Teaching in Citizenship and PSHE provides students with key and important information delivered in a way which maximises engagement.  It requires an approach that is active and emphasises learning by doing, thinking and reflecting in groups and individually.  Students are encouraged to think for themselves using critical thinking skills, thus ensuring that students are able to participate fully.  Discussions, debates and participation in school and community life enable students to understand the link between Citizenship, PSHE and their role as a citizen.

Citizenship and PSHE can help with students’ personal development in the following ways:

• understanding their role as an individual in society
• enabling them to express their personal views and opinions
• developing their self-concept and self-awareness
• understanding issues concerning personal health, welfare and relationships at a significant time in their personal development.

Citizenship and PSHE lessons are timetabled at Key Stage 3 and 4 and form a substantial part of the Key Stage 5 Employability Award programme and Enrichment programme.

Citizenship and PSHE is currently delivered to all year groups by a dedicated team of staff. This specialist team take an active role in the monitoring, evaluation, teaching and learning of the programme to the standards required. Staff are experienced in delivering a wide range of topics included in the programme. Their passion and expertise in their specialist subject is linked to the delivery of the programme.

Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (HE)

As a secondary school, we provide RSE and HE to all students as per section 34 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and DfE statutory guidance (first published June, 2019).

Curriculum Provision RSE and HE are taught via subject-specific programmes of study and within the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum. RSE content is mainly delivered via PSHE lessons for Years 7-11, assemblies, guest speakers and form time. Biological aspects of RSE and HE are taught within the science curriculum, and other elements are included in religious education (RE).

RSE focuses on giving young people the information they need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds, including:

• Families
• Respectful relationships, including friendships
• Online and media
• Being safe
• Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health

HE focuses on opportunities for teaching students about problems and challenges, including more serious mental and physical health conditions such as substance and alcohol misuse, with a focus on providing information about effective interventions.

Themes include:

• Mental wellbeing
• Physical health and fitness
• Healthy eating
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Basic First Aid Health and prevention
• Changing adolescent body

Students will be taught how to judge when they or someone they know needs support and where they can seek help if needed.

RSE and HE topics are delivered through the Citizenship and PSHE programme, supported by assemblies, form time, successful learning sessions and seminar-style learning, involving guest speakers and external professionals.

Careers education at Waddesdon is delivered across all year groups. Lessons and activities take place in PSHE lessons and are also linked to other subjects, assemblies and form time activities to enable students to experience a wide range of careers education learning. School visits in other subjects are also linked and highlighted to enable students to see the link between workplaces and future opportunities.

Year 7 Overview

Students are taught the following topics in Year 7:

• Peer Education Project (PEP) – mental health awareness
• Jobs and Money
• Living a Life of Value
• Staying Safe
• Growing Up
• British Values
• Successful Learning
• Paragraph Challenge
• Healthy Heart Project
• Diversity
• Charity week

Year 8 Overview

Students are taught the following topics in Year 8:

• Respecting Yourself and Others!
• Young People and the law
• Healthy Mind & Body
• We need to talk about racism
• Savvy social media
• Environmental issues
• GCSE options & Careers
• Successful learning
• Diversity week
• Charity week
• Self-esteem & Body Confidence workshop

GCSE Overview

Students are taught the following topics in Years 9:

• ‘Safer choices’ programme 1
• ‘Safer choices’ programme 2
• Under the skin project
• Healthy relationships
• IT workplace skills
• Staying safe
• Prevent
• Drugs – delivered by Thames Valley Police
• Positive futures
• Successful learning
• Diversity week

Students are taught the following topics in Years 10:

• Expect Respect Programme
• Global Citizenship
• MUNGA
• IT functional skills/workplace skills
• Respectful relationships
• Community First Aid
• Rights & Responsibilities
• Healthy Living
• Successful learning

Students are taught the following topics in Years 11:

• Expect Respect Programme
• Employability passport
• Revision/independent learning
• Life skills

Year 12 Overview

The following topics are covered in Extension Studies, year group assemblies and form times:

