“Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way.” (DfE, 2019, Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education)

What must primary schools teach in Relationships Education, Health Education and Sex Education?

From September 2020, Relationships and Health Education are compulsory in all primary schools in England. For primary aged children this includes curriculum content under two headings (DfE 2019):

Relationships Education

Families and people who care for me

Caring Friendships

Respectful Relationships

Online Relationships

Being safe

Health Education

Mental wellbeing

Internet safety and harms

Physical health and fitness

Healthy Eating

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco

Health and prevention

Basic first aid

Changing adolescent body

Jigsaw PSHE is a comprehensive and completely original Scheme of Work (lesson plans) for the whole primary school. The Jigsaw teaching materials integrate Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE), emotional literacy, social skills, mindfulness, and spiritual development in a whole-school approach.

The expectations of the DfE Relationships and Health Education guidance are woven throughout Jigsaw but specifically covered in the Relationships and Healthy Me Puzzles (units), with puberty and human reproduction being taught in the Changing Me Puzzle.

The Jigsaw PSHE lessons aim to give children their entitlement to information about relationships, puberty and human reproduction, appropriate to their ages and stages of development. This work is treated in a matter-of-fact and sensitive manner and helps children to cope with change, including puberty, and to learn about healthy relationships.

There are six Puzzles (units): Being me in My World, Celebrating Difference, Dreams and Goals, Healthy Me, Relationships, Changing Me: each with six lessons. These are sequenced from the beginning to the end of the school year. The Relationships and Changing Me Puzzles are taught in the Summer Term.

Jigsaw has been approved by the Church of England. These document aims to support Church of England schools using Jigsaw PSHE to see how Jigsaw aligns to and works with ‘Goodness and Mercy’

It takes the Progression Outcomes Statements from the Diocese of Bristol ‘Goodness and Mercy’ programme and gives examples of where this topic is evident within primary and secondary Jigsaw PSHE.

As Jigsaw is a spiral curriculum, where topics are introduced and learning built week on week and year on year, the areas listed in the bullet points are or could be covered progressively throughout the lessons listed. For detail of how Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, fully meets the DfE Statutory RSHE Guidance in lesson-by-lesson detail, please see our Jigsaw mapping documents.

The areas in orange, which are specifically the remit of Church Schools, are not detailed explicitly in Jigsaw PSHE, but could easily be included at the teacher’s discretion.