Intent:
At Palmer, the PSHE curriculum will prepare children to live in an increasingly complex world which presents both positive and exciting opportunities as well as challenges and risk. It will achieve this by helping them develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they will need to manage their lives now and in the future.
By the time they leave Palmer, children will have an essential understanding of how to stay healthy. They will be taught about the concept of mental wellbeing and how to take care of themselves and receive support if mental health issues arise. They will understand the key building blocks of respectful relationships that focus on family and friends in all contexts, including online. They will be skilled in managing their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way and know how to manage their personal safety by assessing and handling risk. They will be prepared to make the most of life and work and live in the wider world. The children will be introduced to influential people who have overcome adversity, modelled a particular positive attribute or made significant change in our world.
The curriculum has been written in consultation with parents/carers and the wider community in line with statutory requirements.
Implementation:
All year groups will follow the same sequence of topics each academic year, ensuring that learning from previous years is revisited and extended, adding new concepts, knowledge and skills, year on year as appropriate. These topics are:
Term 1: Being Me in My World
Term 2: Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
Term 3: Dreams and Goals
Term 4: Healthy Me
Term 5: Relationships
Term 6: Changing Me (including Rse)
PSHE will be taught from a mindful approach, developed in three main ways:
- Through the ‘Calm Me’ time in each lesson. This consists of breathing techniques, awareness exercises and visualisations, enabling children not to empty their minds but to quiet them and become aware of the activity within them and manage it positively.
- Through the taught curriculum. Lessons help children to explore their thoughts and feelings, to expand their emotional vocabulary, explore thoughts-feelings-consequence sequences, build their confidence and express themselves in a safe environment.
- Through the ‘Pause Points’ in lessons which ask children to ‘Stop and look inside’ to practise observing their thoughts and feelings relating to what they are learning about in that lesson.
Lessons are structured and involve six sections, designed to support pupils’ capacity to learn:
- Improve their social skills to better enable collaborative learning (Connect us)
- Relax their bodies and calm their minds to prepare them for learning (Calm me)
- Help the brain to focus on specific learning intentions (Open my mind)
- Initiate new learning (Tell me or show me)
- Facilitate learning activities to reinforce the new learning (Let me learn)
- Support them in reflecting on their learning and personal development (Help me reflect)
Each child (Years 1-6) will have a jigsaw journal containing their work and reflections through each topic. This can also be a valuable tool during transition to the next year group.
Each lesson (Y1-6) has a formative assessment activity that children can use to self/peer assess their understanding in that lesson.
Impact:
Our PSHE curriculum is planned to demonstrate skills, knowledge and vocabulary progression to ensure age related attainment at the end of each Key Stage. Upon completion of each unit teachers will assess children against the progression of skills and knowledge document.
Assessment is in relation to each of the core themes:
- Health and wellbeing
- Relationships
- Living in the wider world
Termly assessment will take place to track children’s progress against age related expectations for PSHE.
Useful Documents
Jigsaw 3-11 and Statutory Relationships and Health Education Map