PSHE & RSE

Miss Oxbrow PSHE/RSE Subject Lead 

Intent - What do we want children to learn?
Quite simply, it is our intention that every pupil, irrelevant of needs, develops their knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and skills that they will need in order to reach their potential as individuals and within the community. At Birchwood pupils are encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities and experiences across and beyond the curriculum, contributing fully to the life of their school and communities. In doing so they will learn to recognise their own worth, work well with others and become increasingly responsible for their own learning. They reflect on their experiences and understand how they are developing personally and socially, tackling many of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. They learn to understand and respect our common humanity; diversity and differences so that they can go on to form the effective, fulfilling relationships that are an essential part of life and learning. In our school we choose to deliver Personal, Social, Health Education using the Jigsaw mindful approach to PSHE.

Jigsaw PSHE will support the development of the skills, attitudes, values and behaviour, which enable pupils to:
•    Have a sense of purpose
•    Value self and others
•    Form relationships
•    Make and act on informed decisions
•    Communicate effectively
•    Work with others
•    Respond to challenge
•    Be an active partner in their own learning
•    Be active citizens within the local community
•    Explore issues related to living in a democratic society
•    Become healthy and fulfilled individuals

Implementation - How are we going to achieve our intent?
Birchwood pupils have a weekly PSHE lesson. Where possible, WOW topic themes are woven into lesson delivery.  Any themes, current issues or situations pertinent to that particular cohort are covered in these weekly lessons.  The six main topics that we cover throughout the year are; Being Me in My World, Celebrating Difference, Dreams & Goals, Healthy Me, Relationships. Being Me in My World includes giving the children an understanding of their place in the class, school and global community and Celebrating Difference includes anti-bullying (cyber and homophobic bullying included) and diversity work. Whereas, Dreams & Goals includes goal-setting, aspirations, working together to design and organise fund-raising events and Healthy Me includes drugs and alcohol education, self-esteem and confidence as well as healthy lifestyle choices. The Relationships topic includes understanding friendship, family and other relationships, conflict resolution and communication skills and Changing Me includes Sex and Relationship Education in the context of looking at change. (Birchwood PSHE  fully meets all requirements of the SRE statutory curriculum for Sept’20). This has been carefully sequenced so the children can build upon their prior knowledge. When there is an appropriate opportunity Jigsaw is linked to the class topics. We have spent time looking at how our Birchwood Bolts and our local resources support our PSHE curriculum. For example, building perseverance and resilience in Forest School skill activities and the close links between Social Moral Spiritual Moral education and the Jigsaw topics. 

Impact - What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?
There are literally hundreds of ways we can demonstrate the excellent impact our curriculum design has on our pupils. In a nutshell, here are some examples:
•    All of Key Stage 1 have weekly Forest School sessions to focus specifically on Forest School skills as well as using the Forest School to contextualise their curriculum.  The Forest School offers wonderful opportunities for PSHE education for example, paired directional work where one child wears a blindfold and the other guides them along a roped trail using positional language. This builds trust, perseverance and resilience skills.
•    Pupil voice takes many guises at Birchwood.  School Council / Eco – Council / Digital Ambassadors / Head Gardeners / Chicken Monitors / Meeters & Greeters…to name but a few. These roles are formally applied for by pupils from Y1 – Y6 with 2 pupils from each class being voted for democratically, following their written ‘job,’ applications. These various roles are particularly ‘active,’ and require daily interventions from the elected pupils with many different stakeholders from our school community, local businesses and wider audiences. For example, our Eco – Council are proud winners of ‘Greenest School in the County,’ actively promoting and presenting case studies and impact analysis at county level events. These various roles and opportunities they bring prepare pupils exceptionally well for life in Modern Britain.  

•    Each Jigsaw Puzzle (except Puzzle 1) has a built-in assessment task, usually in Piece 5 or 6.  This task is an informal opportunity for teacher assessment, but also offers children the chance to assess their own learning. Teachers will use these tasks and their ongoing teacher assessments to complete the Birchwood PSHE Progression of skills document on a termly basis.

The whole school had a week looking at their mental health; they discussed the meaning of mental health and how to recognise their changing emotions. They learnt some effective breathing techniques that they can use when they feel anxious and stressed. In addition, they used the above slides to help them remember the things they can do and people who can help them with their mental health. 

During the topic of Being Me in My world, the children across school having been learning about the importance of class rules and their own individual role they play in creating an effective working environment.

Here are Year 1's class rules!

Click here for our Progression of Skills, Knowledge, Understanding and Vocabulary documents. These sequencing documents show how knowledge builds from EYFS year by year to the end of Y6 so that children know more and remember more.