Sarah Anyan, class teacher and PSHE subject leader, shares why Discovery Education Health and Relationships is her go-to-resource for primary RSHE
About me
Name: Sarah Anyan
Job role: Year 4 teacher and PSHE subject leader
School: Iveson Primary in Leeds
How did you discover the programme?
When the new RSHE curriculum was launched, we started looking for resources to support our teaching.
We came across Discovery Education Health and Relationships, which is a complete digital scheme of work for primary RSHE.
It gives us coverage across the whole school, supports our planning and delivery, and has definitely increased teacher confidence.
How does the programme support teachers?
Health and Relationships provides lesson plans, videos and activities to help our teachers meet the statutory RSHE guidance.
It saves us a huge amount of planning time. Each lesson is mapped out with objectives, resources and success criteria. It’s all there.
The programme also supports teachers to create a safe teaching and learning environment.
It helps us to set ground rules at the start of each lesson and to encourage pupil questions.
We use comment boxes, so that our pupils can ask questions anonymously or simply share something to make their friends smile.
What do pupils like about the programme?
Our pupils really enjoy learning with Health and Relationships.
They like the fact that we can sit down together and talk about things. Sometimes we cover difficult subjects, but that’s OK because we all respect each other and our classroom is a safe space.
We try to end each lesson with something positive, perhaps relaxation or sharing jokes!
The content is age-appropriate and engaging. The videos are presented by real children, so they’re very relatable.
They’re a great starting point for exploring topics such as friendships, relationships and mental health.
Why is this programme different to other RSHE resources?
Good RSHE teaching should reflect real life and Health and Relationships does this very well.
Pupils see their own experiences reflected. The sex education resources cover topics such as Caesarean Sections and IVF, which are very real issues for many families.
We can use the programme to teach flexibly, taking our lead from the children.
Sometimes a video might spark a discussion that takes things in a different direction.
Health and Relationships follows a spiral curriculum and as subject leader, I find the built-in progression grid helpful.
I can clearly evidence pupil progress and show what we’ve been teaching during each half term.
Our pupil voice interviews show that it’s having a positive impact for the children as well as teachers, which is really lovely.
Will it work for you?
- Health and Relationships provides an all-in-one digital RSHE programme for primary schools.
- It provides lesson materials, teacher support and advice for measuring progress – all in one place!
- The resources are centred around child-led videos to help pupils relate to subjects.
- Preview the Preview the programme for yourself at discoveryeducation.co.uk/rse
