Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)

Intent:

At Wivelsfield Primary School, we believe that PSHE is a valuable tool which will enhance the children’s education by giving them the knowledge, understanding, skills and strategies to become confident, considerate and respectful members of the school and wider community. Often, there are challenging and conflicting situations, but by giving the children the space and opportunity to reflect, they are able to clarify their own values and attitudes while developing empathy for others. With an emphasis on emotional literacy, communication skills and resilience, we can nurture mental and physical health and well-being through a shared and cohesive whole school approach. To enable this, we believe in the importance of mindfulness which can improve the children’s emotional awareness, focus and concentration.

Implementation:

We aim to prepare the children for the future, helping them know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in an every-changing world. We implement our PSHE learning by using the Opening Young Minds scheme of work, taught throughout all year groups. This scheme is taught through Let's Talk and the Careers Journey. These sessions are sequenced so new knowledge and skills build on previous learning. Let's Talk helps children realise the importance of talking about what worries them and what challenges them. Then everyone can talk together about how best to tackle issues so that children understand that they are not alone. With the right approach these challenges can be the stepping stones to a successful life. Careers Journey takes the children on a journey through 66 different careers across 10 different sectors. Lessons are designed so that children experience the tasks involved in each career like pitching for a new range of athletic clothes for Nike as a fashion designer or managing a budget for a new hotel chain. Lessons can be adapted to meet the needs of the children within each class to ensure relevance and the biggest impact. National Health data for the local area will be used to influence planning to help prepare children for later life.

Teaching strategies are varied and are mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation. Opening Young Minds is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme at the same time.

The skills, themes and values are embedded throughout the school, in classrooms, during assemblies and woven into our behaviour policy to support and encourage the children to interact positively and respectfully with each other, therefore linking the areas of learning.

Impact:

Monitoring and assessment is an on-going process for PSHE; teacher’s use their AfL (assessment for learning) as necessary, as well as learning being recorded in children's journals or for Early Years, on Tapestry. Pupil voice, staff voice and parental/carer voice all form part of our ongoing assessments to measure the impact of the subject.

As a result of the PSHE curriculum, children at Wivelsfield Primary School develop a positive mind-set, self-confidence and an increased understanding of the impact that individuals’ actions can have on their own and others’ lives. Children demonstrate a progression of knowledge and skills throughout their school life which they continuously build on and embed. Children are given every opportunity to develop fundamental life-skills necessary in order to become well-rounded people in the wider-world.