'Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.'

Aristotle

At Christ Church, we see PSHE as being at the centre of all that we do. We aim to enhance and enrich the lives of children by enabling them to develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes they will need throughout their lives. By the end of Year 6, we want to have a child who is empowered to make the right decisions in terms of relationships and values they live by.

Through our curriculum, our school ethos, vison and values and the school environment, we promote self-esteem and pupils’ emotional well-being. We provide opportunities for children to increase their understanding about their bodies, what it means to keep healthy, their personal responsibility to themselves and others.

These aims are under-pinned by the British Values that every child aspires to: respect, tolerance, democracy, the rule of law and liberty. Furthermore, we take a multi=faceted approach to the teaching of protected characteristics using Jigsaw resources. This allows us to demonstrate that no form of discrimination is tolerated and that pupils at Christ Church, show respect for those who share the protected characteristics.

Every class has regular, timetabled PSHE sessions. These sessions follow the ‘Jigsaw Programme’ which brings together emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning.  This is a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme at the same time.

We aim to cover two learning intentions: specific PSHE learning, covering the  national framework for PSHE Education. Alongside this, we are mindful of the need for emotional literacy and social skills to make learning relevant to children living in today’s world. We incorporate other resources, including the PINK curriculum and RSE lesson plans from Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning to enhance their experiences. Children record their journey in a Personal Development Book, which travels with them from year to year.

In addition to this, PSHE is also taught within other subject areas and as part of cross-curricular projects. PSHE is addressed on a daily basis as questions and incidents arise.  At times, teachers may choose to hold an additional circle-time session in response to a particular event or issue. This delivery model ensures that provision is sufficiently flexible to meet the individual needs of different students and year groups.

Department for Education (DfE) Guidance on PSHE

The DfE state that:

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is an important and necessary part of all pupils’ education. All schools should teach PSHE, drawing on good practice, and this expectation is outlined in the national curriculum. From September 2020, 

the statutory guidance below came into effect.

The revised curriculum subjects are:

• relationships education

• health education

As part of Children's Mental Health Week, pupils reflected on their growth as a person. We discussed growth mindset, how we are proud when we achieve things and looked at ways to boost our mood. Here are photographs from our Spiritual Garden showing some examples of children's thoughts. 

Anti-Bullying Week is useful to explore deeper concepts about bullying. Our pupils know what bullying is - and we use STOP to remember - several times on purpose.... 

This year the theme is Make a Noise about bullying -encouraging children to speak up to a trusted adult. We also explore the idea of banter becoming bullying. 

Odd sock day starts the week when we think about celebrating difference!