Our intention is to equip all of our children at St John’s with the essential skills they will need for life. It aims to develop the whole child through carefully planned and resourced lessons that develop the knowledge, skills and attributes children need to protect and enhance their well-being.
Through these lessons, children will learn how to stay safe and healthy, build and maintain successful relationships and become active citizens, responsibly participating in a diverse society around them, both now and in the future.
The units in our PSHRE curriculum cover a wide range of social and emotional aspects of learning, enabling children to develop their identity and self-esteem as active, confident citizens.
The themes and topics aim to support social, moral, spiritual and cultural development and provide children with protective teaching.
We intend for children to be taught in a safe environment, in which they can express their feelings and explore sensitive issues. They will develop skills to empathise with others but also develop their own identity, values and beliefs.
Personal, Social and Health Education at St John’s Primary academy is taught using a mindful approach through the Jigsaw scheme of work. This embraces emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development.
Children have one lesson per week, delivered by class teachers, or year group TAs. When delivered by TAs, it will have been in discussion with the class teacher about content to be covered and opportunity for feedback with regards pupil progress, topics of discussion and any areas of concern.
In addition to weekly sessions, there will be specific events held throughout the year to support the new PSHRE curriculum, including celebration and awareness days such as anti-bullying week.
PSHRE is a whole school approach with all year groups working on the same theme (puzzle) at the same time.
Each class has a Jigsaw chime, a Jigsaw charter, their year group Jigsaw piece soft toy and a soft toy Jerry the cat. This provides continuity throughout the school for the children, and a familiarity of approach as children transition throughout the school.
The Jigsaw approach is designed to be accessible to all children. There are opportunities to show learning in different ways, e.g. through discussion, scribing, drawing, role play, to suit different learning needs. Higher skilled learners are challenged through higher level questioning.
Mindfulness approach
The mindfulness aspect to the curriculum helps address the emotional health and behaviour issues which often can create barriers to learning.
Children will become aware of their thoughts and feelings as they arise and will be able to focus their mind on what they chose to focus on.
Mindful children can more readily choose their responses to situations, maintain concentration and be aware of strategies to lessen stress and anxiety.
The Jigsaw Programme
This is made up of six puzzle pieces which correspond to units of work.
Term 1: Being me
Term 2: Celebrating difference
Term 3: Dreams and Goals
Term 4: Healthy Me
Term 5: Relationships
Term 6: Changing me
Each Puzzle has six pieces (lessons) which work towards an ‘end product’, for example, The School Learning Charter.
Statutory Sex Education
The Jigsaw programme has had some minor adjustments made as decided by the school’s governing body. It provides a comprehensive PSHRE Programme which covers all the requirements of the government guidance and outcomes, and more.
The Relationships and Healthy Me Puzzles (units) cover most of the aspects in the guidance but these are enhanced, revisited and foundations built throughout the Jigsaw Programme.
Jigsaw’s philosophy starts by building positive self-image, a sense of identity and a healthy relationship with self, and from that starting point helps children grow healthy relationships with others.
Health Education in Jigsaw embraces not only physical health but has a strong focus on mental health and emotional literacy throughout, and empowers children to be aware of their own thoughts and feelings and know how to manage and regulate these (e.g. using Calm Me (mindfulness techniques).
Jigsaw values every child and so takes inclusivity as a given, promoting acceptance of individuals for who they are and who they will become.
SMSC
Every lesson contributes to at least one of these aspects of children’s spiritual, moral, social or cultural development.
Safeguarding, British Values, Prevent and Ofsted
The Jigsaw programme supports all government agendas and is updated regularly to support school leaders and teachers.
The Relationships and Changing Me Puzzles have a strong safeguarding focus in particular, obvious to teachers but not necessarily so explicit to children.
Our philosophy is to grow resilience and positive self-esteem and confidence in children, so they can recognise when they feel uncomfortable in a situation and know who to trust and how to speak up for help. They respect themselves and their bodies and know what healthy relationships feel like.
Staff, governors and pupils are involved in the review process of this curriculum and ongoing training for staff is put in place.
Curriculum can be adapted to suit the needs of individuals.
At St John’s Primary Academy, we take children’s safety and well-being very seriously, empowering them to speak up and get help if needed and to know how to keep themselves safe.
We ask the children to colour a Jigsaw Friend with either a smiley face/ neutral face/ unhappy face at the end of each Jigsaw lesson in their Jigsaw Journal. The teacher can then ascertain if any children are feeling worried or concerned about the lesson and follow this up with specific children if needed.
The Learning Environment
Through the Jigsaw scheme, we aim to meet children’s needs in this ever-changing world including the most sensitive issues like bereavement and family change, which many of our children have to deal with.
Establishing a safe, open and positive learning environment based on trusting relationships between all members of the class, adults and children alike, is vital.
To enable this, it is important that ‘ground rules’ are agreed and owned at the beginning of the year and are reinforced in every Piece - by using The Jigsaw Charter. The first lesson plans of the Being Me in My World Puzzle enable this.
Children are enabled to develop the vocabulary and confidence needed to clearly articulate their thoughts and feelings in a climate of openness, trust and respect, and know when and how they can seek the support of others. They will apply their understanding of society to their interactions within communities, from the classroom to the wider community of which they are part.
We will support the active development of a school culture that prioritises physical and mental health and well-being, providing children with key skills to evaluate and understand their own well-being needs, practice self-care and contribute positively to the well-being of those around them.
Successful delivery of PSHRE in our school should have a positive impact on the whole child, including their academic development and progress, by mitigating social and emotional barriers to learning and building confidence with self-esteem.
Disadvantaged and vulnerable children are helped to achieve to a greater extent by raising aspirations and empowering them with skills to overcome any barriers they face.
This scheme will be used as part of a whole-school approach to positively impact well-being, safeguarding and SMSC outcomes. This can ensure that all children can develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to succeed at school and in the wider world.
Learning will be assessed each lesson using formative assessment by the children in their Jigsaw journeys. This allows the teacher to see how the children feel about their learning this lesson. Learning is marked according to whether the children have demonstrated understanding of the learning intention for this lesson. There are also additional assessment opportunities at the end of each unit, where children can demonstrate their learning from across the term.
The PSHRE lead monitors the impact of PSHRE teaching and learning through monitoring planning, teaching and learning, book looks, and talking to children and staff.
Children are either working towards or meeting the end of year age-related expectations.