The PSHE curriculum at Woodlands encourages students to develop the knowledge and skills to live a healthy, safe and fulfilled life now and in the future.
In Personal, Social, Healthy and Economic Education lessons, our students are provided with many opportunities to develop essential skills, knowledge and understanding, and to consider their own attitudes and values, which are key in enabling students to feel confident in making sense of their own life experiences, now and in the future.
Lessons build upon AWS’ CORE values (Courage, Optimism, Regard and Endeavour) to encourage students to become active and empathetic members of society. The curriculum is broad, and topics are developed to help students to be aware of their emotional, mental, physical, and economic wellbeing. It educates students about how to stay safe and how to be effective life-long learners with an understanding of their own self-worth, values, and morals.
The PSHE and Careers curriculum follows four broad themes:
- Healthy Relationships (including RSHE)
- Living in the Wider World
- Health and Wellbeing
- Careers Education
PSHE and Careers lessons are taught by form tutors, in tutor groups. Topics covered are detailed in the Learning Journey and long-term plan, found on this page.
RSE Subject Information
At Allestree Woodlands School, we believe that Relationships, Sex and Education (RSE) is a key opportunity to promote the themes of safety, equality and inclusion. We are committed to keep reflecting on and developing an RSHE curriculum that makes every pupil feel valued, by learning about themes that are important and age-appropriate for them.
Our RSHE curriculum is aimed at keeping all of our students well-informed and safe. We place a focus on consent, equality, challenging stereotypes and challenging sexism in RSHE lessons and encourage students to avoid ‘risky’ behaviour, in order to be a force for good in society.
As you may be aware, there are several changes to the RSE guidance for schools, effective from September 2026. These updates place a stronger emphasis on keeping young people safe and informed in a rapidly changing world. This includes earlier and clearer teaching around online risks, such as artificial intelligence and manipulated images, as well as a greater focus on real-life safety in public and social situations. There is also an increased focus on helping students understand healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviours, including issues such as coercion, manipulation, and misogyny, alongside more explicit teaching about consent and the law. In addition, the guidance strengthens how schools address topics such as pornography, loneliness, and emotional wellbeing, ensuring pupils can critically evaluate influences around them. Overall, the changes are designed to better equip students with the knowledge and confidence to make safe, respectful, and informed decisions as they grow up.
To access the Government’s RSE guidance, please click here(opens in new tab).
As our curriculum evolves to best meet the needs of our students, and the wider context around RSE changes, we need to work with parents and carers to ensure that students are being best supported in the PSHE lessons.
As part of this, we kindly ask you to give feedback to our current provision and planned changes. You will find our up-to-date Curriculum Map, RSE Policy and a Feedback Form below.
Please take the time to familiarise yourself with these documents and take the opportunity to complete the feedback form. Your thoughts and ideas are greatly appreciated and feedback will be offered on this page going forward.
Please click the buttons below to access The Two Counties Trust’s RSE Policy and our family RSE consultation feedback form.