The Rissington School PSHE
PSHCE
Intent:
At The Rissington School, we believe that it is important to prepare our pupils for life beyond Primary school; we want them to leave us being confident in themselves and positive contributors to their community. PSHE is an important subject in our school as we believe the skills and knowledge the children gain through this subject are going to be relevant to every child’s life within school and as they grow up and leave primary. At our school, PSHE isn’t viewed as a stand-alone subject, but rather a ‘whole school ethos’; PSHE is everywhere, being taught all the time whether this be directly or indirectly through all staff – not just teachers are PSHE teachers. Our aim is to ensure that all children leaving the Rissington School have every skill necessary to succeed in their later lives.
Our PSHE curriculum will: equip the children with social, personal, mindfulness and economic skills, provide them with an understanding of how to stay safe in the real and online world, allow them to make informed decisions, to understand what it means to be part of a community and to be a member of British society.
We are unique at The Rissington School because we are a split site school. Whilst we embrace the differences this might bring, we also are clear that children at both sites belong to one school and receive the same PSHE provision.
The Rissington School values of ‘Aspire, Belong and Challenge’ (ABC) are throughout the PSHE curriculum. The lessons and experiences that are planned for the children teach them to ‘Aspire’ be the best versions of themselves. PSHE at our school extends learning beyond the national curriculum and bring learning to life in the aim that children can apply their learnt skills to real life circumstances beyond the classroom. Our ‘Belong’ value is reflected in the curriculum and across the wider school, as children are taught essential social skills and learn how to be part of different communities. We provide ‘Challenge’ by having high expectations of all pupils.
Through the PSHE curriculum, we ensure that all children are active in the learning process and have implemented common language around good independent learning skills and the characteristics of effective learning, starting from the Early Years all the way through to Year 6. Growth mindset is embedded using the ‘Power of Yet!’ and understanding the importance of using the 5R’s (Resilience, Responsibility, Reciprocal, Resourceful and Reflective).
PSHE is supported by the school RSHE policy; this policy was written following consultation with Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning, the teaching staff of The Rissington School, the governing body of the school and a consultation with the parent community..
Implementation:
Our intent is implemented through PSHE lessons, but also across the wider curriculum and school society. We have written our own PSHE spiral curriculum which is progressive and cyclical. When writing, we audited the expectations of the statutory guidance and used the curriculum programme written by Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning (GHLL) to ensure that our curriculum met statutory requirements, and to highlight where we extended our children’s learning beyond the curriculum.
Our PSHE curriculum can be seen on our ‘Two Pathways to PSHE’ document, which maps the path of learning a child will take through the school depending on their starting point in our two-year cycle. Children start this pathway in either Pre-school or Reception, and follow the relevant Prime Areas from the EYFS framework; focusing on Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, and Understanding the World.
Our curriculum ensures that PSHE teaching is progressive and builds on prior learning through each Key Stage. PSHE is a naturally cyclical subject, with common threads being built upon across all key stages. Our curriculum ensures that learning is revisited each year and then built on. Teachers know what their class will cover in their Key Stage, and what has been covered in previous years so that they can move the children’s learning on.
To ensure that PSHE lessons are inclusive, all teachers at The Rissington School will anticipate the barriers that may arise during activities, lessons or a series of lessons for pupils with particular SEN and/or disabilities. When planning, teachers will consider ways of minimising or reducing barriers so that all pupils can fully take part and learn. In some activities, pupils with SEN and/or disabilities will be able to take part in the same way as their peers. In others, some modifications or adjustments will be made to include everyone. In other activities, provision will be a ‘parallel’ activity for pupils with SEN and/or disabilities, so that they can work towards the same lesson objectives as their peers, but in a different way.
All children have access to additional enrichment opportunities, which expand on the aims currently set out in the National Curriculum and Statutory Guidance. These include external visits and visitors, school council, arts ambassadors and play leaders. We also have a strong emphasis on wellbeing at The Rissington School, as we identified a growing number of children attending school with mental wellbeing concerns and increasingly complex home lives. Due to this, and the growing national focus on young people’s mental health, we felt we needed to equip them with the skills to cope with this. For children who we identify as needing additional, more specialist support, we provide further small group or individual guidance with our pastoral team.
Impact:
As a result, The Rissington School has a community of compassionate, resilient and mindful children, who challenge themselves to be the best version of themselves. They are confident to take risks in their learning, support each other and make informed decisions. The children feel that PSHE at the Rissington School helps them “know how to be safe”, “learn how to respect others” and “know the difference between right and wrong”.
pshe subject at a glance the rissington school pdf.pdf
See Wellbeing Page for further details.
The Rissington School PSHE Curriculum - Two Pathways