Year 1 PSHE Scheme of Work
Year 1 PSHE lays the essential personal, social and emotional foundations for all future learning. Pupils begin to develop a language for their feelings, understand what makes them safe and healthy, and build an appreciation of the different families and communities they belong to. These earliest years are crucial: children who can name and manage their emotions, recognise trusted adults, and understand basic rules of safety are far better placed to thrive both in school and beyond.
The six units across the year are carefully sequenced to move from the deeply personal — feelings and family — outward to the wider world of community and change. Statutory RSE strands are introduced in age-appropriate ways throughout, including an early and positive introduction to how bodies grow and change. Throughout, the emphasis is on creating a safe, inclusive classroom climate in which every child feels valued and heard.
Expected prior knowledge
- ✓An awareness of their own feelings, including being able to name some basic emotions such as happy, sad or worried.
- ✓Some experience of working and playing alongside others in an early years or Reception setting.
- ✓A basic understanding of what it means to be safe, including awareness of some familiar rules.
Units across the year
Six half-term units covering all strands of the KS2 PSHE programme of study.
Feelings and Emotions
- –Recognise and name a range of emotions and understand what may cause them.
- –Develop strategies for managing difficult feelings in healthy ways.
- –Understand that all feelings are valid and that it is important to talk about them.
- –Sort pictures of faces into emotion categories and discuss what each feeling looks like and when we might feel it.
- –Create an emotions wheel showing a range of feelings with matching colours and facial expressions.
- –Role-play scenarios in which a character experiences different emotions and discuss helpful responses.
- –Write or draw in an emotions journal about a time they felt a strong feeling and what they did.
Families and Friendships
- –Understand that families can look different but that all families share love and care.
- –Identify the qualities of a good friend and practise being a good friend.
- –Begin to understand the difference between friendships that make us feel good and those that do not.
- –Draw and share a picture of their family, celebrating the different shapes families can take.
- –Identify qualities of a good friend using a class discussion and create a 'friendship qualities' display.
- –Practise giving and receiving compliments through a circle-time activity.
- –Read a picture book featuring different family structures and discuss what makes each family special.
Keeping Safe — Rules and Staying Safe
- –Understand why rules exist and how they keep us and others safe.
- –Identify safe and unsafe situations in familiar environments.
- –Know what to do and who to tell if they feel unsafe.
- –Create a class charter of rules, discussing why each rule matters for everyone's safety and wellbeing.
- –Sort pictures of everyday situations into safe and unsafe, justifying choices in pairs.
- –Identify trusted adults in school and at home who children can go to for help.
- –Practise a simple personal safety script: notice, think, tell a trusted adult.
Healthy Bodies and Minds
- –Understand what we mean by being healthy and why it matters.
- –Identify healthy food choices and the importance of physical activity.
- –Recognise the link between physical health and emotional wellbeing.
- –Sort a range of foods into everyday foods and occasional treats, discussing what our bodies need.
- –Design a healthy plate for a school lunch using a plate template and food images.
- –Explore different ways to be physically active and create a class activity challenge.
- –Discuss what it feels like in our bodies when we have slept well, eaten well and exercised.
Being Part of a Community
- –Understand what a community is and identify the different communities they belong to.
- –Recognise how people in a community help each other and contribute to shared life.
- –Begin to understand the importance of looking after shared spaces and the environment.
- –Map the different communities each pupil belongs to: family, class, school, neighbourhood, wider groups.
- –Match community helpers to the roles they play and discuss how each one contributes to the community.
- –Create a class project on how they can make a positive contribution to their school community.
- –Discuss why it is important to take care of shared spaces, parks and the local environment.
Growing and Changing
- –Understand that all living things grow and change over time.
- –Recognise that our bodies change as we grow from babies to children to adults.
- –Celebrate similarities and differences between ourselves and others.
- –Sequence photographs of a human life journey from baby to elderly adult and discuss changes at each stage.
- –Compare what they could do as a baby with what they can do now, celebrating growth and new skills.
- –Explore similarities and differences among classmates in a respectful way, emphasising that difference is positive.
- –Discuss feelings about growing up and changing, creating a 'things I am looking forward to' display.
Progression into Year 2
In Year 2, pupils build on their understanding of emotions and healthy lifestyles by exploring mental health in more depth, developing vocabulary around feelings and coping strategies. The families and friendships strand is extended to examine how relationships can be positive or negative, and the safety strand moves beyond rules to consider how to respond to specific situations involving strangers and trusted adults.
Individual lesson plans
Full lesson frameworks — learning objectives, vocabulary, lesson structure, and common misconceptions — for each unit in this scheme.
View all Year 1 PSHE lesson plans →