Black Country Schools: Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education

A Curriculum That Builds Emotionally Literate, Socially Skilled, and Resilient Citizens

At Black Country Schools, PSHE is a fundamental part of preparing pupils to navigate relationships, challenge, and opportunity with confidence and care. Our curriculum is deliberately knowledge-rich, emotionally intelligent, and values-driven, aligning closely with the CUSP teaching approach to ensure coherence, progression, and real-life application.

We teach PSHE to develop emotional fluency, positive identity, healthy relationships, and personal safety. Every unit is structured to build vocabulary, enable reflection, and embed behaviours that align with our school values and the wider expectations of modern Britain.

Curriculum Approach and Structure

The PSHE curriculum follows a six-unit spiral model that is revisited each year with greater depth and maturity. Each half-term unit focuses on a core theme:

• Being Me in My World: exploring identity, belonging, and responsibility
• Celebrating Difference: understanding diversity, respect, and anti-bullying
• Dreams and Goals: building ambition, resilience, and aspiration
• Healthy Me: developing physical and mental health awareness
• Relationships: navigating family, friendship, and emotional literacy
• Changing Me: supporting personal growth, puberty, and transition

Each unit is taught through the CUSP cycle: retrieval of prior knowledge, explicit vocabulary instruction, modelled examples, partner rehearsal, guided application, and real-life challenge. This ensures pupils not only engage in discussion but build durable, transferable knowledge.

Early Foundations in EYFS

In Early Years, PSHE is embedded through the Personal, Social, and Emotional Development goals, focusing on self-regulation, managing self, and building relationships. Children learn to express their feelings, solve problems through talk, and develop awareness of others.

These skills are taught through books, structured discussion, storytelling, role play, and adult modelling. Pupils explore emotions such as happy, worried, excited, and angry, and are supported to build resilience, empathy, and independence from the earliest stage.

What Makes Our PSHE Curriculum Distinct

• A consistent, high-quality structure for every lesson, mirroring the CUSP model used across subjects
• Direct vocabulary teaching to support precise emotional expression and social language
• Regular retrieval of key concepts to secure fluency in personal development knowledge
• School values embedded into every theme: ambition, success, perseverance, independence, respect, and excellence
• Curriculum links to assembly themes, pupil voice projects, and real-life challenges
• Partner talk, structured discussion, and oracy strategies to support confidence and empathy
• Real-life applications, including online safety, road safety, anti-racism, healthy lifestyles, and preparation for adolescence

Beyond the Lesson: Embedding PSHE in School Life

At Black Country Schools, PSHE is part of the wider culture, not just a timetabled subject. It is visible in the way pupils interact, solve problems, manage challenge, and take part in school life. We embed PSHE into:

• Daily check-ins and emotional regulation routines
• Weekly assemblies linked to core PSHE themes and school values
• Whole-school initiatives such as Anti-Bullying Week, Safer Internet Day, and mental health workshops
• Charity work, eco-projects, and local community engagement
• Awards and recognition for demonstrating personal growth and social responsibility

Assessment and Impact

We do not track PSHE through data but measure impact through personal development. Teachers assess learning through partner talk, reflection tasks, real-life application, and pupil voice. Pupils are recognised for demonstrating values in action, not just knowledge recall.

By the time they leave us, pupils are emotionally articulate, socially confident, and equipped with the resilience and respect needed to thrive in secondary school and life beyond.

Further Information

For more details about the PSHE curriculum, or to arrange a visit, contact PSHE Lead Stacey Bamford at info@brockmoor.dudley.sch.uk.