Intent

At Decoy Community Primary School, Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. We endeavour to foster a culture of high self-worth and self-respect, helping children to make choices that keep them safe and well. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

Implementation

At Decoy, staff deliver the PSHE curriculum through weekly lessons and dedicated assemblies.  Our teachers follow the Jigsaw PSHE programme to equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions. However, we are aware that the delivered curriculum must reflect the needs of our pupils.

The Jigsaw scheme consists of six half-term units, referred to as Puzzles:

• Being Me in My World
• Celebrating Difference
• Dreams and Goals
• Healthy Me
• Relationships
• Changing Me

Each Puzzle consists of six lessons, referred to as Pieces.

For an overview of these lessons, please follow the link to the document below.

Jigsaw is known as the ‘Mindful Approach to PSHE’ and mindfulness plays an important role in the structure of our PSHE lessons. Each lesson begins with a ‘Calm Me’ session, which involves allowing the children time to relax through the use of gentle sounds and breathing. As well as providing a calm and focused start to each lesson, the children can then use these breathing techniques to help regulate heightened emotions, such as a sense of anxiety or worry, outside their PSHE lessons. Children are also given time during lessons to consider how they feel about the topics and issues being discussed. There are always opportunities to discuss questions with the teacher.

Discussion and teamwork also play a central role in the implementation of our PSHE lessons. Children are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas and are reminded of the importance of listening to the ideas and opinions of others. Activities often involve working together to create a shared outcome. Not only do these activities develop children’s communication and listening skills, they also foster key citizenship skills such as tolerance, patience and the ability to negotiate and compromise with their peers.

Impact

PSHE at Decoy Community Primary School fosters children’s understanding of how to play a positive and successful role in society. The structure and content of lessons help develop the knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils need to play a full part in a democratic society, as active and responsible citizens. It also gives children the opportunities to develop their emotional intelligence and helps to provide them with the skills needed to navigate the social, moral and cultural dimensions of the world in which they will grow up.