PSHE

Intent

At St James we believe PSHE education gives pupils the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. Our teaching of PSHE holds children at its heart, helping children understand and value how they fit into and contribute to the wider world. With strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health, we aim to nurture children as a whole supporting them to navigate changes within themselves, their peer groups and society.

PSHE is a whole school approach taught through the Jigsaw scheme of work. The intent of our PSHE curriculum is to equip our children with relevant and meaningful content.

The Jigsaw Programme offers us a comprehensive, carefully thought-through Scheme of Work which brings consistency and progression to our children’s learning in this vital curriculum area.

Jigsaw PSHE helps us to develop the “whole child” through a spiral curriculum approach to developing knowledge, skills and understanding in the areas of;

•          Being Me in My World
•          Celebrating Difference
•          Dreams and Goals
•          Healthy Me
•          Relationships
•         Changing Me

Here, at St James School we value PSHE as one way to support children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, to empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning.

Implementation

At St James’ we allocate 1 lesson (approx 45mins to 1 hour) to PSHE each week in order to teach the PSHE knowledge and skills in a developmental and age-appropriate way. The lessons are taught by the class teacher so that the content learnt in the lesson can be revisited or recapped at appropriate times during the week.

Jigsaw uses a range of teaching strategies to help children to engage with PSHE. These may include class and group discussions, drama, and problem solving. Our PSHE lessons offer children the chance to reflect on different issues they may face both in school and in the wider community and develop skills to deal with challenges and changes in life.

As a whole school approach, classes will simultaneously concentrate on an aspect of PSHE. 

The units of work are taught as follows;

The PSHE curriculum is part of our whole school approach in supporting our children with their development of becoming resilient individuals who can lead their lives in a safe way being respectful and understanding of others around them.  This is nurtured further through:

•          our school vision ‘Believing in ourselves. Believing in each other.’
•          Collective Worships which identify how Jesus taught us how to live our lives and to love others
•          Prayer circles, which allow classes to discuss wider world events.
•          Our use of restorative justice to deal with issues that may arise during the school day.
•          Additional circle times that can be used to discuss class issues as they arise.
•          Being a UNICEF Rights Respecting School

Parents/carers are consulted on a yearly basis on the content of our RSHE curriculum. 

Impact

The positive impact of PSHE can be seen in the well, rounded and empathetic pupils who leave St James at the end of Year 6. Pupils at St James develop strategies to deal with life in ever changing modern Britain and are able to articulate their needs, concerns and goals.

Teachers use formative assessment to identify the needs to their pupils during the lessons as well as during the school week as a whole. They are able to provide additional PSHE lessons through pray circles and circle times when needed allowing them to address the needs to individuals. Progress through the units of work is tracked in class PSHE books, which ensure content is covered and pupils are experiencing a wide range of PSHE lessons. This also allows pupils to look back at units that have been covered and reflect on their learning.