Subject Policy

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Policy

How do we teach PSHE, SMSC, RSE and Emotional Wellbeing?

Intent:

At Longton Primary School we aim to create a happy, purposeful and supportive environment where children are enabled to become successful learners, develop their full potential and achieve the highest educational standards they can.  We have a passionate commitment to learning and recognition of the uniqueness of individual learners.  It is driven by our desire to offer the best possible education for our pupils in partnership with parents, Governors and the local community.  We believe a collaborative culture is fundamental in enabling children to develop personally and emotionally, and as young citizens.  Children grow up in a complex and ever-changing world and are exposed to an increasing range of influences.  

As a school we aim to build on and complement the learning that has already started at home to provide the knowledge, understanding and skills that children need to lead healthy, fulfilling and meaningful lives, both now and in the future.  Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) are central to our school’s ethos, supporting children in their development, and underpinning learning in the classroom, school, and in the wider community.  This is why we have worked hard to embed the ‘Jigsaw’ curriculum and become a flagship school.  Values are fundamental expressions of what we think and believe.  

As a school we encourage children to think about personal and social values, to become aware of, and involved in the life and concerns of their community and society, and so develop their capacity to be active and effective future citizens.  PSHE education equips children with the knowledge, understanding, skills and strategies required to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives.  It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices, and in achieving economic wellbeing.  

A critical component of PSHE education is providing opportunities for children to reflect on, and clarify, their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and, sometimes conflicting, range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future.  PSHE education is taught as a planned, developmental programme of learning through which children acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future.  As part of a whole-school approach, PSHE education develops the qualities and attributes pupils need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society.  Further it can help reduce or remove many of the barriers to learning experienced by pupils, significantly improving their capacity to learn and achieve.  

PSHE education also makes a significant contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development, their behaviour and safety, and to their emotional wellbeing.  PSHE education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings.  Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.

The overarching aim for PSHE education is to provide pupils with:

• Accurate and relevant knowledge.
• Opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding.
• Opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary, challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities.
• The skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.

Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers

All children will have Quality First Teaching.  Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs.  As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.

Implementation:

A Longton Primary School we have had a comprehensive PSHE curriculum for many years. The Government have now stated that from September 2020 RSE (Relationships Education) and Health Education will be compulsory in all Primary schools. Parents will still have the opportunity to withdraw their child from any additional Sex Education lessons taught in PSHE if they wish to do so, at Longton Primary school our definition of sex education is given below and how it will be being delivered.

Relationships Education.

Relationships Education teaches the fundamental building blocks of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with other children and adults.

This includes taking turns, treating people with kindness and respect, the importance of honesty, truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept or personal privacy.

The Statutory guidance categorises these areas as

• Families and the people who care for me
• Caring Friendship’s
• Respectful relationships
• On-line relationships
• Being safe

 

Health Education.

This refers to both physical health and mental well being.  This teaches children about the characteristics of good physical and mental health to enable them to make good decisions about their own health and well-being and see how these 2 areas are interlinked.

Health education promotes the development of strategies for self-regulation, confidence building, perseverance and resilience within a climate of openness.  Within this area Puberty including menstruation will be covered to ensure children are prepared for the changes that they and their peers will experience.

The statutory guidance categorises these areas as

• Mental wellbeing
• Internet safety and harm
• Physical health and fitness
• healthy eating
• Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco
• Health and prevention
• Basic first aid
• Changing Adolescent body

Sex Education

At Longton Primary school we define sex education as Human reproduction.  This is taught in year 6 as part of our Science curriculum under the national curriculum objective (parents cannot withdraw their child from science lessons)

• describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.

This will explain that male and female parts come together to create new life in animals and how they develop. It will be explained that this process happens in animals and humans. Some examples will be given of both. 

• describe the changes as humans develop to old age

This will look at the development of a baby during pregnancy and of an embryo in an egg and comparisons made.  This will also compare the gestation periods of different animals. 

 

 

 

 

Our Longton Curriculum

In the absence of a government programme of study we have drawn on guidance from the PSHE Association and also the ‘Jigsaw’ curriculum in revising our Curriculum Framework for PSHE to ensure that it meets the needs of our pupils in today’s changing society.  The Framework identifies the key concepts and skills that underpin PSHE education and help us to fulfil our statutory responsibility to support children’s spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development, and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.

At Longton school we teach from the Jigsaw programme of learning and enhance this with additional lessons which are specific to the needs of our children.  PSHE education is integrated into other curriculum areas mainly English, science, computing, Design Technology and physical education; and is taught as a spiral programme to ensure learning in PSHE is revisited, reinforced and extended in age- and stage-appropriate contexts. Our  LPS + (Learning with character programme) provides further  opportunities for our children to flourish.

The whole school follows the Jigsaw units, 1 per half term.

