PSHE

Intent - What we want for our children?

At Horn’s Mill, Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education is a carefully planned curriculum that aims to provide the learning necessary for children to be safe, healthy and prepared for life’s opportunities. The PSHE curriculum has been designed to ensure that the progressive skills and knowledge is tailored to best suit our children and provides the learning opportunities at age appropriate levels in order to suitably equip them for later life.

When developing this curriculum, it was important for us to teach the children about how to be physically and mentally healthy. The My Happy Mind scheme, a research based curriculum backed by the NHS, is used within school to support teaching and promote a culture of positive mental well-being. Horn’s Mill was initially involved in this project at the pilot stage and it was recognised as a valued tool for delivering this curriculum from Reception to Year 6. Children are taught to understand how their brain works and to develop skills and habits to be their best selves.  

The PSHE curriculum aims to ensure that pupils are equipped to make informed choices about healthy eating, fitness and their emotional and mental well-being. Our drugs and alcohol curriculum, safety and relationships learning provides the children with the knowledge that they will need to help them to develop an understanding of the world around them and make sensible life choices.  

The teaching of our relationships curriculum is supported by the My Happy Mind Relationships Curriculum and the Christopher Winters Project. Each of these schemes provides carefully mapped, progressive learning opportunities from Year 1 to Year 6 that covers the mandatory relationship education guidelines to provide the essential skills and understanding needed. 

Reception’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED) is supported through the teaching of our EYFS curriculum and the other resources such as Christopher Winter and My Happy Mind. During their time in Reception, children are given opportunities to develop their ability to manage their feelings, self-regulate their emotions and build positive relationships with peers and teachers. This is taught within a play based environment during daily continuous provision, where adults model the skills children need to further assist their PSED.  Children in Reception are taught to be confident learners, who flourish into successful and confident pupils in preparation for the transition into Key Stage 1. 

We provide an equality curriculum to prepare children for life where they understand and value diversity and inclusion. Our No Outsider’s curriculum introduces children to thinking about and celebrating differences. We promote the belief that every child should be able to develop and flourish within the accepting and safe environment provided. Through curriculum and wider school opportunities, we ensure that every child can develop a sense of belonging and pride in our school community. Furthermore, alongside our British Values curriculum, our children are given the opportunities to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society.  

Implementation - How is the curriculum delivered?

When delivering this curriculum for our children, we wanted to ensure that opportunities were created for progression and development in learning. Each year group has each of the objectives grouped and mapped onto a long term curriculum plan. An example of the progression of our mental health learning is that in EYFS, the children learn that we need to look after our brains because they help us to do so many different things. In Year 5 children learn strategies for helping their brain to rest and understanding why this is important.

Our curriculum is delivered in a way that ensures overlearning of key concepts and opportunities to revisit learning. Where it supports the delivery of the curriculum, subjects align with one another to provide these opportunities. However, we also value the consistency of 'Happy Breathing' across the school and class teachers use this with their classes on a daily basis.

Our whole school assemblies introduce the My Happy Mind learning module each half term. When the My Happy Mind learning has been introduced, each class then completes this modules with their teacher. In subsequent weeks, this assembly slot is used for Picture News assemblies or assemblies that support our SMSC values. Picture News is used to discuss and explore current affairs with the children within a safe environment. Each week the assembly directly relates to one of the British Values and consequently embeds knowledge and understanding of this vocabulary.  Each week, the Picture News story is considered more deeply and their thoughts and reflections are collated in a whole school record.

Our No Outsiders learning is plotted out in teachers Medium Term planning so that children can learn about the topics and themes that support their learning in other areas of the curriculum. This is also true for our Money and Finance learning and Relationships learning. For example, in Team 5 use “Where The Poppies Now Grow” in No Outsider’s to support their learning about Remembrance Sunday in November. This is also a purposeful introduction and link to the later learning about the World Wars within the Year 6 history curriculum.

Impact - How do we know our PSHE curriculum is effective?

Our inclusive ethos and approach to creating our curriculum offer means that we have thought about how children can demonstrate their learning in a way that is accessible for all. Pupil Voice is one of the ways that we ensure learning is sticking and that the curriculum is achieving our aims. Pupil Voice is an important tool in assessing whether children have made progress.

Throughout PSHE learning, age-appropriate opportunities are planned in for children to show their understanding of what has been taught.  Children have learning journeys, My Happy Mind journals and Reflection books which are used to record learning when appropriate and also evidence the end point assessments.

By the time children leave us they will: 

• Demonstrate kindness and respect towards themselves and others 
• Demonstrate resilience
• Have a good understanding of how to stay safe and healthy and be able to make informed choices
• Know what good relationships look like
• Have an appreciation of what it means to be a positive member of a diverse, multicultural society.  
• Demonstrate and apply the British Values of Respect for the Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Democracy, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Other Faiths and Beliefs
• Be on their journey preparing them for life and work in modern Britain and beyond
• Be confident, tolerant and well-rounded individuals

If you have any further enquiries relating to the PSHE curriculum, please email Mrs Hughes: senco@hornsmill.cheshire.sch.uk