Rosie’s Story

About these free teaching plans for PSHE

Rosie’s Story is a fun and interactive two-part lesson plan for use in PSHE teaching for Upper Key Stage 2 pupils devised by Prof. Anne Barlow and Dr Jan Ewing at Exeter Law School in collaboration with two leading national charities, The National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) and The National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC). It deals with the difficult subject of parental separation and is based on interdisciplinary research findings from The HeaRT Project, funded by the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.

The evidence-based resources support the statutory Relationships Education (RE) curriculum and The PSHE Association’s Programme of Study 2020. The lesson plans have been awarded the prestigious quality mark approval from The PSHE Association, demonstrating that they are at the leading edge of effective teaching practice in PSHE. In choosing to use these resources in your teaching, you can be confident that they meet the rigorous standards set by The PSHE Association for quality mark approval.

The parents of approximately 280,000 children separate each year, most before the child reaches the age of 11. Lesson 1 introduces pupils to Rosie, aged 9, whose parents have separated. The lesson normalises the range of emotions that children may feel if their parents separate. This should help children come to terms with parental separation or support others going through this transition. In an age-appropriate way, lesson 2 introduces pupils to their rights under Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to information, consultation, and, if needed, representation when parents separate. The lesson aims to demystify the legal processes and provide children with details of sources of support and how to access them when parents separate.

Both lessons have slides and a Teacher Guide to assist in preparation. Using a ‘rights’ theme, a fun infographic reinforces learning from the lessons. Laminated A3 copies of the infographic for classroom walls are available free of charge by emailing J.Ewing@exeter.ac.uk.

We have also produced The Rights Idea? lesson plans on children’s rights when parents separate for Upper Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils, which have PSHE Association and Association for Citizenship Teaching quality mark approval.