Our PSHE Curriculum

Led by Mrs Jessop

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was,

and when he saw him, he had compassion.

Our Curriculum Intent

Personal, Social and Health 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” (PSHE Association, 2020).

From September 2020 we adopted The Jigsaw approach to teaching PSHE. The Jigsaw scheme was chosen because it brings together emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development. The Jigsaw scheme supports children’s personal development in a structured and developmentally appropriate way, this will not only improve their capacity to learn (across the curriculum) but will ultimately improve their life chances.

Our Curriculum Implementation

Jigsaw is taught across the school, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. There are also whole school assemblies to start each unit to set the scene and goals for the half term. Every Piece (lesson) contributes to at least one of the required aspects of children’s SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural) development balanced across each year group. The Structure of the Pieces (lessons) in have mindfulness activities built in.

Each lesson (piece) has a structure which follows the same content:

• Read the Jigsaw charter so that children know the rules for PSHE lessons
• Prepare them for learning (Calm me) - mindfulness breathing
• Help the brain to focus on specific learning intentions (Open my mind)
• Initiate new learning (Tell me or show me)
• Facilitate learning activities to reinforce the new learning (Let me learn)
• Support them in reflecting on their learning and personal development (Help me reflect)

The pieces (units) are clustered under six areas:

1. Being in My World

2. Celebrating Differences

3. Dreams and Goals

4. Healthy Me

5. Relationships

6. Changing Me – this forms the SRE content

Each unit have similar, but age appropriate, learning intentions. Below is an overview of the lessons (pieces) by year group.

Each class has a chime bar and a cat character (Jerrie) to have pause time to focus on mindfulness activities.

There are also individual class characters which are used to engage and focus on certain parts of the lessons.

Reception                             Year 1    

Our Curriculum Impact

At the end of each unit there is an assessment opportunity. Guidance is provided with descriptors to identify if pupils are working at, below or above age related expectations.

Assessments are collated and progress is measured and tracked over time. This also supports teachers in identifying areas of strength and areas that may need additional support during the next teaching episode. 

We aim for the highest possible standards and over time, we would hope that standards in PSHE would be in-line with or even better than outcomes in Core subjects.

A key focus within our curriculum is how we teach children about how they can stay safe online.  We start each computing topic with a specific focus around online safety in every class and run a number of other opportunities as pupils move through the school.  To find out more about this, please click this link to see our Online Safety page.