PSHE

PSHE at Prince Rock

Intent

Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) is a planned programme of learning through which children acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future.

As a multi-academy trust, we will provide a curriculum which meets the needs of all children. Section 78 of the Education Act 2002, and the Academies Act 2010, stipulate that such a curriculum ‘satisfies the requirements … if it is a balanced and broadly based curriculum which:

promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and
prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

This is essential to Ofsted judgements in relation to personal development, behaviour, welfare and safeguarding.

PSHE education is vital to our curriculum and to meeting the schools’ requirement to promote pupils’ health and wellbeing. The Department for Education (DfE) has made it clear that schools should make provision for PSHE education.

As part of a whole school and MAT wide approach, PSHE develops the qualities and attributes children need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society. PSHE education should address both pupils’ direct experience and preparation for their future.

Our overarching aim for PSHE education is to provide pupils with:

relevant knowledge as appropriate to their age and stage of learning
opportunities to enhance their personal knowledge and understanding
opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary, challenge their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities
the language, skills and strategies they need in order to live a healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced life.

Implementation

Our programme of learning is based on six ‘core themes’:

Being me in my school/world
Celebrating Difference
Dreams and Goals
Healthy Me
Relationships
Changing Me

At Prince Rock, we use the Jigsaw programme to structure our PSHE education scheme of work. Lessons are delivered weekly and as interventions, as necessary. This mindful approach to PSHE covers all statutory aspects of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) along with Health education. These lessons are tailored and personalised to address specific needs within classes and supplement whole school events such as Friendship Week, E-Safety Day and Healthy Eating Week. The concepts of each term are introduced to the whole school through a ‘Cultural Capital’ assembly, further promoting the importance of Jigsaw PSHE lessons to the whole school community. The scheme encapsulates Modern British Values education and spirals, building progressively to prepare our children to be resilient in our ever-changing world. The School Council, Prince Rock Parliament, Governing Body and parents are consulted and are vital to making sure that PSHE at Prince Rock really meets the needs of our pupils, families and the wider community.

Whilst our spiraling curriculum identifies a broad range of important issues that pupils should learn about, we feel it is essential that our children’s experience of PSHE education is not simply a series of ‘one-off’, disconnected sessions each on a different topic and focusing only on factual content. The curriculum will provide a relevant context for pupils to both broaden and deepen their understanding of the key concepts and to develop competence in the essential skills. We therefore aim to provide a cohesive, progressive PSHE curriculum which will prepare our children to become happy, well-rounded and successful citizen in today’s society.

The Jigsaw Approach for the Early Years Foundation Stage:

The Jigsaw Approach has mindfulness underpinning it. This means that as well as teaching information and skills to empower children to learn now, and improve their life-chances later, we also aim to help them develop personal awareness. This enables them to observe their own thoughts and feelings, regulate them and make conscious decisions about their learning, behaviour and lives. It helps them to remain focused on the present moment, enjoy it and thrive in it.

Jigsaw brings together PSHE Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. Teaching strategies are varied, mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation. Jigsaw is designed as a whole school approach, all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. This enables each Puzzle to start with an introductory assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike.

The Jigsaw Approach for Key stages 1 and 2:

During Key Stages 1 and 2 learners gradually build on the skills, attitudes and values, knowledge and understanding they have started to acquire and develop during the Early Years Foundation Stage. PSHE education through Jigsaw offers learning opportunities and experiences, which reflect the increasing independence, and physical and social awareness of our learners as they move through primary school. 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 Stages 1. PSHE education assists pupils to cope with their emotional and mental health, physically changing bodies, it also introduces them to a wider world and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities in their time at school and in the future.

Impact

At Prince Rock, we assess the children's knowledge, understanding and progression within PSHE through targeted and careful questioning during Jigsaw lessons. We design varied opportunities for children to record their responses (e.g. speech bubbles, diagrams, drama, pictures) and record them in the Class Jigsaw Journals. This is then referred to at the start of each lesson, along with planned 're-wind' (retrieval) questions, to check on the children's understanding and to recap prior learning.

Enrichment

We know that our children learn best when they are having fun, and we design each Jigsaw lesson to include fun and objective-enhancing games as part of it's structure in the 'connect us' section. We hold an annual Friendship Week, where the children take part in engaging activities and competitions to reinforce our anti-bullying week message. This is then followed by annual and 'E-Safety Week' to improve physical health and also online relationships. We also supplement our curriculum with visitor assemblies including the RNLI, guests from many different religions, the local P.C.S.Os, the library, the Dog's Trust, S.T.E.M companies, our local M.P, dentists and many, many more. Building on the success of the School Council visiting playgrounds, the Prince Rock Parliament will shortly be holding open surgeries in the playgrounds to ensure that the children's voices are always heard and prioritised. We respond to the needs of our local area, inviting children's entertainers to teach the children about road safety and skills needed to cross the busy roads. We also had a visit from the NSPCC and their 'PANTasaurus' mascot to teach children about the 'pants are private' message. Our local Policing Team came to work with our Year Fives to complete a six week mini-police' project, to positively reinforce working alongside police officers and also to explore how to stay safe online. We hold an annual 'Parliament Week', where children learn about our democracy through actively using democratic voting in their classroom. We have even spoken to our local M.P through Zoom and asked him some probing and important questions! Our fantastic Prince Rock Parliament works to create great fundraising opportunities for charities, teaching children the importance of compassion and working together.

We feel that these visitors and workshops enhance our PSHE curriculum, inspire children to broaden their cultural capital and aspirations and encourage them to be safe and to form positive relationships.

School Council

The school council work together to improve our school. They attend weekly sessions and share key messages with their classes. During our weekly PSHE lessons, they gather thoughts and opinions of their classmates regarding whole school initiatives, charity support and upcoming events.

Here are our wonderful school councillors for 2023/2024!