Shiv Chetty shares how the programme supports teachers to deliver the new curriculum, while helping pupils to understand their rights and responsibilities.

A COMPLETE PSHE PROGRAMME

We’ve been using Discovery Education Health and Relationships since the summer term of 2020. With the new PSHE curriculum about to launch, we wanted a resource with everything in one place. We chose Health and Relationships because it’s a complete solution. We trialled it during lockdown and had fantastic feedback from our teachers and pupils who all loved it.

ENGAGING VIDEO CONTENT

What we like most about Health and Relationships is the video content. That was the biggest factor for us in choosing this programme. We wanted a scheme of work that was well pitched for children and Health and Relationships is pitch perfect. Each unit includes a video presented by children and young adults. The films are relatable, engaging and easy for pupils to understand.

NO NEED FOR PLANNING

One of the best things about Health and Relationships is that we don’t have to do any lesson planning. We lift everything straight from the scheme of work. As a teacher this is fantastic. It’s just a quick read through and we’re ready to go. The resources are all there and we can just pick up the programme and use it. Plus, we can track the children’s progress through our marking. It’s all there for us.

EXTENDING LEARNING

Recently in Year 4 we’ve been looking at the UN Convention on Children’s Rights. Health and Relationships has a lovely section on this, with speaking and listening tasks. At the start of our first lesson most of the children didn’t realise that they had rights. They were happy to learn that they have the right to relax and to play but less thrilled about their right to an education! I could see that this topic would prompt a lovely piece of writing, so I extended their learning with some book work. When it comes to PSHE we always try to add more to every lesson. A broad and balanced curriculum is very important to us.

CARING AND RESPONSIBILITY

Health and Relationships is divided into 6 topics which cover the new PSHE curriculum. Our topic this term is Caring and Responsibility, which explores pupils’ responsibilities as they get older. There’s a fantastic video about two children and the different jobs they have to do at home, from feeding animals to caring for a younger brother. This led to a discussion where pupils shared what they do outside of school. Some of the children said, ‘I don’t do anything’ while others said, ‘I do lots of things.’ They would look at each other and go ‘Wow!’ Helping pupils to appreciate how other people live their lives is exactly what we should be doing. Health and Relationships helps us to create a forum where it’s safe for them to talk about these things.

TEACHING TOLERANCE

The programme includes some great activities and printable resources. Recently we used a worksheet where the children had to look at different scenarios and recognise children’s rights. One of the scenarios was about religion and respecting other faiths. This is really important to us as a school and Health and Relationships links to our RE teaching very well. At the moment we are learning about Judaism and while none of our students are Jewish they can see the links with other faiths. They understand that regardless of difference, we all have things in common.

WEEKLY PSHE

Before using Health and Relationships we taught PSHE fortnightly. Now we teach it every week and this has made a real difference. The children get excited about PSHE because they know it involves a lot of talking. They really enjoy chatting about different issues with their peers. We like the fact that Health and Relationships isn’t about independent work. PSHE should be collaborative and about working together.

SUPPORTING KIDS’ MENTAL HEALTH

Supporting mental health is a priority for our school. Children have a lot of worries, especially during the pandemic. That’s why we now teach PSHE at least once a week. We also let class teachers take the lead, so that they can identify any issues that arise. Giving pupils space to talk is the best way to support their mental health. This is one of the reasons why I’m really passionate about PSHE as a subject. The speaking and listening side of things is vital and Health and Relationships helps us to deliver this.

HELPING TEACHERS FEEL READY

Getting ready to teach any new curriculum can be daunting, but Health and Relationships has helped us to feel fully prepared. Having trialled the programme during the first lockdown, we held a staff CPD day before rolling it out school-wide. One of the big issues for us was managing perceptions. After negative media coverage about the new curriculum we felt that we needed to reassure our staff. Once we explained what would be taught and framed it in the context of being a tolerant and caring school, our teachers were fully on board.

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

Communicating this message to parents is just as important. As Assistant Headteacher I talk to parents every day, so I already had a sense of their questions. Overall they were very supportive. We wrote to families and had some lovely responses, particularly from our same sex parents. They were happy that we were teaching about different kinds of relationships openly. The world is changing , things are moving in the right direction and it’s only right that our teaching keeps up. Health and Relationships helps us to achieve this. We can meet the new PSHE curriculum and support our pupils at the same time. For us, it’s the whole package.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Health and Relationships: Teaching RSHE with Discovery Education

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Broadgreen Primary School uses Discovery Education’s Health and Relationships programme to deliver the new RSHE curriculum. Assistant Headteacher Suzanne Evans shares how the resources have helped the school to prepare for curriculum change and teachers to deliver with confidence.

