We are delighted to launch our newly updated Planning Framework for Pupils with SEND.
We know how vital PSHE education is in special settings, and how widely-used our Planning Framework is to ensure adaptable, accessible learning for pupils with a range of special educational needs and disabilities.
Here’s an overview of the new Planning Framework, what’s changed, and steps we’ve taken to help your pupils get the most out of their PSHE learning.
You can also download our accompanying 'what's changed' document showing where changes have been made to the existing Framework.
As with all of our work, feedback from our community of members has been at the heart of the update process. And we want to start by thanking all the individual special schools, academy trusts and specialist charities who have given us their time and expertise during this process.
Reassuringly for those schools who have been using our Planning Framework for a while, much of what you’ll find will be very familiar.
We continue to use the same structure of the six core themes: Self-awareness, Self-care support and safety, Managing feelings, Changing and growing, Healthy lifestyles and The world I live in.
We have also retained many of the existing learning opportunities that we know are working well and already meeting learning requirements across the framework.
But we’ve also made some exciting changes and updates to ensure the new Planning Framework is as user friendly and up to date as possible. So, let’s explore these in more detail:
Firstly, we know special schools want a clear understanding of what content is statutory, and to know exactly where and how they are meeting all the statutory requirements for RSHE. In line with our latest Programme of Study, we have therefore added codes against each learning outcome, clearly linking them to the content in the statutory guidance.
Secondly, to align with the new RSHE statutory requirements, we have additional content to some of the existing sections, for example in healthy eating and physical activity you will find more detailed learning about preparing healthy meals and being active. We have also added detail to learning about dealing with touch, public and private, and getting on with others, to name a few.
Next, to fully meet statutory requirements for both relationships (sex) and health education, we have created new learning grids throughout the framework. We encourage you to pay special attention to the new learning included here:
Beyond the crucial changes to ensure alignment with the new statutory RSHE guidance, there are other developments and improvements we’ve made to the latest Planning Framework that have come out of our work with teachers in special settings.
For example, we know that schools working with pupils who have complex and multiple learning difficulties need the most support to tailor learning for these children. With this in mind, we have provided finer grading between progress stages — expanding from six to seven stages of learning for more nuanced tracking and planning. We have added the ‘exploring’ stage between ‘encountering’ and ‘foundation’ to provide more detailed bridging between these stages, and more learning opportunities in these adjacent stages too.
You can find more support to plan PSHE for pupils with multiple and complex needs in our Enhancing PSHE for pupils with SEND activity ideas.
We also know that pupils with SEND need detailed learning to seek help should issues arise, to know who to speak to and how to raise concerns with confidence. We have therefore added new learning grids to Self-awareness focusing specifically on teaching pupils how to get help. We anticipate these being taught across all contexts of PSHE topics and units.
In The World I live in, we’ve added new content to support older pupils with SEND to prepare for independent living, outlining the practical skills they will need to develop.
After much consideration, we have provided long-term curriculum models to demonstrate how schools might sequence learning at different ages across the six core themes and across half terms. Whilst we recognise that special schools will be designing their PSHE curricular in many different ways, feedback from the schools we worked with was overwhelmingly positive about this feature. This addition will bring the Planning Framework for Pupils with SEND in line with our mainstream curriculum models. We encourage you to adapt these to your setting and pupil needs as you see fit but hope they provide a starting point for you to plan a sequenced, age-appropriate model for learning.
Finally, we have added a new appendix providing resource recommendations. These highlight resources designed specifically for special schools that have been written or quality assured by the PSHE Association. We hope to keep adding to this as more resources are developed and will continue to let you know when this page is updated.
We would love to hear your feedback on the new Planning Framework for Pupils with SEND, and look forward to exploring its uses and applications with you on one of our SEND-focused live CPD courses in the new academic year.