• – Respectful relationships and sex education:  consent; identifying coercive relationships; issues with pornography; living with HIV
• – Exercising your democratic rights as an adult: how to register to vote; Mock General Election
• – Personal safety: police talk; online safety
• – Driving safety:  County’s ‘Go Drive’ programme and ‘Driving with Grace’
• – Issues of justice:  life in a US prison delivered by a reformed drug dealer; debate about rehabilitation; options to enter Mock Bar Trial Competition or get involved with Amnesty’s ‘Write for Rights’ Campaign
• – Healthy living:  self-care; Anthony Nolan stem cell doner presentation: Alcoholics Anonymous presentation
• – Personal skills and career goals:  university, apprenticeship and gap year presentations; crafting a Personal Statement; application for our School Employability Award
• – Entrepreneurial skills: options to take part in Young Enterprise or Green Schools’ Eco Challenge
•  – Enrichment and Employability: All students also take part in our Wednesday Period 5 Enrichment and Employability hour where they complete one of the following activities:  sport; sports leaders; EPQ; Young Enterprise, Debate Society; Peer Mediators; volunteering at the local primary school, pre-school and at the Wednesday Club for the elderly in the village.  They can also become Reading and Maths Mentors or volunteer in lower school lessons.
• – Student Leadership:  Students are invited to apply to become Heads of School, Senior Prefects or Prefects in the February of Year 12.  They become ambassadors for the school and role models for their peers and younger students.  They complete a weekly prefect duty to support with behaviour around the school site; many students deliver a whole school assembly every Thursday or a year group assembly during their time in Sixth Form.  They also meet with the Sixth Form Team regularly to represent student voice.  They can also join a Student Leadership group to help us lead the ‘Waddesdon Way’.  See here for more information about their actions and impact:  https://www.waddesdonschool.com/living-out-our-values/

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Year 13 Overview

The following topics are covered in year group assemblies, form times and additional activities at breaktimes and after school:

• – Personal Safety:  SAME Academy Safe Driving Workshop; the Law at 18 delivered by the police
• – Post 18 applications:  refining Personal Statements and cover letters; CV workshops; LinkedIn profile form time; honing your interview technique; one to one interview support, including assessment centres.
• – Financial wellbeing:  university student finance; living independently; budgeting; managing credit cards and loans; mortgages
• -Mental wellbeing:  managing stress; coping with exam stress; wellbeing hour in a study period
• -School focus weeks:  Year 13 students often help staff to lead initiatives, such as Diversity Week, Charity Week, LGBTQ+ Awareness Week, World Mental Health Day, Voter Registration Day, and so on.
• -Issues of Justice:  students are invited to enter the Mock Bar Trial Competition and Debate Society
• – Student Leadership:  Students are invited to apply to become Heads of School, Senior Prefects or Prefects in the February of Year 12 and carry out these roles into Year 13.  They become ambassadors for the school and role models for their peers and younger students.  They complete a weekly prefect duty to support with behaviour around the school site; many students deliver a whole school assembly every Thursday or a year group assembly during their time in Sixth Form.  They also meet with the Sixth Form Team regularly to represent student voice.  They can also join a Student Leadership group to help us lead the ‘Waddesdon Way’.  They can apply for a School Leadership Award which recognises their personal qualities and skills.  See here for more information about their actions and impact: https://www.waddesdonschool.com/living-out-our-values/

Assessment Overview

Citizenship and PSHE lessons are not graded for the purpose of exams because students do not sit exams in these subjects. Knowledge is built over a five-year period to enable students to learn about a wide range of issues in an age-appropriate way. A specialist team of staff teach the same block of lessons and are therefore able to assess students using a wide range of informal assessment methods.  Self-reflection is a key element of Citizenship and PSHE and the most effective way of ensuring progress.

Some citizenship and PSHE lessons include assessment, or review sessions which enable students to consolidate their knowledge before moving on to a new lesson, discussion or topical debate.

Planned co-curricular activities further support students’ knowledge and understanding in Citizenship and CP.  These include the Healthy Heart Project in Year 7 and The Model United Nations General Assembly in Year 10.

In addition, the role of Sixth Form student leaders enhances student knowledge and understanding in activities such as Peer Support and the ‘We Need to talk about Racism’ student working group.

Events such as Remembrance Day and Holocaust Memorial Day draw attention to relevant national and global commemoration and the students’ active role in understanding these events.  Students also take part in General Election campaigns and representatives from our student body sit on the Student Council as well as Youth Parliament.