HIGH QUALITY RESOURCES

We’ve been using Discovery Education Health and Relationships for several months, and are very happy with it. We adopted the new RSE curriculum a year early and were looking for something to supplement our existing resources. Health and Relationships provided a complete package. As existing users of Espresso and Coding – which our pupils and teachers love – we knew that this would be a high-quality resource. The digital content is engaging and teachers find it easy to use. Each topic has a lesson plan, video and linked activities.

TEACHER CONFIDENCE, PUPIL PROGRESSION

Some of our teachers felt less confident to deliver the new RSE curriculum, especially in terms of assessment. Many were unsure about how to assess pupils’ skills and knowledge. Health and Relationships helps us to do this because it supports and tracks pupil progress. The curriculum content is split into 6 topics: Healthy and Happy Friendships, Families and Committed Relationships, Caring and Responsibility, Similarities and Differences, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds and Coping With Change. Pupils work through the topics each year and progress. We love this spiral curriculum approach and the ability to revisit topics to scaffold learning.

REAL LIFE LEARNING

The Health and Relationships resources are really engaging and designed with children in mind. The feedback we’ve had from our pupils so far has been very positive. They like the videos, which feel very current. And they love the fact that lots of the films are presented by other children. They can relate to the content and the learning reflects their lives. Children also enjoy the activities, which aren’t just worksheet based. They have to look at different scenarios and discuss what they might do. It’s great to see children put themselves in another person’s shoes.

BUILDING SKILLS

The activities in Health and Relationships promote lots of different skills, including active listening and reasoning. Having learned about a topic, children are encouraged to work together to come up with a solution. Our Year 2 pupils enjoyed an activity where they had to rank statements about friendships in order, to express what they valued. Teachers liked this because it encouraged reasoning, higher order thinking and independent thinking. Health and Relationships also introduces children to key vocabulary in a contextual way, and there are lots of opportunities for collaboration and talking. These are things that we really value in our learning and we love the fact that they are reflected in this resource.

DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE

One of the key aspects of this programme is that it teaches children the importance of diversity and reflects Britain’s diverse communities. As teachers, we are always looking for resources to make sure our lessons are inclusive. It’s great to see lots of different children and types of families and relationships represented in the videos. It’s diverse on every front.

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

Health and Relationships helps schools to communicate with parents and explain what children will be taught through the new curriculum. The programme includes template letters for each year group and materials for parent meetings. We already write to parents about our PSHE curriculum, but I think schools will find these extra resources really helpful. It’s nice to see the communication broken down for each year group.

SUPPORTING PUPIL WELLBEING

PSHE has always been a priority for our school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become more important than ever. We’ll be implementing a recovery curriculum in September and Health and Relationships will be a key part of this. The resources will help us to promote the social and emotional skills that children will need. We don’t know how our pupils have been affected by lockdown, but we want to give them the opportunity to talk about their feelings and express themselves. Having been away from school for six months, they’ll need help with building positive relationships and reminding about what a good friend is. They might also need support with healthy eating and better sleep routines. Health and Relationships covers all of these themes.

FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

The programme explores the importance and diversity of families, and the characteristics of positive family relationships. As a Stonewall school, this is something we champion, so it was great to find resources that fit with our teaching. The progression in this channel is excellent. In Year 1 children learn about different families. In Year 2 they see examples e.g. different sizes of families, same sex families, intergenerational families, families where there are different faiths and so on. We really like how Health and Relationships covers this. It fits with the ethos of our school.

REFLECTING PUPILS’ LIVES

I’m really pleased with Health and Relationships and would definitely recommend it to other schools. We wanted a resource which would support teachers and enable children to learn in a way that reflects their lives. Health and Relationships delivers this and I was so excited when I started using it. The resources are engaging, easy to use and bring learning to life. It’s great when you find something that you know will make a difference and help pupils.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Complete support for primary RSHE

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St Margaret’s CE Primary School uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to deliver the new RHE curriculum. Deputy Headteacher Sam Winton explains why the scheme provides complete support and is popular with teachers and pupils alike.

A GO-TO RESOURCE

Health and Relationships is our go-to resource for RHE. When we first reviewed the statutory guidance, we realised it covered a lot of new ground. We wanted a complete scheme of work teachers could pick up and run with. Health and Relationships felt right from day one. We liked the video content, and could see it would build teacher confidence.

RHE READY

Health and Relationships covers the new curriculum in 6 topics or ‘channels’, with 3 lessons in each. We teach RHE fortnightly, so we cover a topic every half term. Each lesson includes a plan, video, activities and teacher guidance. The videos are presented by children and are very engaging to watch. Teachers can simply switch on and the lesson is ready to go.

