Vision for PSHE (including SRE)

Personal, social and health and economic education, or PSHE, aims to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding to lead confident, healthy and independent lives.

Intent

At Great Kingshill we ensure that PSHE, alongside our Christian Values (Love, Courage, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect and Truth),is at the core of our curriculum.

Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of responsibility by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and in the wider community. We provide a programme of study which helps develop our children’s health and wellbeing, relationships and their ability to make positive contributions to the wider world.

As a result of our teaching children will become healthy, independent and responsible members of a society, who understand how they are developing personally and socially. It will give them the confidence to tackle many of the moral, social, spiritual and cultural issues that are part of growing up and are essential for all stages of their lives.

We recognise the importance of developing awareness of mental wellbeing and empathy across the school and in their community.  We develop our children’s emotional intelligence and the ability to articulate their feelings in order to maintain good mental health as well as understanding the importance of their physical health and being healthy. We are proud to hold the National Nurturing Schools Award which recognises our commitment to supporting our children holistically. At Great Kingshill we promote a growth mindset  and mindfulness approach, which enables our children to become resilient, flexible learners who develop a love for knowledge and a positive attitude towards the future.

We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. They gain an understanding of Fundamental British Values and learn how this impacts on us all.   

Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth and wellbeing through the responsibilities they have and the contributions they make to our school.

Implementation

At Great Kingshill School our PSHE programme of study is based upon the Jigsaw programme each organised into half term units: 

Autumn Term: Being me in my World and Celebrating Difference

Spring Term: Dreams and Goals and Healthy Me

Summer Term: Relationships and Changing Me 

Planning

Our teachers used the agree timetable to plan lessons over the year ensuring that the key concepts and skills identified by the programme of study, and a broad range of topics are taught under the umbrella themes detailed above.  These topics can be seen in more detail within our Scheme of Work document below.

At Great Kingshill we understand the importance of a flexible PSHE curriculum and ensure teachers respond to any specific needs as they arise. Lessons use a variety of teaching methods including: discussion, debate, individual and small group work, written work, games and drama. Work is recorded in a variety of ways including individual books and working together class books. It is not always appropriate to record work within a PSHE lesson but the evidence of learning and progress made will be evident in pupil reflection and assessment tasks. At Great Kingshill our PSHE is taught as a discreet weekly lesson. Links are made within other curriculum areas including collective worship and weekly Picture News. Planned enrichment days also take place each year, examples of which include an Anti-Bullying Day, World Mental Health Day and an Online Safety Day. Further aspects of Great Kingshill School which support and develop the delivery of the PSHE curriculum come through the work of the school council and the charity work that our children are involved with.

Assessment

At Great Kingshill we set the same high  expectations for PSHE as it is for other curriculum areas. It is important to recognise that assessment in PSHE is not about passing and failing or about behavioural outcomes. The most meaningful assessment model is assessing where a pupil is at the end of a lesson or series of lessons against where they were at the start. Assessment for learning (for example: questioning, mini-plenary and reflection) is built in to lessons to give children chance to consider how they are developing and how the PSHE curriculum is impacting on their lives (personal qualities, attitude, skills, attributes, achievements and influences). Assessment of learning at the end of learning will show how much impact lessons have had and show progress made from the starting point and inform future teaching.