Sandridgebury Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 6DB
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)
Curriculum Intent and Overview
The PSHE (KS3), Personal Development (KS4) and Step Up (KS5) Curriculum allows for the development of the skills and attributes needed for students to stay healthy, safe and thrive now and in the future. The broad spiral curriculum design across Years 7-11 allows for the programme to cover:
- relationships;
- health education (including physical and mental health);
- sex education;
- finance education;
- careers education;
- citizenship education;
- the exploration of British Values;
- the development of character education
The Department
Lead Practitioner: Ms J Lamb
What will be studied:
The themes covered in our PSHE programme of study are,
- Identity: personal qualities, attitudes, skills, attributes and achievements and what influences these
- Relationships: including different types of relationships in different settings and the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships
- A Healthy and Balanced Lifestyle: Physically, emotionally and socially. Also including work-life balance, exercise, rest, diet
- Risk: Identification, assessment and how to manage risk and personal safety including strategies to avoid risky behaviour
- Diversity and Equality: including how to be an active citizen in an inclusive society
- Change and Resilience: strategies and inner resources to cope in challenging circumstances including managing stress during examination periods
- Power: Balance and imbalance of power including bullying, persuasion and the safeguarding of ourselves and others
- Careers related learning: including enterprise, employability and economic understanding as well as learning about spending and saving
Click here to access the PSHE Programme of Study.
The STAGS policies for PSHE and RSHE education are available to download below.
Relationships and Health Education from 2026
In PSHE, students will be developing valuable life skills. They will be learning about keeping safe, reducing risk and developing skills and knowledge for use in the real world. Students are also given the time to develop their views and be given a platform to discuss and present ideas in a safe learning environment.
STAGS meets and exceeds the 2026 updated Statutory guidance relating to Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE), as outlined here.
For DfE Guidance for parents and carers please click here
Right to Withdraw your Child from Sex Education Lessons
As a parent you have the right to request to withdraw your child from Sex Education lessons. Please be aware that you cannot withdraw your child from the Relationships or Health Education content of the curriculum. If you would like to withdraw your child from the Sex Education lessons we request that you do so in writing. You will then be contacted by Ms Lamb, Lead Practitioner for PSHE, who will discuss the concerns that you have regarding the content of the lessons. Following these discussions, if you still would like your child to be withdrawn, then unless there are exceptional circumstances, we will provide your child with an alternative learning environment for the duration of only the PSHE lessons on intimate and sexual relationships. She will then rejoin her class for the other topics being taught.
Please note that if your previously with drawn child is three school terms (one school year) from their 16th birthday then they have the right to choose themselves to attend the sex education lessons, and we have a duty to fulfil this request. Additionally, please be aware that you are not allowed to withdraw your child from the science curriculum which includes content on human development and reproduction.
How can you support your child?
Teaching PSHE cannot happen in isolation, and it is essential to have the co-operation and support of the parents and carers of the students. We ask students to share with you what they have been learning in class.
As a school, we are committed to providing a community learning environment and may offer parent and carer information evenings, and communication home regarding upcoming PSHE events, either by letter or through STAGS Link. Should you have any questions or queries regarding PSHE or RSHE learning, please contact Lead Practitioner, Ms J Lamb, by email: lambj@stags.aetrust.uk.
Years 10 and 11 Core Personal Development
What will be studied?
Over the 2 years students study all of the subjects listed above from the PSHE curriculum, with interwoven elements of Religion and Worldviews. Year 10 students work towards developing their GCSE English spoken language presentation within their Personal Development lessons. This aids students in choosing a topic area inspired by the Religion and Worldviews 'Ethics and Morality' topic, in which they can express and present challenging and sophisticated information, views and line of reasoning.
Content within Personal Development includes:
- Economic education – e.g. budgeting, bank accounts, cost of living
- Health education – e.g. mental health and resilience, healthy relationships and drug and alcohol misuse
- Careers education, employability, planning for the future, university courses, apprenticeships, CV writing and interview skills
- Personal safety and healthy choices (Year 11) - pregnancy choices and parenthood, drug and alcohol misuse and basic first aid top up
- Religion and Worldviews - topics such as religion and media, religion and social action, and ethical dilemmas in contemporary society
Learning Methods
The lessons will follow the familiar format that students have experienced in Key Stage 3.
How is the course assessed?
There is time for reflection at the end of each block of work and self assessment of personal progress takes place throughout the course.
What websites are recommended?
Information on the subjects we teach can be found on websites such as
www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk
www.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk
Our PSHE Policy can be found here.