SAVING TEACHERS’ TIME

Our teachers love Health and Relationships because it’s a complete resource which saves time. To have everything in one place, ready to go and pitched at the right level, is a huge benefit. We don’t have time to search the internet for clips or make our own resources. Having access to a high-quality scheme that is age appropriate and geared towards what we are teaching is wonderful.

PUPIL PROGRESSION

One of the best things about Health and Relationships is that it delivers real pupil progression. At the start of each topic we make a baseline assessment using mind maps which we later revisit. Before Health and Relationships, we weren’t capturing RHE progress effectively, but we’ve now got good evidence of the impact, which is huge. This term we’ve been learning about Healthy Friendships and it’s amazing to see how pupils have progressed.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

Perhaps the biggest impact has been in the children’s ability to talk and listen to one another. They’re also learning how to accept different viewpoints and understand that not everybody feels the same way about life. In terms of building friendships and children getting along, Health and Relationships is a brilliant resource. It enables children to see things from a different perspective.

FLEXIBLE TEACHING

Health and Relationships is very flexible, and can be taught in a number of ways. We’ve opted to teach the same topic across the whole school each term, and we use our assemblies to consolidate learning. As RHE subject lead, I lead a weekly assembly where I focus on the current topic. I dip into each year group’s materials and adapt them for the whole school. I also use assembly time to reinforce safeguarding messages and make sure the children know where to go if they need help and support.

SUPPORTING PUPIL WELLBEING

The Health and Relationships resources really lend themselves to children focusing on their mental health, and how to look after themselves physically and emotionally. This has been very important during the pandemic. Returning to school post lockdown, some children hadn’t seen their peers for a very long time. Learning about healthy relationships helped the children to re-establish friendships and understand what good friendship looks like.

BOOSTING SELF-ESTEEM

Recently our Year 2 children were learning about Similarities and Differences. The lesson helped them to think about their strengths and abilities, in discussion with classmates. One little boy said “I’m really good at football. That’s why people like me.” But then another child said, “Actually I really like you, because you always smile at me in the morning and you’re really friendly.” It was lovely to see the children become aware of their positive attributes. The lessons have provided a great boost to their self-esteem.

RELEVANT AND ENGAGING

Since using Health and Relationships, our pupils get very excited about RHE because it feels different to other lessons. They like the fact that it involves lots of talking, and they enjoy the child-led videos which open up discussions. Children also feel that it’s relevant. The themes link to every aspect of life at school and being a child today. The whole programme has been well thought out so that children can access and enjoy it.

REFLECTING DIVERSITY

Health and Relationships teaches children about diversity in lots of different ways and reflects our diverse society. What’s really nice is that the topics are very relevant and important for today. This is especially true of Similarities and Differences which reflects current issues. With everything that’s happening in the world at the moment, we find that Health and Relationships really supports our teaching.

PARENTAL COMMUNICATION

Good RHE teaching should be delivered in partnership with parents, and the programme provides amazing support with this, which saves us a great deal of time. There are sample letters which we adapt and send to each year group, plus presentations to explain what’s going to be taught and why. Because we couldn’t have parents in school this year, we recorded the presentations and sent them via email. This helped us to have conversations that were absolutely key.

A RESOURCE FOR EVERYONE

As a school we wholeheartedly recommend Health and Relationships. It’s saved us huge amounts of time and is brilliant to teach. The resources and support have given us confidence to approach challenging topics and our pupils are very engaged. The lessons have even inspired us as adults. We’ve recently created an ‘appreciation tree’ in the staff room, where we recognise acts of kindness. The programme has heightened our mental health awareness across the whole school community, which is more important now than ever.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Teaching the new RSHE curriculum with Discovery Education Health and Relationships

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Excalibur Primary School uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to teach the new RHE curriculum. Assistant Headteacher Daniel Hancock shares how the resources keep pupils engaged and help teachers to meet the new statutory guidance.

ENGAGING AND INTERACTIVE

We’ve been using Discovery Education Health and Relationships since the start of this academic year. When the new RHE curriculum was announced, we began looking for a programme to support our teaching. Health and Relationships was the most engaging, interactive and best value for money resource that we found. It ticked every box for us.

EASY TO TEACH

We use Health and Relationships in every year group, and cover a different topic each week. The digital content is quick and easy to access. At the start of each lesson we simply log on and click the relevant topic. Everything we need –videos, activities, worksheets and guidance – is in one place, differentiated by year group.

COMPLETE CURRICULUM COVERAGE

One of the best things about Health and Relationships is that it’s a complete scheme of work. With RHE there is always a risk that you might miss a topic or not cover it in enough depth. Having a programme which is easy to follow and mapped to the curriculum reassures us that we’re meeting the new guidance.

