Personal, Social and Health Education

Intent

At Scarcroft Primary, we want our children to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives. Through a carefully structured PSHE scheme – tailored where appropriate to meet the needs of our pupils – we ensure that children receive relevant, meaningful and empowering curriculum content which enables them to:

• Maintain their physical and mental health.
• Keep themselves safe in the real world and online.
• Develop their sense of community and citizenship. 

With curiosity encouraged and a culture of self-belief fostered, our children grow as aspirational, reflective individuals. Emotional literacy is nurtured through carefully supported discussion, developing our pupils’ resilience and ability to form and express opinions respectfully and appropriately in a range of contexts. 

Implementation

To make sure we are able to effectively deliver our intent, we have invested in the Jigsaw PSHE scheme of work. This provides a spiral-based, whole school structure which ensures regular, relevant and varied PSHE teaching which develops thoughtful, confident and resilient learners. The Jigsaw scheme ensures coverage of not only the PSHE curriculum but also the statutory Health and Relationships Education. In addition to this, we refer to Oxfam’s guide to ‘Global Citizenship in Education’ to ensure that our learners develop as proactive, thoughtful citizens who actively engage with both local and global communities. 

Progression Teachers use structured schemes of work that provide a coherently sequenced curriculum which builds year on year. For some key topics – such as online safety – learning is visited in every year group at an age appropriate level, building on learning from previous years. Staff use the long term yearly overview to plan sequences of sessions tailored for their current cohort on a termly basis. 

Responsive Teaching In addition to planned sequences of lessons, time is left in every term to allow teachers the freedom to deliver responsive PSHE lessons as required by their class. In some cases this may be in response to a national or international event – such as the COVID-19 pandemic – or it may be specific to the current needs of the class, such as a session on bereavement.

Dedicated Time Time is allocated weekly to PSHE learning. This time refers to dedicated PSHE lesson slots, ensuring that all objectives are covered in line with the year group overview. Allocating adequate time to PSHE ensures that topics can be taught, discussed and reflected on in suitable depth, which is important when developing reflective, critical thinking skills and dealing with complex concepts or emotions. 

Global Learning Throughout our curriculum in school – not just PSHE but other subject areas as well – we embed the principles of Global Learning as much as possible. By incorporating these principles pupils become more reflective, aware, responsible and thoughtful members of their families, communities and wider world. Our recent adoption of Picture News resources further enable us to ensure that our pupils’ knowledge and understanding of wider world issues is in appropriate depth, quality assured and linked to other curriculum concepts (such as British Values).

Cross-Curricular Opportunities Our children thoroughly enjoy the cross-curricular approach in their learning, and PSHE learning opportunities are often included in other areas of the curriculum. In addition to whole school Big Ideas (for example ‘Fragile Earth’) which incorporate a number of PSHE themes, PSHE has been incorporated in writing projects, class novel work, history lessons and residential trips to name just a few!

Life Skills The core intention of PSHE teaching and learning at Scarcroft Primary is to develop skills and awareness that will support and benefit our children throughout their lives. Our three PSHE intent threads (physical and mental wellbeing, staying safe both in the real and online world and developing a sense of community) are all relevant not just in school but in all aspects of life including personal relationships and employment. British Values are embedded throughout our curriculum and further reinforce the values which will form the moral compass of our pupils’ lives as they grow and develop. 

Support Support is provided in lessons by the member of staff delivering the session. For children who may require additional support – for example those that have been affected by a session deeply due to personal experience – 1:1 time with a teacher, member of pastoral staff or ELSA trained TA is provided. 

Impact

Children understand the importance of both physical and mental wellbeing and know how to keep themselves healthy. This includes managing risks and understanding the benefits of positive risk taking.

Children understand how to keep themselves safe in the real world and online. They know how to identify potentially dangerous situations and how to report concerns appropriately. 

Children are aware of their status as members of their family and communities on both a small and large scale. They understand responsibility and the impact that individual actions can have on their own lives and those of others. 

Children are emotionally literate and aware of their own and others’ feelings. They have strategies to manage their emotions and deal with challenging situations.