PSHE
PSHE Curriculum Intent Statement
Intent
At Abbey Village Primary School, we want our children to understand how to develop the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepared for life. Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education enables our children to become healthy, independent, and responsible members of a society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social, and cultural issues that are part of growing up. it is our intent that all children will be ‘lifelong learners’ with the confidence and ability to develop their skills and understanding when having new experiences, meeting new challenges, and finding themselves in unfamiliar situations. We offer a nurturing learning environment in which each child is encouraged to develop their full potential and where their achievements and successes are celebrated and rewarded. As a school, we believe that children are all individuals and therefore, we aim to encourage mutual respect, responsibility, and foster self-esteem in a happy and caring atmosphere. Our children are provided with many opportunities to develop their sense of self-worth by contributing to school life and the wider community.
We have eight key priorities at Abbey Village that underpin every subject area and further support our PSHE curriculum. We believe that by focusing on these key priorities our children will be ready to successfully meet the challenges of the next stage of their education and their lives.
Implementation
What does it look like?
At Abbey Village, we are aware that the delivered curriculum must reflect the needs of our pupils. We expect teachers to use the PSHE programme (SCARF/Jigsaw) to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions. We believe that the purpose of PSHE education is to build, where appropriate, on the statutory guidance outlined in the Relationships Education.
PSHE is a vital part of primary education and as well as discrete focused lessons, it is also embedded throughout the curriculum and reinforced during circle time. PSHE is integral to the development of children’s values in order for them to become a positive citizen in a forever changing community.
PSHE in the Early Years:
PSHE sits within the areas of personal, social and emotional development and understanding of the world. From an early age, the children at Abbey Village School learn to develop respectful communication and they are aware of the feelings and wishes of others. In Reception, the children participate in weekly circle time. The continuous provision is planned to provide the children with the opportunity to further develop the skills that they have learnt and then to use them independently. The youngest learners in the school are exposed too and participate in upholding our British Values. The children are encouraged to listen, be kind to each other and share with others.
Here at Abbey Village Primary School, we ensure that sufficient time is given to the teaching of PSHE in order to enable pupils to meet the expectations set out in the National Curriculum programme of study. PSHE planning is personalised to the needs of our children in each class, based upon their age and maturity. We ensure that a clear and comprehensive scheme of work is followed and in line with the National Curriculum. The scheme is divided into units which cover the following focuses:
- Keeping safe and managing risk
- Mental health and emotional well-being
- Physical health and well-being
- Drug, alcohol, and tobacco education
- Financial capability and economic well-being
- Identity, society, and equality
- Sex and Relationship education
We use all opportunities in our wider curriculum to make links to PSHE and the language is used consistently by all staff. The PSHE association indicates that PSHE, when taught well, helps keep children and young people safe, physically, and emotionally healthy and prepared for life and work.
Key stage 1 and 2
PSHE is an important part of school assemblies were children’s spiritual, moral, social, and cultural curiosity is stimulated, challenged and nurtured.
Through our PSHE curriculum, we recognise our duty to actively promote and provide opportunity for children to understand the fundamental British Values – Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance. Our school assemblies allow for this to happen effectively. We believe that irrespective of faith and belief, all children should become fair, tolerant, and confident in a forever changing world. Alongside our assemblies, we ensure that our display boards around school reinforce the vital teachings of PSHE and enable children to make links between these. We use big books to evidence our class sessions, activities thoughts and ideas and particular days that we as a school participate in. (E.g., Young Minds, Yellow Day, NSPCC Number Day). We ourselves, encourage all of our children to better themselves and become confident and competent learners.
We value the voice of all of our children at Abbey Village and have a strong relationship. At Abbey Village we pride ourselves and having a pro-active Pupil Council. Research into Pupil Voice suggests that strong pupil participation can support school improvement by helping the school to identify future priorities and make more informed decisions on wellbeing, learning experiences and the quality of teaching. Through their involvement, pupils develop valuable personal and social skills such as listening skills and working with others.
Impact
Here at Abbey Village, we seek to ensure that the PSHE that we teach, improves the physical and social wellbeing of all our children to have a ready willingness and ability to try new things, push themselves and persevere. Our children will be resilient learners and to be challenged to think independently. Ensure that they have a good understanding of how to stay safe, healthy and develop good relationships. All children will have an appreciation of what it means to be a positive member of the community. They will develop a strong self-awareness, interlinked with compassion for others. We strive for them to be the best that they can be. Together, we will achieve this.
We seek to ensure that the PSHE that we teach, improves the physical and social well-being of pupils. Through our PSHE education, we believe we can enhance children’s education and help them to become caring, respectful, aspirational, and confident individuals.