Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) at Powers Hall Academy 

We live in a diverse community with many differences and similarities. The communities are made up of different sexes, different ages, different races, different religious beliefs and different cultural beliefs. We want all children in school community to grow up respecting, tolerating and understanding the diversity and richness that all these different communities can offer to society. They also need to understand how their community is part of the wider community of their town, their county, their country and their world. They are taught this to give them an understanding of life and the world that is broad, balanced and rich in experiences.

Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development is fully at the heart of our school ethos. British Values are promoted through the overarching aims and objectives of PSHE by supporting our children to become healthy and responsible members of society, as well as preparing them for life and work in modern Britain.

Intent

At Powers Hall Academy, we recognise the importance of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and the role it plays in developing our pupils into healthy, independent, and responsible individuals who are prepared for life and work. Our curriculum builds upon the children’s first stages of development in EYFS through progressive and sequenced topics, which revolve around three key themes: relationships, health and wellbeing and living in the wider world. Within the study of PSHE, our children develop the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. Our Personal, PSHE curriculum enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of a society and it is an embedded part of our broad and balanced curriculum. 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.

Our PSHE programme has a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. It is designed to empathise the importance of the whole child. PSHE gives learners the knowledge, skills, and understanding they need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain. The quality PSHE that not only is taught but embedded in our ethos at Powers Hall Academy ensures children are given wide perspectives to the diverse society that we live in today.

Pupils develop fully as:

• individuals as they focus on their own personal development; believing in themselves, building resilience, developing habits to lead a healthy life.
• members of families and social communities; understanding how to relate to others and adopt teamwork skills
• members of economic communities; developing their awareness of the part that they play and how to live responsibly.

It is essential that we teach PSHE to provide the link between pupils’ health and wellbeing, and their academic progress. We know the value of focusing on promoting positive behaviour, mental health, wellbeing, resilience, and achievement will impact their whole education.

Implementation

We believe that PSHE plays a vital part of primary education and is therefore timetabled to be taught at least weekly to ensure that quality time is dedicated to these areas. There are always occasions where teachers may feel it necessary to teach PSHE as a result of an issue that has arisen in their own class and dedicated class circle time will be used to address these issues. Many objectives from the curriculum will also be covered as an important part of school assemblies, where children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural curiosity is stimulated, challenged and nurtured. The distribution of the lessons complements key campaigns throughout the year, such as National Anti-bullying Week and E-safety Week.

Teachers follow a Primary Scheme of Work called SCARF – Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship (Coram Life Education). Developed by teachers and centred on a values-based and ‘Growth Mindset’ approach, SCARF’s lesson plans and resources help to promote positive behaviour, mental health, wellbeing, resilience and achievement. There is now a proven link between pupils’ health and wellbeing, and their academic progress. Crucial skills and positive attitudes developed through comprehensive Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) are critical to ensuring children are effective learners and SCARF provides a whole-school approach to building these essential foundations – crucial for children to achieve their best, academically and socially.

SCARF lesson plans are organised around the PSHE Association’s Programmes of Study Learning Opportunities, which includes three core themes of Health and Wellbeing; Relationships; and, Living in the Wider World. These themes have been broken down into six main areas for termly coverage, and are ordered as follows:

• Me and My Relationships
• Valuing Difference
• Keeping Myself Safe
• Rights and Responsibilities
• Being my Best
• Growing and Changing

In addition to dedicated PSHE lessons, many other curriculum subjects make a link to PSHE, British Values, SMSC and the language is used consistently by all staff. British Values and SMSC displays throughout the school also reinforce the PSHE curriculum, further enabling children to make links.

Beyond our documented curriculum, it is hoped that the school’s values provide a culture that contributes equally towards the pastoral development of our children. Therefore, our teaching approach places great emphasis upon collaboration and cooperation: group work should be a key element of all classrooms, enabling our pupils to achieve success together. Beyond this, pupils are encouraged to show leadership in their community through Student Council.

At Powers Hall Academy, our PSHE curriculum demonstrates appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding to fulfil the statutory duties of the Relationship Education (RE), Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (HE) curriculums. It is hoped that our overall curriculum is designed to directly support the pastoral education of our pupils as well as the academic outcomes that the school aims for.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

At Powers Hall Academy, we take the mental health and well-being of our learners seriously and we provide different strategies and resources to support and develop the promotion of emotional well-being.

Authored by educationalists and mental health specialists, we reference Kapow Primary's lessons and teacher videos to help pupils develop good mental health habits and to also equip our teachers with information about the more prevalent mental health conditions. These lessons focus on the mental health and emotional wellbeing elements of the PSHE Association Framework recommended by the DfE, and covers three core themes:

• Health and Wellbeing

• Relationships

• Living in the Wider World

Lessons are based around six progressive themes, which are revisited each year:

• Wonderful Me - relates to pupils’ sense of identity, understanding their own emotions and appreciating who they are

• People Around Me - explores children’s relationships with the people around them, including how to communicate, empathise and resolve conflicts as well as identifying people within their support network and learning how to ask for help

• Meaning and Purpose - focuses on setting and working towards goals and building self-esteem through drive or purpose

• Resilience - teaches how to celebrate failures and learn from them

• Healthy Body, Healthy Mind - explores the importance of diet, exercise and good dental health

• Relaxation - this element can often get overlooked, so we look at a range of strategies to use in different situations

Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural

We believe that the teaching of values and ensuring learners have a good understanding of their responsibility within our community and wider society is crucial. This is especially important if young learners are to take their place in the world and make an important contribution to our society. In believing this, we place value on teaching children about their rights and responsibilities in school and their community, the moral dilemmas and decisions that they may be faced with in their lives and giving them opportunities to learn about and understand their place in the world. We believe that learners grow from a sense of belonging and a feeling of ‘knowing who they are’. We support the teaching of respecting others’ beliefs and religions and provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for learners to explore their own ideas and beliefs and sense of self.

Cornerstones pedagogy

How the Cornerstones pedagogy and curriculum puts spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) education at the heart of our school:

Impact

The impact of a good PSHE education cannot be understated. Quite simply, it forms the preparation for adult life, enabling a child to understand and face the challenges, complexities and questions that arise in a diverse world.

Impact can be measured in a variety of ways. At Powers Hall Academy, we recognise and celebrate the importance of the child’s voice, and their individual experience of PSHE education. Pupil voice, and lessons captured via floor books, will form the heart of how we measure the impact of our PSHE teaching.

The skills that children at Powers Hall Academy will develop will include, but are not limited to:

• Children will demonstrate and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and Liberty.
• Children will demonstrate a healthy outlook towards school – attendance will be in-line with national and behaviour will be good.
• Participation in extra-curricular activity both in school and beyond is encouraged and celebrated.
• Pupil Voice Surveys are used to assess knowledge of how to stay safe and emotionally confident within the school.
• Children will become healthy and responsible members of society.
• Levels of volunteering both within the school through litter picking, librarians and playground leaders, and within the community through choir concerts within local care homes and supporting the local foodbank.
• Children will achieve age related expectations across the wider curriculum.
• Children will be well prepared for their journey preparing them for life and work in modern Britain.