• Being me in my World
• Celebrating Difference
• Dreams and Goals
• Healthy me
• Relationships
• Changing Me.

This curriculum has been matched to the Statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education and additional lessons have been added to meet the needs of our pupils here at Longton.  

 

LPS+ programme is structured under the headings

• Career and Stem
• Charity and Service
• Games and Competitions
• Leadership
• PSHE and spiritual formation
• Artistic impression

 

 

 

Emotional Wellbeing

At Longton Primary School, we aim to promote positive Mental Health for every member of our school community including, staff, pupils and families.  We pursue this aim using both universal, whole school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable pupils. 

To support this, we have a designated person who runs the ‘Relax Kids’ and ‘Confident Me’ programme.  We also make use of specialist teachers when necessary.

Teaching & Learning:

PSHE education is taught to all children, whatever their ability, in accordance with the school curriculum policy of providing a broad and balanced education to all children. Teachers provide learning opportunities matched to the needs of children with learning difficulties.

As a health promoting school our culture places teaching and learning in the wider context of the schools’ approach to:

• Leadership, management and managing change.
• Policy development.
• Learning and teaching, curriculum planning and resourcing.
• School ethos, culture, environment and SMSC development.
• Giving children a voice.
• Provision of support services for pupils.
• Staff continuing professional development (CPD), health and wellbeing.
• Partnerships with parents/carers, local communities, external agencies and volunteers to support pupils’ health and wellbeing.

Early Years Foundation Stage:

Personal social and emotional development in the EYFS.  Personal, social and emotional development (PSED) supports children to learn to get on with others and make friends, understand and talk about feelings, learn about 'right' and 'wrong', develop independence and ultimately feel good about themselves.

Responding to questions:

Children are inquisitive and they will have questions, we want the children to feel safe to be able to ask those questions.  During lessons which may contain complex issues there are options to post a named or anonymous question to the adult if they feel unable to ask in class.  Whether asked in class or via the box teachers will only answer questions which cover content from their year group curriculum.  Children will be encouraged to ask their parents for the answers to other questions.

 

 

Impact:

Recording and monitoring impact and outcomes:

During Key Stages 1 and 2 pupils gradually build on the skills, attitudes and values, knowledge and understanding they have started to acquire and develop during the Early Years Foundation Stage.  PSHE education offers learning opportunities and experiences which reflect the increasing independence, and physical and social awareness of our pupils as they move through the primary phase.  They learn skills to develop effective relationships, assume greater personal responsibility and keep themselves safe.  It is important to remain flexible as events such as bereavement might require learning to be drawn from Key Stage 2 into Key Stages 1.  PSHE education assists pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.

Our school uses the Jigsaw programme as a basis for curriculum planning as well as the units of work.  PSHE education is taught by class teachers who take responsibility for planning, resourcing and delivering the PSHE curriculum.  Beyond the planned programme for PSHE education, the curriculum provides children with a variety of experiences that have the potential to promote their personal, social development and economic education.  These include:

• Assemblies of Celebration
• Circle time
• Sports clubs and participating in inter-school and county tournaments & competitions
• Drama and music activities and productions
• Residential visits and day trips
• Clubs - singing, drama, art & craft, mindfulness, first aid, yoga & active citizens
• Social and fund-raising events
• Theme days/events, for example Arts week, World Book Day, Subject days
• Mini enterprise projects
• Charity events
• Leadership opportunities, for example Playground Leaders, representatives on our School Parliament, Eco-school Council and PE & Sports leaders.

PSHE education gives children specific opportunities to explore the range of attitudes and values in society, and to consider the kind of society they want to live in.  Through exploration and discussion of topical political, spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues they develop skills and attitudes that promote:

• Empathy and a willingness to perceive and understand the interests, beliefs and viewpoints of others.
• A willingness and ability to apply reasoning skills to problems and to value a respect for truth and evidence in forming or holding opinions.
• A willingness and ability to participate in decision-making, to value freedom, to choose between alternatives and to value fairness as a basis for making and judging decisions.
• These attributes also contribute to our understanding of British Values.

We also measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

In PSHE education there are two broad areas for assessment:

• Children’s knowledge and understanding, for example, information on health, understanding of rules, understanding of health and safety procedures, and the meaning of ideas including democracy.
• How well children can use their knowledge and understanding in developing skills and attitudes, for example through participating in discussions, group task and activities, managing conflict, making decisions and promoting positive relationships.

Assessment in PSHE education should be active and participatory, helping children to recognise the progress they are making in developing and taking part, as well as in their knowledge and understanding.  Children should learn to reflect on their experiences, ask questions, make judgements about their strengths and needs, and begin to plan how to make progress and set personal targets.  Teachers assess children’s work in PSHE education by making informal judgements as they observe them during lessons and at other times during the school day.  Progress in PSHE education  is recorded and reported to parents as part of the child’s annual school report.