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PSHCE

Intent

PSHE aims to ensure that all children feel happy, healthy and safe, that we equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society. We aim to put in place the building blocks needed for positive and safe relationships of all kinds. Our children are being educated about a range of different relationships and that mental wellbeing is central. The focus is on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other peers and adults.

This should include:

  • Online safety
  • Teaching about family dynamics and different family structures including young carers
  • Resilience
  • Values (or character attributes/’virtues’)
  • Providing planned opportunities to undertake social action/active citizenship /voluntary service to others locally or more widely.
  • Preventing abuse by teaching about boundaries & privacy

There will be a focus on teaching the characteristics of good physical health and mental wellbeing within the following 8 areas:

  • Mental well being
  • Internet safety and harms
  • Physical health and fitness
  • Healthy Eating
  • Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
  • Health and prevention
  • Basic First Aid
  • Changing adolescent body

All of these subjects will be set in the context of a wider whole-school approach to supporting pupils to be safe, happy and prepared for life beyond school. PSHE will sit within the context of a school’s broader ethos and approach to developing pupils socially, morally, spiritually and culturally; and its pastoral care system. This is also the case for teaching on mental health within health education. The curriculum on health education will similarly complement, and be supported by, the school’s wider education on healthy lifestyles through physical education, food technology, science and its sport, extra-curricular activity and school food.

The programme of study includes three core themes:

  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Living in the Wider World

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.

Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) enables children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. Pupils are actively encouraged to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community. In doing so we help to develop pupils’ sense of worth and we teach them how society is organised and governed. We teach them about their rights and responsibilities and enable them to learn to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a culturally diverse society.

We are committed to providing a caring, friendly and safe environment for all pupils so they can learn and develop in a relaxed and secure environment. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all pupils is extremely important and pupils are supported on a daily basis through the school’s ethos, during assemblies and across many areas of the curriculum including PSHE and Computing sessions.

Implementation

We actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of the law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with other faiths and beliefs. These values are reinforced regularly in the ways outlined below.

PSHE is taught as a discrete subject by the class teacher every week and across the curriculum using conscious connections to enable it to be embedded. In addition to this, PSHE forms an integral part of the ethos of the school. Pupils attend assemblies led by members of staff and are also provided with a range of everyday experiences which play an important part in promoting the social, moral, spiritual, cultural, economic, mental and physical development of our pupils.

PSHE is taught through a range of teaching and learning styles appropriate to the activity and emphasis is placed on active learning. Lessons can include discussion, practical work, drama, role-play, research, circle time, mind mapping, debating, receiving visitors and class work following a visiting speaker.

While the children are in the lower part of the school the children learn about themselves as developing individuals and as members of their communities, building on their own experiences and on the early learning goals for personal, social and emotional development. They learn the basic rules and skills for keeping themselves healthy and safe and for behaving well. They have opportunities to show they can take some responsibility for themselves and their environment. They begin to learn about their own and other people’s feelings and become aware of the views, needs and rights of other children and older people. As members of a class and school community, they learn social skills such as how to share, take turns, play, help others, resolve simple arguments and resist bullying. They begin to take an active part in the life of the school and its neighbourhood.

While the children are in the upper part of the school pupils learn about themselves as growing and changing individuals with their own experiences and ideas, and as members of their communities. They become more mature, independent and self-confident. They learn about the wider world and the interdependence of communities within it. They develop their sense of social justice and moral responsibility and begin to understand that their own choices and behaviour can affect local, national or global issues and political and social institutions. They learn how to take part more fully in school and community activities. As they begin to develop into young adults, they face the changes of puberty and transfer to secondary school with support and encouragement from their school. They learn how to make more confident and informed choices about their health and environment; to take more responsibility, individually and as a group, for their own learning; and to resist bullying

 

Impact

Through our teaching we aim to enable the children to:

  • Know and understand what constitutes a healthy lifestyle;
  • Be aware of safety issues both on and offline;
  • Develop self-confidence and self-esteem, resilience and character and make informed choices regarding personal and social issues;
  • Develop personal attributes including kindness, integrity, generosity and honesty;
  • Recognise potential risks and know how to manage these risks safely;
  • Understand what makes good healthy relationships with others;
  • Be independent and responsible members of the school community;
  • Be positive and active members of a democratic society;
  • Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process, including respect for the basis on which law is made and applied in England.
  • Accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative and understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality in which the school is situated and to society more widely;
  • Distinguish between right and wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England;
  • Develop positive relationships with other members of the school and the wider community;
  • Encourage respect for other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010;
  • Further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling pupils to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures;
  • Acquire a broad general knowledge and respect for public institutions and services in England;