Intent
Wythenshawe is in the top 20% of deprived areas in England and the number of children that receive pupil premium funding is almost double the national figures. Here, at Button Lane Primary School we value PSHE as one way to support children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning. Our Jigsaw scheme of work brings consistency and progression to our children’s learning, including: emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development.
At Button Lane Primary School PSHE is at the core of what we do and enables our children to become independent, confident, healthy and responsible members of their community. We believe that if attention is paid to supporting children’s personal development in a structured and developmentally appropriate way, this will not only improve their capacity to learn (across the curriculum) but will ultimately improve their life chances and enable them to thrive. Our PSHE lessons improve children’s social skills to better enable collaborative learning; teach mindfulness techniques to relax and calm their minds for learning; help the brain to focus on specific learning intentions; and initiate new learning. Jigsaw has a strong focus on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing physical and mental health. Whilst using a mindful approach allowing children to learn to build their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
We want our children to be proud of their achievements, have high aspirations, and the self-belief to realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it. In an ever–changing world, it is important that they are aware (at an age appropriate level) of different factors which will affect their world and that they learn how to deal with these so that they have good mental health and well-being and strive for equality.
Our Relationships and Sex Education enables our children to learn how to be safe, and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.
Implementation
Our PSHE lessons are taught using 'Jigsaw', which is a spiral, progressive scheme of work and aims to prepare children for life, helping them to know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever changing world. We have a strong emphasis on building emotional Literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. We include mindfulness to allow children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
Our Relationship and Sex Education enables our children to learn how to be safe and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives. Our curriculum ensures children have an understanding of the full diversity of the world they live in and be prepared for life in modern Britain.
PSHE is taught through Jigsaw's six half termly themes with each year group completing the same unit at the same time, but at their own level:
Autumn 1: Being Me in My World
Autumn 2: Celebrating Differences (Including Anti- Bullying)
Spring 1: Dreams and Goals
Spring 2: Healthy Me
Summer 1: Relationships
Summer 2: Changing Me
Within each unit, British Values links are made.
Our wider curriculum incorporates all of our aims and vision for school. PSHE, SMSC and British Values are an integral part of the whole school curriculum. Our wider enrichment activities help to support our PSHE curriculum e.g. Mental Health Week, Safer Internet Day and are celebrated as a whole school community. Visitors such as the NSPCC, PCSOs, Bikeability , the school nurse compliment our school curriculum to offer additional learning. We hold weekly whole school assemblies and collective worship that are linked to PSHE, British Values and SMSC and cover any additional sessions relevant to our whole school.
Throughout all of our lessons in school, we believe in supporting children to develop their resilience, independence and confidence, through embracing challenge, fostering a love of learning. We do this through the language we use in class, praising children for their efforts and using language to change their level of thinking. We encourage all of our children to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. We challenge all of our children to look for opportunities to show the school values of resilience, empower, self belief, pride, equality, community and thrive.
Impact
As a result of our PSHE and RSE curriculum, children will:
- Develop the skills they need to flourish in the wider curriculum and in life
- Be prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life, to reach their full potential as individuals and within society
- Recognise that they belong to our school community and a wider community
- Be active members of our school community, valuing and being valued as individuals
- Be emotionally aware and resilient and have a greater understanding of who they are and their place in the world using appropriate vocabulary to communicate this and to discuss their feelings and recognise their emotions and applying this to all aspects of their life.
- Be equipped with the skills to enable them to adapt, grow and be active citizens within an ever-changing world.
- Be able to apply strategies to look after their mental health and wellbeing.
- Know how to stay safe
We use appropriate assessment tools to inform our teaching and learning and to measure the impact of the curriculum we have created. We vary our approach to assessment to ensure it is tailored towards each subject. Each Jigsaw lesson is mapped out with two learning objectives; one specific to Relationships and Health Education (PSHE) and the other designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills. We assess our children in PSHE through observational assessments of discussions and work that take place during PSHE lessons. The final lesson of each unit of work is an opportunity for our children to apply their learning. For some jigsaw units, where appropriate, we work as a whole school community to create a collaborative piece of work, bringing our community together and celebrating their learning. Pupil voice and monitoring activities support our judgements that we make within the Jigsaw curriculum.
PSHE Curriculum Documents
PSHE Whole School Overview and Progression
Personal, Social and Emotional Development Progression
National Curriculum Aims, DFE Guidance and Coverage