PSHE

Intent

Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education is a crucial part of a child’s education and gives them the skills to be good citizens as well as good learners and thinkers in their future lives. It gives children access to critical information about themselves and the many facets of the diverse world around them. At Birchfields, we provide a specifically tailored curriculum that is both broad and balanced and meets the unique context of our school.

We expect our children to live and breathe our core values and to always aim high in their learning. We involve parents so children develop these skills at home also. We want our children to be able to display TACTICS in all areas of their development and hope these skills enable them to be successful adults who care about their world and are able to make decisions within it.

Children are given the skills and knowledge to challenge the world around them and we aspire to give them the confidence to stand up for what they know is right. Children understand how special they are and always show respect to everyone around them, no matter what.

Implementation

Discreet PSHE lessons are delivered weekly which follow the curriculum objectives given by the PSHE Association and loosely arranged around Manchester Healthy Schools 'I Matter' scheme scheme of work. Key Stage objectives are split across year groups to ensure progression of thinking throughout the infant and junior years. Lessons are planned by the PSHE Lead for the school which ensures consistency and frequency of high quality lessons. Some of the objectives are taught in other subjects and these are all mapped to ensure a coherent diet for the children.

PSHE, however, is much more than these weekly lessons. Our core values and TACTICS blatantly run through our ethos at school and are constantly reiterated throughout the whole curriculum. We have many school-wide themes such as Growth Mindset, Active Listening, We Are All Equal, More In Common, Team Roles, Eco Warriors, that snake into all our lessons and form our philosophy to enable our pupils to grow. Three 'Thoughts of the Day' are given to the children weekly which cover aspects of the PSHE curriculum, e.g. firework safety, to current affairs and news events around the world. These sessions provoke thinking and empathy. Children use these opportunities to awaken their own ambition and find their voice.

Work may be recorded in books in terms of Writing, Art, photographs, class brainstorms but we believe that discussion, role play and thought are the basis of the PHSE Curriculum and should be accessible for all learners.