BUILDING TEACHER CONFIDENCE

Health and Relationships builds teacher confidence because it’s so easy to deliver. It’s a very useable resource with a clear structure which allows for flexibility. As a scheme it has exactly the right amount of content, helping teachers to feel supported without being overwhelmed. Teachers can sometimes lack confidence when delivering topics which might impact on children in their class. The programme will help us to handle these with confidence and bring school-wide consistency to our teaching.

ENAGAGING CHILDREN

We like the way in which Health and Relationships’ digital content appeals to children. Our pupils are more engaged with RHE than ever before. They love watching the videos presented by other children because they can relate to what they see. The follow-on activities are very hands-on. Pupils explore different issues through role-play and discussion and they enjoy this very much.

HAPPY FRIENDSHIPS

Teaching about friendships is central to the new curriculum and Health and Relationships covers this well. We particularly like the Year 6 content. Friendship worries can be an issue in Year 6 but these aren’t always talked about. There’s a really nice video where two pupils look back on their time in primary school, and discuss the challenges of keeping friends as they move up to secondary.

HEALTHY MINDS

Health and Relationships encourages children to talk about their feelings at any age. The videos explain how to recognise and deal with different emotions, and there are some lovely animated films which are very accessible. We’re always looking for ways to allow children to express themselves and it’s great to have a resource which helps us to do this. The programme also encourages resilience, which is one of the most important skills of all.

PUPIL PROGRESS

We like the fact that Health and Relationships is a progressive scheme of work. Children build upon their knowledge and it’s easy to track pupil progress. The programme also supports children’s personal development, because it creates opportunities to discuss issues for the first time. For us this is one of its key strengths. We use the digital resources as conversation starters that lead to important discussions.

TALKING TO PARENTS

The programme includes valuable guidance to help schools communicate with parents. There’s a helpful presentation and some good template letters. We used this to write our own letter to parents and hope this will encourage at-home support for what’s being taught in the classroom.

A RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

In summary, we’re very pleased with Discovery Education Health and Relationships. It’s a clear and well- structured programme, a complete solution which helps us deliver the new RHE curriculum with confidence. What’s more, our pupils love it. The interactive nature of the resources means they’re constantly engaged. We’d definitely recommend it to other schools.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Supporting RSHE in the classroom and at home

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Newland House School in Twickenham has embedded Discovery Education Health and Relationships at the very heart of their enhanced RHE curriculum. Nursery teacher and PSHE co-ordinator Andrea Taylor explains how the school is using the programme to support blended learning and to help teachers to meet the new RHE curriculum requirements.

GETTING READY FOR NEW RHE

We initially launched the Discovery Education Health and Relationships programme last September for pupils in Years 1 to 6 and even found that some of the resources were suitable for teaching our very youngest Early Years pupils. We are now in a position to teach the new RHE curriculum in full, despite the impact of the pandemic.

PLANNING AND DELIVERY

We had been researching resources to help us refresh our PSHE curriculum and were very pleased to discover the Health and Relationships programme which is simple to use, accessible and has everything that we need to deliver RHE in one convenient place. Not only did the programme do the planning for us but it also demonstrated what the learning objectives were and so far we have found the resources incredibly comprehensive.

A COMPLETE RESOURCE

The Health and Relationships programme makes it easy for teachers to ensure they are covering all aspect of the new RHE curriculum. It takes away much of the hard work of researching and planning and clearly sets out what pupils will achieve from each lesson. The programme provides a complete package but also offers the flexibility to add our own resources, perhaps to expand on a section, so it becomes a continually evolving reference point for teachers.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS

As the RHE curriculum is new, some teachers are understandably a little apprehensive about the best way to deliver the content. Using Health and Relationships has given our teachers greater confidence as it sets out the curriculum very clearly and ensures the content is age-appropriate.

HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS

We have found that one of the best aspects about the Health and Relationships programme is the video content. Recently, one of our Year 2 classes had a friendship issue and their teacher was quickly able to use one of the videos to manage the issue in a sensitive and understanding way. The film helped the children to work through their concerns and when the rest of the class watched the video too it prompted enough conversation to last the rest of the lesson!

DIFFERENT FAMILIES

Diversity is very important to us as a school and the Health and Relationships programme provides considered explanatory content which has proved very helpful for teaching pupils about different types of families. In one video scenario, it explores different types of families, such as adoptive and same-sex families, which has been invaluable in teaching our pupils how to understand and accept differences.

CHILD-LED VIDEOS

Using children to present topics within the videos has helped pupils to relate to the content by reinforcing messages and creating a deeper impact than simply being delivered by an adult. Making the videos age-relevant has meant that pupils can more easily understand concepts and are more able to identify with the feelings being portrayed by other children in the videos.

AMAZING CONVERSATIONS

The Health and Relationships programme is a great vehicle for inspiring conversation, whether across an entire class or in breakout groups. Most of our RHE lessons are taught as a single lesson but to really take advantage of some of the more practical activities we will be considering creating longer lessons in the future. Our Year 1 and 2 classes have really enjoyed using some of the practical activities which have helped to reinforce their learning.

