Personal Social Health Economic Education (PSHE)
Intent
At St Thomas CE Academy, we value PSHE as a way to support children’s development as human beings, to enable them to understand and respect who they are, empower them with a voice and to equip them for life and learning.
To ensure progression and a spiral curriculum, we use Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, as our chosen teaching and learning programme and tailor it to the children’s needs.
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.
Aims of the Personal, Social, Health Education & Sex and Relationships Education
The national curriculum for PSHE aims to ensure that schools teach a broad and balanced curriculum that:
- promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school;
- prepares pupils at the school of the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life;
- promotes British values
Jigsaw covers all areas of PSHE for the primary phase including statutory Relationships and Health Education. The table below gives the learning theme of each of the six Puzzles (Units) and these are taught across the school. The learning deepens and broadens every year.
For individual content of what is covered for each year group, please click on the year groups below:
Implementation
Whole School Approach
At St Thomas CE Academy, PSHE is taught as a whole school approach focusing on an identified theme each half-term. Lessons are taught weekly lasting 60 minutes and consist of 7 main points. Each unit aims to activate and build upon prior learning, including EYFS, to ensure better cognition and retention.
Assemblies and weekly achievements support the whole school approach by sharing key themes which are explored in age appropriate ways.
At St Thomas CE Academy, puberty is taught as a statutory requirement of Health Education and covered by our Jigsaw PSHE Programme in the ‘Changing Me’ Puzzle
We conclude that sex education refers to Human Reproduction, and therefore inform parents of their right to request their child be withdrawn from the PSHE lessons that explicitly teach this.
Planning
Planning documents identify each element on the lesson which allow the children to discuss, reflect and share their thoughts, ideas and feelings.
Please click below to see the knowledge organisers for each individual year group:
Vocabulary
Vocabulary forms a key part of our wider curriculum. Each lesson identifies key vocabulary to be introduced and discussed within the session. PSHE sessions encourage children to express themselves verbally using full sentences. During whole class and small group discussions children share their thoughts, feelings and questions using appropriate vocabulary. The use of Jerrie Cat and the Jigsaw friend ensure that children listen carefully to the person speaking, allowing them to develop oracy without interruption or judgement.
Writing
Opportunities for writing are incorporated into PSHE sessions, allowing children to show their understanding of discussion topics using full sentences. High levels of presentation are modelled by teachers, incorporating key features introduced in literacy sessions.
Impact
Assessment
At the end of each lesson children complete self-assessment tasks to reflect on their learning and evaluate their understanding of the sessions objectives. This also provides opportunities for the pupil to identify ways to improve their learning next time.
Teachers complete end of unit assessments to monitor each pupil's progress against each lesson objective. This is tracked through our bespoke assessment tracker.