Wellbeing
The aim of Wellbeing at Westminster is to provide all pupils with a holistic curriculum that transcends individual lessons, enabling valuable messages to become a part of whole-school life, supporting pupils into adulthood. To achieve this goal, all pupils follow a ‘Spiral Curriculum’, designed so that important themes outlined in the statutory guidance (DfE, 2020), our RSE policy and beyond are revisited throughout a pupil’s time at Westminster: key messages are reinforced and built upon each year at developmentally appropriate stages.
The curriculum is divided into three main themes:
- Health and Wellbeing – puberty, mental health, resilience, keeping active, and healthy eating.
- Relationships – respectful and healthy relationships (both on and offline), kindness and sex education.
- Living in the Wider World – career planning, financial literacy and exploring our rights and responsibilities.
Our aim is to help pupils to:
- respect differences of attitudes and opinions;
- challenge discrimination and stereotypes;
- develop resilience to be able to recover from setbacks and challenging periods in their lives;
- build the capacity to forge positive relationships;
- understand intimacy, including romantic and sexual intimacy;
- know how to access support and advice around all aspects of health (sexual, mental or physical);
- have a basic understanding of the law (including the Equality Act 2010) as relates to relationships, consent and sexual activity.
Timetabled lessons for the Fifth Form (Year 9) and Sixth Form (Year 12) are delivered by teachers who have on-going professional development training across a range of RSE and PSHE topics, and who are also experienced teachers of other subjects at Westminster.
The delivery of material is supplemented by external providers throughout the academic year, as well as by Tutors. The Head of Wellbeing and the Heads of Year liaise to ensure that tutorial material is appropriate and in line with the spiral curriculum for each year group. The Heads of Year in turn ensure that their tutor team are well equipped to deliver follow-up content, which will also be shared with parents throughout the year as necessary, so that support on these topics may continue at home: this allows for a multifaceted approach, allowing for reflection and discussion with staff members as well as parents.
Contact the Head of Wellbeing
emma.blakemore@westminster.org.uk