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

The Health and Relationships platform has provided very useful materials to help us communicate with parents. We are planning an information session to walk through the resources and explain to parents what their children will be learning and how this will be delivered. It is very important, especially with a more sensitive subject such as RHE, to have transparency in our approach and the materials are very useful in supporting this.

PUPIL MENTAL HEALTH

Supporting children’s mental health is vitally important to the school and the Health and Relationships programme has provided the right tools to facilitate this and has also encouraged the children to come up with their own ideas for supporting each other. For example, last term some of our senior children researched and supported charities such Mind, through a series of different fundraising activities.

SUPPORTING BLENDED LEARNING

Returning to school after the first lockdown early last autumn, we used the Health and Relationships programme to supplement our Recovery Curriculum. This was useful not only for children but for teachers as well, providing resources to help us explore and address any concerns or anxieties about the return to school. In periods of home learning the platform has also proved ideal. Integrating PSHE lessons into the remote timetable is very simple and the resources work equally well as both live online lessons and static resources, which the children can easily access from home.

The programme further supports blended learning through the range of different and engaging activities. These lend themselves perfectly to remote learning where children can work through these quietly and thoughtfully without any classroom distractions. These resources have helped us to continue to offer a broad curriculum and a range of stimulating lessons ensuring that learning is continuous whether it’s in school or being delivered remotely.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Planned progressive RSHE

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Preston Primary School in Norwich uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to teach RSHE. Victoria Braddock explains how the programme helps teachers to confidently deliver the new curriculum while building upon children’s learning.

COMPLETE RSHE

We’ve been using Discovery Education Health and Relationships since September 2020. We wanted a PSHE programme that would help us to meet the statutory requirements consistently across the school. It’s good to find a scheme of work that we can pick and run with. It’s a complete resource so we don’t have to plan lessons from scratch.

PLANNED AND SEQUENCED

I teach a Year 2/3 class, so it’s important for me to have flexible resources. Health and Relationships is ideal because it’s progressive scheme from Years 1 to 6. Children build upon their learning and teachers can track this using a handy Progression Grid. We can quickly see where each lesson fits in and show that our teaching is sequenced, in line with the new Ofsted Framework.

NEW CURRICULUM-READY

This is our first year of teaching the new RSHE Curriculum and the programme has definitely helped. As a scheme of work it’s clear, easy to follow and everything is in one place. From curriculum links and lesson plans to resources and key vocabulary, we’re completely covered. We can start each lesson knowing exactly what our objectives and outcomes are.

TEACHER TIME-SAVER

One of the things we like best about Health and Relationships is that it’s user friendly. The different resources are easy to find and very well organised. As time-poor teachers, it’s great to be able to access what we need quickly, whether a lesson plan or a particular video or activity. We can simply switch on and start teaching. Our TA’s find it really easy to deliver too.

OFFLINE ACTIVITIES

Health and Relationships is a fantastic digital resource and some aspects can even be taught offline. The internet coverage in our area is sometimes a little patchy, so the ability to download and print resources is really important! There are also lots of great classroom activities that the children enjoy. The videos provide a brilliant prompt for offline pupil discussion.

SUPPORTING REMOTE LEARNING

We used Health and Relationships during lockdown and being able to deliver RSHE remotely was a lifesaver. Some of the topics such as Caring and Responsibility were very relevant to the pandemic. The resources helped us to look at the different responsibilities children have in the home and explored the idea of caring for others. The feedback we had from families was very positive.

DIFFERENT FAMILIIES

Last year we also learned about Families and Committed Relationships. We explored the diversity of families and this sparked some important conversations at home. One of our parents told us that the lesson helped their child to talk about a grandparent who had recently died. Another said that it started a conversation about family trees, prompting the child to draw a picture which she shared in school. Each lesson took off in a different direction, which was lovely.

HEALTHY BODIES AND MINDS

Health and Relationships includes lots of videos and photographs and our pupils respond really well to these. Recently we were learning about Healthy Bodies and Healthy Minds and exploring different feelings. It was great to have so many images to draw upon and because the pictures feature real children, they are very engaging. The videos are also child-led which makes a big impact. Pupils can relate to the content so they have a bigger response to it. It’s also good to see such diversity on screen.

RESPECTING DIFFERENCE

Learning to respect difference is one of the key objectives of the new curriculum and Health and Relationships contains some brilliant resources to bring this to life. It reinforces our whole school approach to teaching about diversity. Recently we’ve used the programme alongside teaching about Black History Month and different faiths and cultures. Children notice difference, so it’s important to give them time and space to talk about it. We want to make sure that our teaching reflects the world they live in.

