At Wootton Bassett Infants' School, we aim to promote personal wellbeing and development through a comprehensive taught programme of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education that gives children and young people the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and practical skills to live healthy, safe, productive and fulfilled lives, both now and in the future.
Successful PSHE education can have a positive impact on the whole child, including their academic development and progress, by mitigating any social and emotional barriers to learning and building confidence and self-esteem. It also helps disadvantaged and vulnerable children to achieve to a greater extent by raising aspirations and empowering them with skills to overcome barriers they face.
Recent changes
The Department for Education has made changes to the PSHE curriculum following nationwide consultation which will come into effect from September 2026 and all schools are required to comply with the updated requirements. The statutory guidance can be found at:
We have already made changes to made our policy and curriculum based on this new guidance. To help you understand the curriculum requirements, please look at the information below which provides more detail.
Our PSHE, RHE and Pupil Wellbeing policies can be found on the policies page
RHE Expectations by the end of KS1
PSHE and Safeguarding- What is taught?
How will this be delivered?
This guidance will form part of our school's PSHE education programme which is taught throughout the school in every year group and is monitored and reviewed regularly.
We currently use the Twinkl scheme of work which ensures progression in knowledge, attitudes and values, and skills - including the key skills of social and emotional learning, known to improve outcomes for children.
All teaching in PSHE will take place in a safe learning environment and be underpinned by our school ethos and values. A variety of opportunities will be provided to pupils to ask questions to further their understanding and to find out more about what affects them personally.
We would also like to reassure you that the Department for Education has not introduced compulsory sex education at primary school level. We will cover the curriculum expectations for Relationship and Health Education which will now be referred to as RHE.
Please note: Parents have the right to request that their child be withdrawn from some or all of sex education delivered as part of statutory RSE. Parents do not have the right to withdraw their pupils from relationships and health education, nor can they be withdrawn from topics taught as part of the science curriculum. As we do not cover sex education all children are expected to attend PSHE lessons.
Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education 2026 was first published in 2019, with the government making a commitment to review this every three years. A review of the guidance was announced in May 2023, with a proposed draft framework and an eight-week consultation. The outcomes of the consultation with the government response were published on 15th July 2025, along with the new statutory framework that will come into force in September 2026. This means that schools have until that date to revise their curriculum and policies in line with the amended guidance, including consulting parents beforehand. Until 31st August 2026, the existing statutory guidance (relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education (RSHE)) will remain in force, although schools are encouraged to implement the new and amended RSHE content ahead of the implementation deadline if they are able to.
Please note, Sex education is optional
in primary schools. The government recommends it mainly for years 5-6.
For this reason and as an infant school, we will refer to RSHE as RHE as there
will be no Sex aspect to the curriculum we teach.
As part of the new updates, we must consult with parents about the provision of our RHE curriculum. Please find below a parent summary of the changes, our proposed curriculum, draft policy and the objectives from the scheme we will use (Twinkl).