PSHE

Barton Court Grammar School believes that PSHE education is important to help our students develop into well-rounded members of society, who are able to make a positive contribution to their community. We aim to provide students with an excellent holistic education to develop the whole person, which will serve as a basis for a successful and fulfilling future in their professional and personal lives. We aim to motivate students to achieve their academic potential and strive for excellence, develop core employment capabilities and transferable skills, and to provide students with their statutory entitlement to a wide range of opportunities and guidance to help them prepare for adult life. As part of Barton Court’s whole-school approach, PSHE education develops the qualities and attributes students need to thrive as individuals, family members, and members of society.

Students learn best when they are happy and valued, supported, challenged and encouraged. At Barton Court Grammar School we take care to ensure our students’ PSHE education is both enriching and enjoyable. Academic excellence is at the heart of our school, but we nurture equally creativity, personal and physical development, independence, and inquiring minds. Barton Court’s PSHE education curriculum is integrated into our relationships, sex, and health education (RSHE), and the pastoral programme. The curriculum is supported by subjects across the school in its delivery, particularly through Tutor Time, Enrichment Days, assemblies, RPE, and Science.

Our students and staff endeavour to treat each other equitably, fairly, with kindness, and with mutual respect. At all times, staff and students are encouraged to show a high regard for the needs and feelings of others through their actions and words. The needs and interests of all students will be promoted through an inclusive and varied PSHE education curriculum at Barton Court.

Barton Court’s PSHE education is a planned, developmental programme of learning, through which children and young people acquire the knowledge, understanding, and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future. The opportunities provided in Barton Court’s PSHE programme equip students to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible, and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising, and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning, career choices, and in achieving economic wellbeing. Throughout their time at Barton Court, students are provided with opportunities to reflect on, and clarify their own values and attitudes and to explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future.

Barton Court recognises the role of effective PSHE education in contributing to personal development by helping students to build their confidence, resilience, and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices, and understand what influences their decisions. Students are encouraged to recognise, accept, and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Students are supported to develop an understanding of themselves, empathy, and the ability to work with others to form and maintain good relationships. This enables them to develop the essential skills for future employability, and better enjoy and manage their lives.

The PSHE education programme at Barton Court aims to make a significant contribution to students’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural (SMSC) development and supports students’ understanding of the importance of British Values in creating a fair, inclusive, and safe local and national community. All staff are aware of the school’s statutory responsibility to promote students wellbeing and are committed to ensuring that students’ behaviour and safety supports everyone’s wellbeing. All staff, Senior Leaders, Directors, and Governors understand the essential role Barton Court’s comprehensive PSHEE provision plays in contributing to the safeguarding of our students.

In summary, the aim for PSHE education is to provide students with:

• accurate, balanced, and relevant knowledge
• opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding
• opportunities to explore, clarify, and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights, and responsibilities
• the skills, language, and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible, and balanced lives
• opportunities to develop positive personal attributes such as resilience, self-confidence, self-esteem, and empathy