FRIENDSHIPS AND WELLBEING

Health and Relationships covers the topic of friendships very well and we used it to prepare the children to return to school post-lockdown. It was important to revisit what makes a good friend and what happy friendship feels like. Health and Relationships also helps us to support the children’s wellbeing by exploring what it means to stay healthy physically and mentally. Our pupils have been so resilient during the pandemic and we’re very proud of them.

POSITIVE IMPACT

Health and Relationships is a fantastic resource. It’s helped us to feel confident about delivering the new RSHE curriculum and we have complete peace of mind that we’re meeting the objectives. It’s so helpful to have a scheme of work that is fully planned and works for the whole school. And because the learning builds, every lesson we teach makes a positive impact. The way it all fits together is really effective.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Engaging parents with RSHE

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Oswestry School in Shropshire uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to deliver the statutory RSHE Curriculum. Head of Prep School Claire Belk shares how the programme gives teachers complete support, especially when it comes to engaging parents.

A COMPLETE RESOURCE

We switched to Discovery Education Health and Relationships from another provider earlier this year. We wanted a complete RSHE resource with everything in one place. Health and Relationships is easier to use because you don’t have to leave the platform to look for additional resources. It also provides fantastic teaching support in terms of planning, delivery and training for staff. As a product, it ticks so many boxes for us.

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

One of the best things about Health and Relationships is that it supported us to talk to parents about the new curriculum. RSHE is a fundamentally important part of children’s learning but, understandably, some parents feel hesitant about some of the necessary but sensitive content. It’s therefore important that the lines of parental communication are kept open. We found that, once we’d explained what we were going to be teaching and why, parents were reassured and appreciative. Consequently, they felt they could also support and reinforce their child’s learning at home.

EASY ENGAGEMENT

Discovery Education Health and Relationships is well resourced to help schools engage parents with the new RSHE curriculum. It includes high quality presentations detailing what teachers will be teaching, along with useful resources such as template letters to support ongoing communication. It also includes suggestions on how you might answer tricky parents’ questions. For us, it couldn’t have been easier as everything was at our fingertips.

PARENT MEETINGS

Recently we used the resources to host a virtual parent meeting where we shared our new RSHE curriculum. We started by giving an overview of Health and Relationships and then used breakout rooms to give a preview of what would be taught in each year group. Teachers were able to run through the programme and answer specific questions relating to their year group. Our parents were very impressed with the programme and particularly loved the video-led approach. It was even better received than we hoped!

RESPONDING TO CONCERNS

It’s natural for parents to have questions about RSHE, and Health and Relationships helps us to address these. It means that we can easily show parents what is being taught and explain why. Health and Relationships gives our school a robust RSHE curriculum. We can see exactly what should be delivered to pupils at each stage and this helps us to get it right for the children. It also helps with parental engagement because they are reassured by the age appropriateness of the material and there is clear reasoning behind each new topic or learning stage.

TACKLING SENSITIVE SUBJECTS

Health and Relationships covers the sensitive areas of RSHE very well. By using child-led videos, it presents tricky topics in a way which is non-threatening. The children who present the videos are fantastic role models and our pupils can really relate to them. It’s so much more effective than using puppets or cartoons. In Year 6 for example, we see a boy talking confidently about periods. This is exactly what children need to see. It deflates any self-consciousness because they see real children talking about it. And, it gets the message across that no one should feel embarrassed about puberty.

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT

One of the main things we’ve stressed to parents is the importance of a safe learning environment for delivering RSHE. Parents do have the right to withdraw their child from sex education, but in doing so they run the risk of allowing them to discover information away from the safety of the classroom, for example, in the playground or on the internet. Health and Relationships supports us to create a very safe teaching and learning environment by clearly setting out the principles for doing so and also guides teachers on how to approach sensitive topics.

BUILDING PUPIL LEARNING

Discovery Education Health and Relationships follows a spiral curriculum and the children’s learning builds year upon year. Our parents are very reassured by this approach. They like the fact that we revisit different topics, and that the content is age appropriate. We found this spiral approach particularly useful post lockdown, when we had to cover a lot of ground. The way in which Health and Relationship is structured meant that we could easily dip into previous years where we felt that the children needed more support to understand the content for their year group.

INSPECTION READY

Recently we received an inspection and the RSHE provision was rated highly in our junior school. Because we are using Health and Relationships, we were able to quickly demonstrate that we are fully meeting the statutory requirements and supporting the needs of our whole school community: pupils, staff and parents.

