Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE)
Our PSHE curriculum reflects the needs of our school community and our school values of: LOVE, DETERMINATION, RESPECT, HONESTY, KINDNESS, FRIENDSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY. Within this context we aim to fulfil the Department of Education’s expectation that we deliver a PSHE programme that, “equips pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions”. Our aim is to provide our children with a broad and rich PSHE curriculum that will support their future success in life, building their confidence, resilience and independence.
We recognise a wide range of factors affect our children’s lives and we believe it is absolutely essential for them to have access to a well-planned curriculum, delivered by confident teachers, that is tailored to their needs and can respond to changing circumstances in school and the wider world. To this end we have chosen to base our curriculum on resources provided by the PSHE Association, a charity and membership organisation, which offers high quality teaching materials and staff training.
Our PSHE curriculum has three core themes:
- Living in the Wider World
- Healthy Living
The curriculum is spiral in nature, each PSHE session builds on the concepts, knowledge, skills and attributes that the children have already encountered. Learning is revisited, reinforced and extended year on year. An overview of the curriculum content can be found here: PSHE curriculum content.
In consultation with our Governors and parents we have chosen to teach Sex Education throughout the school as part of the Relationships strand of the PSHE curriculum. More information, including the curriculum content taught in each year group is available in our Relationships and Sex Education Policy.
PSHE sessions are held at least weekly and sometimes more frequently, as the needs of individual children and classes demand. The themes covered in the PSHE curriculum are also visited in collective worship throughout the year, particularly in Monday’s Values Assemblies which focus on our school values, equalities, children’s rights and some of the big issues of the day.
From September 2021, we are also participating in an academic trial into the potential effectiveness of Finland’s KiVa anti-bullying programme in the UK. We are fully implementing the KiVa programme across Key Stage 2, which means monthly assemblies and KiVa lessons. KiVa lessons replace the regular PSHE lesson for that week.
We judge the success of PSHE education in St Michael’s by how our children conduct themselves. As well as providing information to help them navigate the world as they grow up, it is also about learning acceptance, tolerance and empathy and strategies to respond appropriately to bullying, prejudice and discrimination. PSHE education helps our pupils to know how they can support each other, manage their own behaviour and get help for themselves or their friends when they need it.