Blackfell Primary School
Personal, Social and Health Education (P.S.H.E)
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (S.M.S.C)
Relationships, Sex & Health Education (R.S.H.E)
Intent
At Blackfell Primary School the aim of our Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) sessions is to deliver a curriculum accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child, enabling them to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. To help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. The children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.
Based on the Rosenshine Principles by providing instructional support; teaching new material in manageable amounts; good use of modelling; helping children when they have made errors and providing for sufficient practice and review we ensure that the children at our school efficiently acquire, rehearse, and connect background knowledge.
The aims of teaching PSHE, RSHE, SMSC & Emotional Wellbeing in our school are to:
- Deliverance of a PSHE curriculum developing learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills, enabling all children access to the wider curriculum and to prepare them to be global citizens now and in their future roles within a global community.
- Deliver a curriculum with appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding to fulfil and provide a ‘balanced and broadly-based curriculum. A curriculum promoting the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of children, preparing them for the opportunities and responsibilities and experiences for later life.
- Deliver a PSHE curriculum incorporating the understanding of RSHE, enabling all children to feel safe, understand and develop healthy relationships both now and in their future lives.
- Deliver and resource, an RSHE programme of work within the PSHE curriculum, enabling children to explore the complexity of the relationships they have both now and will have throughout their lives.
- Provide an age-appropriate curriculum, building knowledge and life skills over time in a way that prepares children for issues they will soon face.
- Recognise different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships and dealing with strangers.
- Recognise, understand and build healthy relationships, including self-respect and respect for others, commitment, tolerance, boundaries and consent, managing conflict, and to recognise unhealthy relationships including online relationships.
- Understand how relationships may affect health and wellbeing, including mental health.
- Understand healthy bodies, lifestyles, including keeping safe (including online), puberty, drugs and alcohol education
- Develop healthy minds, including emotional wellbeing, resilience and mental health
- Develop economic wellbeing and financial capability and how to make a positive contribution to society
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
During Key Stages 1 and 2 children gradually build on the skills, attitudes, values, knowledge and understanding they began to acquire and develop during the Early Years Foundation Stage. PSHE/ and RSHE education offers varied learning opportunities and experiences, which reflect the increasing independence, physical and social awareness of the children move through each 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 Stage 1. The PSHE curriculum assists children to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.
PSHE
Blackfell Primary School follow the SEAL (Social Emotional Aspects of learning) programme. This supports and enriches it with other objectives from the PSHE curriculum. All classes have a discrete and planned curriculum time to deliver the SEAL and PSHE learning intentions. All class teachers are responsible for teaching their part of the curriculum. New themes linked to SEAL curriculum are introduced at the beginning of every half term and teachers reinforce and raise awareness of the themes through other lessons and activities during the day and through the use of a whole school focus on the key skills each half-term. SEAL and PSHE are developed through other activities, such as, healthy dinners and snacks, school council, charity events, Anti-bullying week, working within the local community and visitors into school. All children are involved in the SEAL and PSHE curriculum. Teaching styles and planning provide suitable learning challenges; a response to diverse needs; a range of different activities and an attempt to overcome potential barriers to learning. Where identified, small group work is provided to the children who have different needs in their social and emotional learning. A range of teaching strategies are employed to provide the breadth of effective learning opportunities in the curriculum for all children. These include:
- Discussion (teacher and pupil led)
- Encouragement of active participation from all children
- Individual, paired and group tasks
- Responding to class/individual needs and issues, providing discrete sessions to promote pupils’ personal and social development
- Circle time
- Role play and drama
- Handling issues outside the classroom in a calm manner, encouraging the children to reflect on their own behaviour. This involves providing support and ideas in relation to solving problems independently.
- Modelling good practice in attitude, commitment and work ethic.
- Use of ICT and a range of other resources
- Visits, trips and visitors into school - developing responsible citizens is also interwoven within other curriculum areas. For example, when taken on a trip, the children are encouraged to show respect for members of the public and visit leaders listening and showing appreciation for their time.
- Cross Curricular links are made in all other curriculum subjects to ensure the effect delivery of PSHE.
- Blackfell Primary are part of Operation Encompass, an initiative enhancing communication between the police and schools where a child is at risk from domestic abuse. The purpose of which is to share information and ensure that we have more information to support the safeguarding of our children. By knowing that the child has had this experience, the school is in a better position to understand and be supportive of the child's needs and possible behaviours. Operation Encompass complements existing safeguarding procedures that are in place within our school.
The SEAL curriculum covers all year groups from EYFS through to Year 6. Each class visit the same themes each year, adding to their learning and developing their skills as they move through school. The themes covered include:
- New Beginnings
- Getting on and Falling out
- Going for goals
- Good to be me
- Relationships
- Changes
The deliverance of PSHE is supported by Blackfell’s 5 R’s resources. The 5 R’s resources include:
- R - Risk-taking (Monkey)
- R – Relationships (Elephant)
- R- Resilience (Penguin)
- R - Resourcefulness (Beaver)
- R – Reflection (Fox)
The 5 R resources are displayed around school, in each class and used in assemblies to support the deliverance of PSHE within school.
RSHE
RSHE is part of the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum in school. Some aspects are also taught within the Science and R.E curriculum. In RSHE, Blackfell Primary uses an interactive scheme of work and resources from the Family Planning Association (FPA). Through the FPA the children are introduced to ‘Yasmine & Tom’, relatable characters for children aged 5 -11. The scheme of work provides Blackfell with flexible, whole school age appropriate lessons, covering topics including the body, relationships, families, friendship, online and offline safety, and puberty. The children are taught about relationships and encouraged to discuss the changes that happen as they grow up. Blackfell teach about the parts of the body, including the anatomical names, inappropriate touching, why males and females are different and explain the changes that will happen during puberty. The children are encouraged to talk freely and ask for help if they need it. By the end of Key Stage 2 all children are taught to know why their bodies change during puberty, how to manage puberty, how babies are made and born in the context of an adult sexual relationship. We teach this with due regard for the emotional development of the children.
