PSHE

Intent:

Our aim at Sowerby is to grow courageous learners. As part of our school philosophy, we encourage a growth mindset in our teaching and learning approach and through our positive behaviour policy.

Our PSHE curriculum is underpinned by our school values of Resilience, Courage, Acceptance, Kindness and Respect. We aim to foster these values in all that we do across the wider Sowerby curriculum and to explicitly teach these as part of our discreet PSHE curriculum.

We value the importance of children’s mental health and wellbeing and aim to promote and support this in school. We recognise the vital role that quality PSHE provision has in safeguarding children and their rights and responsibilities in our modern world.

Our curriculum also takes into account local issues affecting the children in our school. We know our children, their families and community well and so include discussion and experiences which are relevant to them.

Implementation:

Our scheme of learning for our discrete PSHE teaching, ensures that there is robust coverage and progression which is matched to the PSHE association’s guidance on the statutory requirements of the curriculum. This programme also helps us to regularly teach mindfulness practise through weekly ‘Calm Me’ scripts.

PSHE is taught as weekly lessons across school. Children are encouraged to discuss and reflect on new ideas and take part in collaborative games and activities. They are taught to recognise and talk about their own feelings and experiences. We discuss and follow a charter for this which includes the right to pass if they do not feel comfortable in sharing publicly and the right for what they say to be treated sensitively by others. Their work across a unit of work is recorded as they go along on a double paged spread, where they can record the development of their understanding. In KS2 this is in the back of their topic books. EYFS and KS1 use larger scrap books and record their journeys as a class. Having mixed-age classes, we have taken the decision to run a 2-year rolling program in Key Stages, apart from the RSE curriculum which is taught in discreet year groups. We use additional resources from ‘Busy Bodies’ to support this part of the curriculum.

In addition to this, PSHE themes are covered through our timetable of daily acts of worship in school and class assemblies. (e.g. Modern British Values, Awareness Campaigns, Visits from local religious groups) Additional experiences are planned to support areas pertinent to the children. (e.g. PANTs campaign, police visits, fire safety etc.)

Impact:

At Sowerby, we have children who know they will be treated with respect, listened to and supported. They have voiced that they find it useful talking to their class teachers. They say that they have found it particularly useful to have the opportunity to discuss fears and worries about Covid and the impact of social distancing, self-isolation and home learning. Families were extremely grateful for weekly calls during lockdown and the level of discussion with both parents and children to support their personal and social needs.

Children and teachers have both fed back positively about the Jigsaw curriculum. In particular, children have found mindfulness teaching and practise beneficial in learning how to take time to relax and manage their thoughts and emotions. As we move through our first full cycle of the programme this academic year, we expect to see further development of this and in children’s knowledge and understanding of the PSHE curriculum.