In summary, we’re very pleased that we came across Health and Relationships. It’s a high quality resource that enables us to deliver an excellent programme of relationships and health education for our children. We rate it very highly indeed.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

A complete RSHE curriculum for International Schools

Welcoming students from over 49 different countries, Bangkok Prep is a well-established international school in Thailand. The school follows the Early Years Foundation Stage and English National Curriculum and uses Discovery Education Health and Relationships to support teaching of RSHE. Subject Leader of PSHE, Brona Soden, explains how the programme helps teachers to engage students, communicate with parents and deliver the new RSHE curriculum with confidence.

GETTING STARTED WITH RSHE

We started using Discovery Education Health and Relationships in 2020. As PSHE Subject Leader at Bangkok Prep, I was looking for a high quality digital resource which would help us to deliver the new English RSHE curriculum. I wanted something flexible that would support staff with different levels of experience. After trialling Health and Relationships we all agreed that it was a great place to start. As a school, we were very impressed.

IDEAL FOR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Teaching at an International school that caters for many different cultures and belief systems, and where society is quite conservative, we needed to approach the new RSHE curriculum carefully. We felt very confident that Health and Relationships would allow us to do this. To begin with, we tested the programme across the school, leaving some of the more sensitive areas until later in the year. This gave us time to prepare parents and allow them to ask any questions.

COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS

Effective RSHE is best delivered in partnership with parents and Health and Relationships, it includes some great resources to help schools achieve this. We used these to organise an online workshop, where we walked parents through the new curriculum. Teachers in each year group gave a sample lesson using the videos and activities from the programme. We were able to show parents exactly what an RSHE lesson would look like and the response was excellent.

IN PERSON AND ONLINE

We began teaching Health and Relationships during a period of lockdown and found that the digital resources are ideal for remote learning. While it wasn’t ideal to start teaching RSHE online, there were some benefits to doing so. Teachers who were feeling anxious or self-conscious were able to build their confidence. We found that the children could learn without distraction. From day one they were engrossed, interested and asking lots of questions using the private chat box. There was less embarrassment and a real sense of achievement for teachers, who felt it worked really well.

A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

As an English Curriculum school, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum as closely as possible, while being mindful that there are some intercultural and interfaith areas where we need to take a more sensitive approach. Health and Relationships allows us to teach to our own environment, because it’s such a flexible resource. The age of consent, for example, is different here in Thailand. So when we are teaching about committed relationships, we are conscious to point out that the law differs around the world. This in itself is a whole discussion topic. We asked the children, “Why do you think some countries decide that this is a better age to make these choices?” We try to turn everything into a discussion and Health and Relationships is a great prompt. Plus, it gives the children a global perspective.

VIDEO-LED CONTENT

Health and Relationships includes lots of great age-appropriate videos which can be used to introduce the different RSHE topics. Our teachers like the fact that these are age-appropriate and being peer-led, they are very engaging for the children. Each video comes with lesson plans and linked activities. But even on their own, the videos open up a world of conversation in the classroom. Sometimes we use the films as a starting point and let the children guide how the lesson progresses. As teachers, we all want to encourage our students to look at life through different lenses and the videos are very powerful tools for doing this.

FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

Recently I was teaching my Year 3 class about families and committed relationships. I started by letting the children share their ideas before watching the topic video. This prompted a lively discussion. The children were asking so many questions that the chat ran away with us! We were able to re-focus with one of the worksheets – a fun True or False activity – which our students really enjoyed. The whole lesson linked nicely with the characteristics of positive relationships, and our school’s life values, which are themes that are intertwined and reflected with the teaching and learning we do at Bangkok Prep.

SPIRAL CURRICULUM

One of the best things about Health and Relationships is the flexibility of the programme. The videos can be used interchangeably and the spiral curriculum approach means that it’s easy to revisit topics. Recently I used a Year 1 video about naming body parts with my Year 3 class to help students revisit key vocabulary. Similarly, our Year 6 students who missed some topics during lockdown, have benefitted from being able to go back and engage with Year 4 and 5 content.

A FLEXIBLE RESOURCE

It’s never been more important for schools to deliver high quality RSHE. We allocate 50 mins of timetabled lessons each week, but in reality we’re delivering RSHE every day because it intertwines with everything. As a school, we let our teachers decide how and when to teach it and Health and Relationships supports this. It’s a very flexible resource.

WELL-PLANNED

As a scheme of work, Health and Relationships is well planned out, which is something our teachers also enjoy. The content is divided into six topic areas which matched our existing RSHE plan. Our teachers immediately felt comfortable because they could see how the content linked to what they were already doing. Having a clear plan to follow made it easy for them to get started.

BUILDING TEACHER CONFIDENCE

Delivering a new curriculum can be daunting but Health and Relationships has helped our teachers to build confidence quickly. They like the fact that it’s a flexible resource. They can let each lesson flow, allowing students to direct the learning. If you’re a little unsure about teaching RSHE, you can follow the programme step by step. If you’re more comfortable, you can see where it goes and let the children lead a little.

