Lime Walk Primary School

At Lime Walk Primary School we use a range of research to support our aims for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and agree with the PSHE association (2020) viewpoint that PSHE ‘gives pupils the knowledge, skills, and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe and to prepare them for life and work in modern Britain’.

Our intention is that when children leave Lime Walk Primary School, they will do so with the knowledge, understanding and emotional literacy to be able to play an active, positive and successful role in today’s diverse society.  We want our children to have high aspirations and believe in their own abilities.  In an ever-changing world, it is important that our pupils are aware, to an age appropriate level, of the different factors which affect their world and they learnt to cope with different aspects of their lives to ensure that they have good mental health and well-being.

From September 2020 we adopted The Jigsaw approach to teaching PSHE. The Jigsaw scheme was chosen because it brings together emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development.  It promotes the spiritual, moral cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, preparing them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experienced for later life. Our relationships education enables our children to learn how to be safe, and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives.

The Jigsaw scheme supports children’s personal development in a structured and developmentally appropriate way, this will not only improve their capacity to learn (across the curriculum) but will ultimately improve their life chances.

Our school motto – Think, Dream, Believe, Achieve – helps us to consider our main aims within Personal, Social and Health Education for our pupils.

Think

We aim for our pupils to be able to explore their emotions in an age appropriate way, using suitable vocabulary to support their understanding.  Pupils will have a range of practical, hands on experiences to support their understanding, allowing them to safely and confidently develop social skills by building on their existing understanding.

Dream

Pupils will develop their curiosity and questioning skills by considering a range of different perspectives and scenarios, discussing diverse and opposing viewpoints within an ever-changing world.  Pupils will have the opportunity to develop local community links and learn outside of the classroom to develop their understanding further.

Believe

Pupils will learn to keep an open mind while developing their emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development.  They will have the opportunity to consider a range of viewpoints to enable them to take risks safely, be guided to form their own views, challenge concepts to examine ideas and see the world from a range of perspectives.

Achieve

Pupils are encouraged to set targets and goals for themselves and celebrate their own and others’ achievements as they progress towards their targets.  Pupils are given opportunities to succeed in different areas and are encouraged to make healthy choices both for their physical and mental health.

The Jigsaw scheme is a spiral, progressive scheme of work which aims to ‘prepare children for life, helping them to know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever-changing world’.  The Jigsaw programme is taught throughout the school, from Nursery to Year 6 all working on the same theme (puzzle) during each half term.  There are themed assemblies at the beginning of each unit. 

Every piece (lesson) contributes to at least one aspect of the children’s development in SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) and incorporates opportunities for mindfulness activity.  Each lesson (piece) is built upon a Charter which underpins the behaviour and respect that is the basis for each lesson, which then follows a similar structure:

• A game of activity designed to be fun, inclusive and to build and maximise social skills (connect us).  This section engenders positive relationships and enhances collaborative learning.
• Prepare the children for learning (Calm me) – a chance develop mindfulness, advance emotional awareness, concentration and focus as well as practicing breathing techniques
• An opportunity for the children to focus their attention on specific learning intentions of the session (Open my mind)
• Initiate new learning (Tell me or show me)
• Facilitate learning activities to reinforce new learning (Let me learn)
• Support the children in reflecting on their learning and personal development (Help me reflect)

Sequencing of content:

PSHE is taught through Jigsaw’s six half termly themes with each year group studying the same unit (puzzle) at the same time (at their own level):

Autumn 1: Being Me in My World
Autumn 2: Differences (including anti-bullying)

Spring 1: Dreams and Goals
Spring 2: Healthy Me

Summer 1: Relationships
Summer 2: Changing Me (including Sex Education)

Jigsaw also identifies links to British Values, and SMSC and is taught in such a way as to reflect the overall aims, values, and ethos of the school.

At Lime Walk Primary School, in addition to Relationships Education, where we teach about different kinds of relationships because we believe it is important for our children to have an understanding of the full diversity of the modern world they live in, we also teach aspects of Sex Education which is covered alongside our Science Curriculum. 

Wider Curriculum

• As PSHE is an integral part of the while school curriculum, it is therefore often taught within the context of other curriculum areas.
• Children learn a values based education where they develop detailed understanding about a different value each month (chosen on an annual basis to include those relevant to the community and context) by investigating scenarios, learning appropriate vocabulary and recognising the achievements of themselves and others.
• Visitors from a range of careers and aspects of society complement our PSHE curriculum to offer additional first hand experiences.          
• We encourage our pupils to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. We challenge all of our pupils to look for opportunities to demonstrate school values and represent the school in various ways (for example as school council representatives and on sporting teams)
• Weekly assemblies are linked to PSHE, British Values, SMSC and special events in British life and around the world.

By the time children leave Lime Walk Primary School they will:

• be able to approach a range of real life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves through modern life
• be on their way to becoming healthy, open-minded, respectful, socially and morally responsible, active members of society
• appreciate diversity and difference
• recognise and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and liberty
• be able to understand and manage their emotions
• be able to look after their mental health and well-being
• be able to develop positive, healthy relationships with their peers both now and in the future
• have respect for themselves and others
• have a positive self esteem