Within EYFS the children learn the concept of male and female and about young animals. Through ongoing PSHE work, they develop skills to form friendships and think about relationships with others. Key Stage 1 focus on RSHE work through science, children learn about the life cycles of some animals, understand the idea of growing from young to old and that all living things reproduce. They identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the body and learn about the importance of personal hygiene to maintain good health. In RE, children reflect on family relationships, different family groups and friendship. They learn about rituals and traditions associated with birth, marriage and death and talk about the emotions involved. They begin to co-operate with others in work and play and begin to recognise the range of human emotions and ways to deal with them. They also learn about personal safety. Through science in Key Stage 2 children build upon their knowledge of life cycles and learn about the basic biology of human reproduction. In RE, they continue to develop an understanding of relationships within a family, between friends, community and that there are different patterns of friendship. They develop skills needed to form relationships and to respect other people’s emotions and feelings. They consider how to make simple choices and exercise some basic techniques for resisting pressures. Blackfell are aware that the primary role in children’s RSHE lies with parents and carers. therefore, building a positive and supporting relationship with parents/carers through mutual trust, understanding and co-operation is essential. Promoting this is achieved by providing access to RSHE policy, regular letters/newsletters via school website and app.
SMSC
At Blackfell we recognise that the personal development of children, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve, 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 therefore, provide an education that allows children opportunities to explore and develop their own values and beliefs, spiritual awareness, high standards of personal behaviour, positive and caring attitude towards other people, an understanding of their social and cultural traditions and appreciation of the diversity and richness of different cultures. We ensure that children understand how the culture(s) in which they live influences individual thinking. All curriculum areas contribute to the child’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and opportunities to achieve this are planned in each area of the curriculum. Staff model and promote expected behaviour, treating all people equally as unique and valuable individuals, showing concern and respect for the children and their families. All curriculum areas use illustrations and examples drawn from as wide a range of cultural contexts as possible. The school community is a place where children find acceptance for themselves as unique individuals and where forgiveness and the opportunity to start again is fundamental to the ethos of the school.
Implementation of SMSC takes place across all curriculum areas, within activities encouraging children to recognise the spiritual dimension of their learning, reflecting on the significance of what they are learning, and recognising any challenges that there may be to their own attitude and lifestyle. Teaching across the school focuses on skills and attitudes enabling children to develop socially, morally, spiritually and culturally – e.g. empathy, respect, open mindedness, sensitivity, critical awareness, etc. Through class discussions the children have the opportunity to:
- Talk about personal experiences and feelings.
- Express and clarify their own ideas and beliefs, share thoughts and feelings with other people.
- Speak about difficult events, e.g. bullying, death etc.
- Explore relationships with friends/family/others, considering others needs and behaviour.
- Show empathy.
- Develop self-esteem and a respect for others.
- Develop a sense of belonging.
Blackfell’s board and balance curriculum provides further opportunities to:
- Listen and talk to each other.
- Learn an awareness of treating all as equals, and accepting people who are physically, mentally, culturally and spiritually different.
- Agree and disagree.
- Take turns and share equipment.
- Work co-operatively and collaboratively.
Emotional Wellbeing
Blackfell Primary School are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our whole school community. We provide a supportive and caring ethos and our approach is respectful and kind, where each individual and contribution is valued. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable at times and anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play. Emotional wellbeing is interwoven throughout our curriculum and encompasses every day life in school. We help and support our children by providing opportunities to:
- Understand emotions and feelings
- Feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
- Socially form and maintain relationships
- Promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they count
- Be confident and ‘dare to be different’
- Develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks.
We promote a mentally healthy environment through:
- Promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging
- Promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
- Celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
- Providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
- Providing opportunities to reflect
- Access to appropriate support that meets their needs
Impact
PSHE and RSHE, SMSC and Emotional Wellbeing is delivered by class teachers who take responsibility for planning, resourcing and delivering the curriculum. Beyond the planned curriculum, we provide children with a variety of experiences that have the potential to promote their personal, social development and economic education. These include:
- Whole School Celebration Assemblies
- Class Assemblies
- Circle time
- Sports clubs and participating in cluster school tournaments & competitions
- Drama and music activities and productions
- Residential & cultural visits, day trips, theatre visits
- Clubs – school band, singing, arts & crafts, mindfulness, dance, team games
- Fund raising events
- Theme days/events, for example, World of Work, Black History, World Book Day, Anti-Bullying
- Mini Enterprise projects
Our PSHE and RSHE curriculum is high quality, well thought out and planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills which form part of the units of work. We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Assessing children’s understanding and use of knowledge 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/RSHE/SMSC education is active and participatory, helping children to recognise the progress they make in developing and taking part, as well as in their knowledge and understanding. Children learn to reflect on their experiences, ask questions, make judgements about their strengths and needs
- Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning
- Images and videos of the children’s practical learning
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
- Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum
- Governor monitoring with the PSHE/RSHE/SMSC and Mental Health and Wellbeing link governors.
- Dedicated leadership time.
- Leadership opportunities, for example Playground monitors, School Council representatives, Mental Health & Wellbeing representatives, Anti-bullying representatives and peer mentors.
- 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.
Mrs. Hutchinson
September 2021