PSHE & Citizenship
'To equip pupils with a sound understanding of risk and with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions' - PHSE, Department for Education
Intent
At Shavington Primary School, we want to promote our children’s understanding of their personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship. This enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. We celebrate individual and collective achievements, encouraging our pupils to play a positive role in contributing to the life of the school and the wider community. In so doing, we help develop their sense of self-worth; accepting that we all have our differences and that everyone is important. We teach children how society is organised and governed, ensuring that they experience the process of democracy in school through the school council. Teaching our children about rights and responsibilities is encouraged throughout the school and we aim to provide opportunities that help the children to appreciate what it means to be a positive member of a diverse multicultural society. We also follow a scheme of work called 'Drugs & Alcohol' which encourages children to develop the skills of resisting peer pressure, resilience, empathy, self awareness and assertiveness. Alongside this, we also use the 'My Happy Mind' scheme of work and 'No Outsiders' (please see separate curriculum page).
The aims of personal, social and health education and citizenship are to enable the children to:
· know and understand what constitutes a healthy lifestyle;
· be aware of safety issues;
· understand what makes for good relationships with others;
· have respect for others;
· be independent and responsible members of the school community;
· be positive and active members of a democratic society;
· develop self-confidence and self-esteem, and make informed choices regarding personal and social issues;
· develop good relationships with other members of the school and the wider community.
Implementation
At Shavington Primary School, we use a range of teaching and learning styles, emphasising active learning by including the children in discussions, investigations and problem-solving activities. We encourage the children to take part in a range of practical activities that promote active citizenship. This includes the local community and the wider world e.g. raising money for, and distributing food gifts to local senior citizens and our involvement with our local Church, St Mark's to donate food to local food banks. The children take part in planning events such as class assemblies, which they share with the school community. They also participate in open days and a variety of shows and productions.
The local community is also involved in the children’s education, as one of our local Ministers regularly takes our school assemblies. We often arrange for parents to share a wide range of knowledge and expertise with groups and classes of children. We organise classes in such a way that pupils can participate in a discussion to resolve conflicts or set agreed classroom rules of behaviour.
As a school, we are also part of the No Outsider community. From this, we are instilling a brief to the children that everyone is welcome in our school. Children will be taught messages of respect and understanding through stories about a variety of topics, including race and religion, and how this could affect their lives. You can find more information about this on our No Outsiders page.
When teaching our 'Drugs & Alcohol' scheme of work, we use age appropriate language and ensure that we create a safe, respectful environment for children to ask questions and further their understanding. Our scheme ensures careful progression while also providing opportunities for children to recap their prior learning. Our Drugs and Alcohol lessons are taught from Year 1- 6. Each year group covers 3 objectives over the year - this is done by teaching one objective per term. Before each objective is taught, the teacher will recap the previous unit to ensure that children have fully understood their prior learning. This also allows time for any misconceptions or gaps in learning to be addressed.
Below are the objectives taught in each year group through our 'Drugs & Alcohol' scheme of work:
- Year 1 = Medicines and people who help us
- Year 2 = Keeping safe
- Year 3 = Smoking
- Year 4 = Alcohol
- Year 5 = Legal and Illegal Drugs
- Year 6 = Preventing Early Use
Impact
Our children understand how important they are as individuals. They understand how to develop good, positive relationships with others and how to respect their opinions and views. Our active learning styles helps the children develop in a variety of ways. Discussion helps the children to reflect on their thoughts and opinions, whilst considering those of others. Investigations allow an opportunity for the children to be resourceful and work together to come to the correct conclusion and problem-solving helps to inspire resilience. Mistakes will happen from time to time, but it is how we react to those mistakes that can make us stronger and more understanding. Most importantly, our children understand what it means to be kind, even when kindness is difficult to find.