The aim for the PSHE curriculum across school is that children learn about and begin to understand a range of factors that may affect them in their own lives. Closely relating to the school’s core values, children learn life skills, resilience and are taught how to look after their own emotional, physical and financial wellbeing. We believe that this is the best way to set children up for their lives in modern Britain.
Through Recognising, Reflecting and Responding to each area of the curriculum, our core intent is to enable all pupils to strive to :
▪ Develop understanding of their personal Health and Wellbeing through recognising attitudes, behaviours and influences of others
▪ Develop an awareness of relationships, how to control emotions and changes that occur as they grow
▪ Understand people’s contribution to the modern world through discussions on workplaces, laws and citizenship.
PSHE is taught discretely using lessons provided through the 3D Scheme, however opportunities are taken wherever possible to make cross-curricular links. Challenge and enrichment are provided and developed through opportunities such as School Council, House Captains and in-class systems such as classroom responsibilities and working partners, as well as one-off opportunities like the Parliament box and visits from MPs. Assemblies help to embed the school’s core values, underpin children’s understanding of British Values and develop understanding of SMSC. Staff follow a process model to ensure that children become increasingly adept at ‘Thinking like a Responsible Citizen’.
This incorporates the following stages of learning:
• Question and discussion – introducing the Big Question for the unit, discussing past experiences and children’s understanding of the topic
• Response –A range of strategies that allow children to respond appropriately to the questions, problems and ideas that develop and arise from discussion and understanding of the Big Question
• Reflection – further understanding of how the work, discussions and activities may help them in the future, and how their responses link to the School’s core values
For all our pupils to achieve, both learning more and remembering more, our method of teaching incorporates specific meta-cognitive strategies to enable all pupils to retain the learning of both skills and knowledge.
This is typically applied by:
✓ Activating prior knowledge
✓ Small step teaching delivery
✓ Independent practice
✓ Feedback
Appropriate levels of challenge are provided for pupils to allow for the development of metacognitive strategies and avoid cognitive overload.