Personal, Social and Health Education

At St Charles, we provide children with opportunities to learn about their rights and responsibilities and promote children to become responsible, healthy and independent members of society. We endeavour to raise pupils’ self-esteem and encourage children to have high aspirations to achieve anything they want to be.

Personal, Social and Health Education is about growth and development of the whole person. It should aim to integrate a pupil’s intellectual, spiritual, moral, emotional, psychological and physical development, thus assisting progress towards Christian maturity. Education is for life. It aims to provide a framework for living. Throughout the pupils’ time in school they experience a network of relationships which are in themselves a part of the education process.

At St. Charles we believe that schools have an important part to play in supporting parents in their primary responsibility for enabling their children to grow in an understanding of human relationships. This support can take the form of provision of:

1) A secure setting in which children may safely form and develop their own relationships with both peers and adults.

2) A setting in which children can reflect upon their relationships.

3) An opportunity for people of the same age to share common experiences and learn from each other.

The pupil’s experience of relationships within the school have a significant influence in their understanding of a wide range of relationships not always experienced within the family circle. It is important that pupils are given the opportunity of reflecting on these relationships and of developing the skills necessary for handling them.

Relationships between peoples of different races and cultures, sexes and ages, are issues on which the Gospels cast a particular light and are an important aspect of Education in Personal Relationships. This deals with matters related to personal dignity and caring for the body, mind and spirit. It also deals with issues such as family life, emotions, bereavement, failure and success.

Each year the year 6 pupils are taken to Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire to participate in a “Relationship Conference”. The Conference covers the concepts of creation, Images of self and others, Puberty, sexual relationships and conception, marriage and bereavement. The Conference was developed and is led by members of the school staff.