Caen Community Primary School

Aims

Our aim is that Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) enables our children to become happy healthy, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.

At Caen, we believe our school is a place where all children can thrive and individual qualities and strengths are celebrated. We understand that children grow up in a complex and ever-changing world and are exposed to an increasing range of influences. Explicit teaching of PSHE enables our children to be happy, safe, healthy, confident and responsible members of society who have a strong sense of self-worth and resilience.

Implementation

The PSHE curriculum at Caen is taught explicitly across all year groups through lessons following the Jigsaw scheme of work and weekly assemblies. Jigsaw has a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. The scheme reflects the needs of our pupils. It is tailored to meet specific needs to allow a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions.

Through the Jigsaw scheme, children also acquire an understanding and experiences of British values that are necessary if they are to make sense of their experiences, value themselves, respect other, appreciate differences and feel confident and informed as a British citizen.

The curriculum is split into six puzzle pieces that are designed to progress and sequence from the start of each academic year. These are:

Being me in my World

This is taught during the first half of the Autumn term. This puzzle piece covers a wide range of topics, including a sense of belonging, welcoming others and being part of a school community, a wider community, and a global community; it also looks at children’s rights and responsibilities, working and socialising with others, and pupil voice.

Celebrating Differences

During the second half of the Autumn term the children’s PSHE lessons will focus on similarities and differences and teach about diversity, such as disability, racism, power, friendships, and conflict; children learn to accept everyone’s right to ‘difference’, and most year groups explore the concept of ‘normality’. Anti-bullying, including cyber and homophobic bullying, is an important aspect of this Puzzle.

Dreams and Goals

As a start to the new year (first half of Spring term) this aims to help children think about their hopes and dreams, their goals for success, what their personal strengths are, and how to overcome challenges, using team-work skills and tasks. There is also a focus on enterprise and fundraising. Children learn about experiencing and managing feelings of pride, ambition, disappointment, success; and they get to share their aspirations, the dreams and goals of others in different cultures/countries, and their dreams for their community and the world.

Healthy Me

In the second half of the Spring term the focus is on the two main areas of health: Emotional/mental health (relaxation, being safe, friendships, mental health skills, body image, relationships with food, managing stress) and Physical health (eating a balanced diet, physical activity, rest and relaxation, keeping clean, drugs and alcohol, being safe, first aid). Most of the statutory content for Health Education (DfE) is contained within this Puzzle.

Relationships

In the first half of Summer Term this puzzle piece will start with building a respectful relationship with self and covers topics including families, friendships, pets and animals, and love and loss. A vital part of this Puzzle is about safeguarding and keeping children safe; this links to online safety and social networking. Children learn how to deal with conflict, build assertiveness skills, and identify their own strengths and strategies for building self-esteem and resilience. They explore roles and responsibilities in families and friendship groups, and consider stereotypes.

Changing Me

This puzzle piece is explored during the last half of Summer Term each year, it deals with change of many types, from growing from young to old, becoming a teenager, assertiveness, puberty, self-respect and safeguarding. Each year group thinks about looking ahead, moving year groups or the transition to secondary school and how to cope positively with such changes. Life cycles and human reproduction are taught in some year groups.

E- Safety

Teaching online safety is of paramount importance and we place a great deal of emphasis on it. It is taught through digital literacy elements during computing lessons but it is also taught discretely using the ‘Project Evolve’ resources, through our PSHE curriculum (Jigsaw) and assemblies also cover online safety. For parents and carers we put on an annual online safety webinar led by specialists (this year ‘The 2 Johns’ [esafetytraining.org] led webinars for both staff and then parents) and we update the newsletter regularly should matters arise that would be pertinent for parents and carers to be aware of.

Impact

The impact of our PSHE teaching is evident in Caen school life as whole – in pupils’ good behaviour, their attitudes to learning and their respect, care and understanding for and of, each other. We seek to ensure that the PSHE that we teach, improves the physical, mental and social well-being of pupils. We firmly believe that a meaningful PSHE curriculum is the key to children becoming confident, tolerant and well-rounded adults. We hope that through our consistent delivery of the Jigsaw scheme that children can approach a range of real-life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves successfully through modern life.

EYFS PSHE curriculum

The children in EYFS at Caen build their Personal, Social, Health and Emotional development as one of the prime areas of learning. This includes Self-Regulation, Managing Self and Building Relationships. Children are given structured and independent opportunities to build on these skills through their time in school and participate in guided activities including circle times and assemblies. The children are encouraged to listen, be kind to each other and share. In line with the rest of the school, the Jigsaw scheme of work is used to guide themes for each half-term whilst also addressing the needs of the children as they occur on a day-to-day basis. The children are supported in understanding their own feelings and beginning to regulate their behaviours accordingly. They work towards simple goals and build their resilience, perseverance and independence. They learn to work and play cooperatively, and show sensitivity to their own and others’ needs. To promote independence, the children choose their own healthy snack each day and circle time is used to discuss the importance of these healthy choices, keeping hydrated and maintaining good oral health.

The following documents are available on request by email or as a paper copy. Please ask the school office or email your child’s teacher.

• Parent guide to RSHE in primary schools
• Talking about Puberty, Sex Education and Growing up
• Including and valuing all children: what does Jigsaw teach about LGBT relationships