Noak Bridge Personal, Social & Health Education.
Relationship, Sex & Health Education
PSHE Lead: Mrs C Barrett
We use the 'Dot Com Digital' programme to help us deliver a rich PSHE curriculum. Created with children, safeguarding leads, Essex Police and the National Police Chief Council Lead for Internet Intelligence and Investigations, Dot Com Digital keeps up to date with current trends and issues reported by children and the police.
We teach PSHE through discreet lessons. Difficult scenarios are presented to the children using central characters. Through Dot’s real-life stories, children can learn about risks they might come across in life and how they can deal with them in a safe way. Dot also talks about her feelings and so models to children, ways that they can share their own worries and concerns.
One of the key mechanisms in the programme is the Dot Minute approach, whereby if children have something very important that they feel worried about, they can ask for a Dot Minute with their teacher to discuss their concern or worry.
* The Dot minute does not supersede our safeguarding protocols.
The aim of our curriculum is to empower children by giving them knowledge about real life risks, helping them to develop positive behaviours and values, learning how to ask for help and keep safe whilst building a secure safety network around them (helping hand).
The Dot Com programme meets statutory outcomes of the RSE Statutory Guidance (2026).
Statutory elements of the Relationships and Health education:
- families and people who care for me
- caring relationships
- respectful, kind relationships
- online safety and awareness
- being safe
- general wellbeing
- wellbeing online
- physical health and fitness
- healthy eating
- drugs, alcohol, tobacco and vaping
- health protection and prevention
- personal safety
- basic first aid
- developing bodies
The Dot Com Digital programme also covers (at an age appropriate level):
- County lines
- Emergency services
- Grooming
- Knife crime
- Hate crime
- Safe decisions
Following a consultation with our stakeholders we have decided to teach primary sex education in Year 6 in line with content about conception and birth, which forms part of the national curriculum for science.
Pupils in Year 5 will receive lessons about puberty (preparing boys and girls for the changes that adolescence brings) and the life cycle which is covered through the Animals including humans’ topic also in our Science curriculum.
Primary sex education will focus on:
- Preparing boys and girls for the changes that adolescence brings
- How a baby is conceived and born
We intend for our curriculum to be accessible to all children and they will be taught in a safe atmosphere where they can express their feelings and explore sensitive issues. Children will develop the skills to empathise with others and develop their own identity, values and beliefs and to further consolidate our school ethos and values.
We may further consolidate elements of our curriculum through assemblies, workshops and awareness days.
RPSHE Dot Com Digital whole school progression by theme
Picture News Assemblies
Picture News is an educational current affairs resource which brings real-world events into our classrooms providing meaningful learning opportunities, supporting discussion, and critical thinking.
Each weekly unit starts with a big question and related image based on a news story, to encourage debate and discussion. The assembly explains the story, and includes additional open questions for meaningful discussion.