Subject Leader: Mrs Lea

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela.

At Allanson Street Primary School, we aim to provide our children with the highest quality Personal, Social, Health, Economic education (PSHE), one which is designed to give them the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, in order to become informed, active and responsible citizens.

We want our children to have no limits to what their ambitions are and to realise that no dream is ever too big…we may have the next Prime Minister sitting amongst us! We want our children to remember their PSHE lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the wide range of opportunities they are presented with.

What will our children learn and why?

At Allanson Street Primary School, we shape our PSHE curriculum to ensure it is fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the DFE statutory guidance for PSHE by providing a bespoke, broad and balanced curriculum, ensuring the progressive development of key skills and knowledge and for the children to develop the confidence to make sound choices and judgements throughout their lives.

Our PHSE curriculum aims to give children a thorough grounding in our Allanson Street values. This will ensure we create positive members of a democratic society who value themselves and others, who can make and maintain safe, meaningful relationships, who can manage all the demands of living in 21st century Britain including being economically responsible and who can create a lifestyle for themselves which keeps them well mentally, physically and emotionally.

Throughout their time at Allanson Street, children will spend time in each year group, building upon prior skills and knowledge.

The key areas that they will focus on are:

· Me and My Relationships

· Valuing Differences

· Keeping Safe

· Rights and Respect

· Being my Best

· Growing and Changing

Key concepts and vocabulary are built upon year on year in an age-appropriate way. Children learn about important issues such as consent, setting boundaries and keeping themselves safe online through a variety of practical and written sessions.

How will we ensure that our children leave us equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to flourish in the next stage of their learning journey and beyond?

Our PSHE curriculum has been mapped from EYFS to Year 6 to ensure that every child receives a broad, balanced, and progressive curriculum.

At Allanson Street our PSHE curriculum is based on the SCARF (Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship) scheme of work but tailored to our children’s unique needs and interests. Six main themes run throughout the curriculum; Me and My relationships, Valuing Differences, Keeping Safe, Rights and Respect, Being My Best and Growing and Changing. It is taught in blocks – one block is completed every half term. Before each block, pre-assessment activities are completed. These are used to create a baseline for what children already know and understand so teaching can be tailored appropriately; this way we are building on prior knowledge and picking up on areas of misconception or need (possibly arising from current events) These are revisited by the children at the end of their learning to capture progress and for children to see their learning journey and aid in self-assessment. Sex and relationships education is taught as part of our PHSE curriculum. It is taught once a year; parents are informed via letter when this is taking place and given a full run-down of the learning outcomes prior to the start of learning. We collect PSHE work in our PSHE folders and when learning isn’t written down, we aim to store some key learning moments digitally.

Lessons are organised in this way so that children continuously build and revisit knowledge, ensuring that it is remembered and stored in their long-term memory.

Knowledge organisers are used to support the learning of key concepts, vocabulary and relevant ‘sticky knowledge’.

External visitors and guest speakers are a key part of our PSHE curriculum. Workshops are offered by various educational provisions, such as Altru Drama and Catch 22 and we encourage each year group to liaise with the local community to support the children’s learning when appropriate.

How will our PSHE curriculum make a difference for our children?

The short-term impact of our PSHE curriculum can be seen in our post-unit assessment activities when the children’s initial ideas are revisited and added to. Medium term impact is measured through termly monitoring of PSHE folders and learning walks. Pupil and parent voice is fed into this as well as conversations with teachers. Longer-term impact of our PSHE curriculum can be seen in the respectful, confident and thoughtful children that leave our school in year 6. They show that they are ready for their next stage in education and in life. They show self-safeguarding skills; how to stay well emotionally, mentally and physically and more importantly how and when to ask for help.