PSHE and SMSC

Intent

At Great Sankey Primary School our PSHE curriculum is accessible to all and aims to maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. As a result of this they will become healthy, independent and responsible members of a society who understand how they are developing personally and socially. It will give them confidence to tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. 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. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

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Implementation

Our PSHE Curriculum Framework is a bespoke GSP curriculum and follows a whole school thematic approach so that different year groups will be working on the same themes at the same time throughout the year. This allows for cross-phase collaboration and enables school to link the PSHE curriculum to our whole school assemblies. This whole school approach allows teachers to plan and build a spiral programme of learning year on year allowing children to build on what they know and deepen their understanding.

As a school we have chosen to use the core themes from the PSHE Association Programme of Study as a basis for our curriculum framework and have adapted it to reflect the context of our school and local community, and to address our pupils’ needs and stages of development.

The Core Themes are:

• Health and Wellbeing– Healthy Lifestyles, Growing and Changing, Keeping Safe

• Relationships – Feelings and Emotions, Healthy Relationships, Valuing Difference

• Living in the Wider World – Rights and Responsibilities, Environment, Money

Impact:

The 10 key principles of good practice in PSHE education:

1. Start where children and young people are: find out what they already know, understand, are able to do and are able to say.  For maximum impact involve them in the planning of your PSHE education programme.

2. Plan a ‘spiral programme’ which introduces new and more challenging learning, while building on what has gone before, which reflects and meets the personal developmental needs of the children and young people.

3. Take a positive approach which does not attempt to induce shock or guilt but focuses on what children and young people can do to keep themselves and others healthy and safe and to lead happy and fulfilling lives.

4. Offer a wide variety of teaching and learning styles within PSHE education, with an emphasis on interactive learning and the teacher as facilitator.

5. Provide information which is realistic and relevant and which reinforces positive social norms.

6. Encourage young people to reflect on their learning and the progress they have made, and to transfer what they have learned to say and to do from one school subject to another, and from school to their lives in the wider community.

7. Recognise that the PSHE education programme is just one part of what a school can do to help a child to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding they need to fulfil their potential.  Link the PSHE education programme to other whole school approaches, to pastoral support, and provide a setting where the responsible choice becomes the easy choice.  Encourage staff, families and the wider community to get involved.

8. Embed PSHE education within other efforts to ensure children and young people have positive relationships with adults, feel valued and where those who are most vulnerable are identified and supported.

9. Provide opportunities for children and young people to make real decisions about their lives, to take part in activities which simulate adult choices and where they can demonstrate their ability to take responsibility for their decisions.

10. Provide a safe and supportive learning environment where children and young people can develop the confidence to ask questions, challenge the information they are offered, draw on their own experience, express their views and opinions and put what they have learned into practice in their own lives.