RSHE GAMECHANGER

For us as a school, Health and Relationships is an invaluable resource. It has helped us to understand exactly what we need to deliver and given us the tools to teach with confidence. We have a complete scheme of work with high quality digital resources to fire our students’ imagination. Health and Relationships has changed the game for us in terms of how we deliver RSHE. I’m excited to see where it will take our teaching and learning next.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships

Our Go-To Resource for RSHE

Sarah Anyan is a Year 4 teacher and PSHE Subject Leader at Iveson Primary School in Leeds. Sarah shares why Discovery Education Health and Relationships is her go-to-resource for RSHE and explains why it’s loved by pupils and teachers.

COMPLETE COVERAGE

Discovery Education Health and Relationships is a complete scheme of work for primary RSHE. We’ve been using it since the new curriculum was launched to support our teaching across the whole school. We chose the programme because it provides excellent curriculum coverage and takes a spiral approach, allowing pupils to build upon their learning each year. We could also see that it would help teacher confidence in terms of planning and delivery.

ENGAGING AND RELIABLE

Health and Relationships provides lesson plans, videos and activities to help teachers meet the statutory guidance. The content is age-appropriate, engaging and very relatable. As a staff, we really like the videos and the fact that they are presented by real children is very good. This appeals to our pupils and helps them to talk about difficult scenarios without having to talk about themselves. The videos are also a great starting point for exploring topics such as friendships, relationships and mental health. It’s brilliant to have so many resources at our fingertips to prompt discussion and peer-to-peer learning.

REFLECTING REAL LIFE

Good RSHE teaching should reflect real-life and Health and Relationships does this very well. Pupils see their own experiences reflected in the content, which is authentic and diverse. The sex education lessons are particularly good and we like the fact that the programme doesn’t just cover ‘traditional’ ground. The resources include topics such as Caesarean Sections and IVF, and show the diversity of families. It’s important that our pupils see real life reflected and Health and Relationships achieves this.

SAVING PLANNING TIME

Health and Relationships saves us a huge amount of planning time. Each lesson is mapped out with objectives, resources and success criteria. It’s all there, but the programme also gives us a really flexible way of teaching. If we want to adapt a lesson, taking our lead from the children, we can. Sometimes a video might spark a discussion that takes things in a different direction. Or we might want to explore an idea in greater depth. Health and Relationships gives us the starting point, which is always so important.

ENJOYABLE FOR PUPILS

Our pupils really enjoy learning with Health and Relationships. They like the fact that we can sit down together and talk about things. Sometimes we cover difficult subjects, but that’s ok because we all respect and each other and our classroom is a safe space. We try to end each lesson with something positive, perhaps relaxation, drawing silly pictures or sharing jokes!

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT

Health and Relationships supports us to create a safe teaching and learning environment for RSHE. This helps our pupils to discuss and share their feelings and ideas without fear or judgment. We establish ground rules at the start of each lesson and we also encourage pupil questions. Because the children feel comfortable and safe, it’s not uncommon for them to share their worries in these lessons. We use comment boxes, so that they can ask questions anonymously or simply share a funny thought or idea to make their friends smile.

IMPROVING WELLBEING

Supporting pupil wellbeing is a priority for every school and Health and Relationships helps us to do this in lots of ways. The Healthy and Happy Friendships Channels helps children to consider what being a good friend means and build skills to resolve difficulties. I recently used the videos with a group of Year 4 pupils. We discussed everything together and it really helped.

EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS

My Year 4 class are learning about Families and Committed Relationships this term and we’re using Health and Relationships to look at boundaries. There’s a great video resource which helps children to think about what’s acceptable. It sparked a lengthy conversation about why relationships have different boundaries. We talked about how some relationships are professional and some are very close. Next, we completed the lesson activity, an acrostic RELATIONSHIP poem. The children produced some lovely writing and I was blown away by their responses!

SPIRAL CURRICULUM

Health and Relationships follows a spiral curriculum and this is so useful. As subject leader, I find the built-in progression grid very helpful. I can clearly evidence pupil progress and show what we’ve been teaching during each half term. Not having to produce my own evidence saves me a lot of time! It also helps the children with memory retrieval and boosts their confidence.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS AND PUPILS

We’re very happy with Health and Relationships. For us, it ensures complete curriculum coverage across the school in a consistent way and it’s also supportive for teachers. It has increased our confidence in terms of planning and delivery, but it also gives us the freedom to go off on a tangent and adapt lessons where necessary for our children. Our pupil voice interviews show that it’s having a positive impact for the children too, which is really lovely. I would definitely recommend the programme to other primary schools.

Posted in Success StoryTagged Discovery Education, Discovery Education Health and Relationships