Intent
At Consett Junior School our PSHE curriculum enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. 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, alongside with teaching pupils about sex education, sexual harassment and online sexual abuse. 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, whether it be taking part in one of the many clubs we have to offer, being on our school council, our house captains, one of our sports leaders or one of the milk monitors.
Every child has the opportunity to have an active role within our school. We also encourage the children to think about our local community too; our brass band visits local nursing homes throughout the year, we also provide them with art work to brighten up their walls. Christmas cards are made and delivered to the local residents living in nearby flats. Underpinning our values of Family and Humility, the children and their families are encouraged to talk to us if they need help and to help others that they know are in need. Consett Junior School is a family and together we help one another so that our children have the best start in their education and the tools to live a happy and healthy life once they leave us. We also have a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health to help our children develop the skills they need to be part of a diverse society.
Implementation
We use the Jigsaw Scheme of work at Consett Junior School, which offers a comprehensive Programme for Primary PSHE including statutory Relationships and Health Education, in a spiral, progressive and fully planned scheme of work, giving children relevant learning experiences to help them navigate their world and to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
This will be taught in weekly, 1-hour lessons and will include a weekly assembly to launch and embed the topic within the school.
Our Assembly Timetable also incorporates Jigsaw and can be seen below:
Jigsaw consists of six half-term units of work (Puzzles), each containing six lessons (Pieces) covering each academic year.
Term 1: Being Me in My World
Term 2: Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
Term 3: Dreams and Goals
Term 4: Healthy Me
Term 5: Relationships
Term 6: Changing Me (including Sex Education)
Every Piece has two Learning Intentions, one specific to Relationships and Health Education (PSHE) (in purple) and the other designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills (in green).
Puzzles are launched with a whole-school assembly containing an original song, with each year group studying the same unit at the same time (at their own level), building sequentially through the school year, facilitating whole-school learning themes. The various teaching and learning activities are engaging and mindful of different learning styles and the need for differentiation.
Each lesson is built upon a Charter which underpins the behaviour and respect that is the basis for each lesson (one is provided within Jigsaw, but children and their teacher can write their own to ensure mutual respect and ownership).
The lessons then split into six parts, all of which should be included in every session to ensure that the learning follows the optimum progression:
- Connect us – This is a game or activity designed to be fun and inclusive and to build and maximise social skills. ‘Connect us’ engenders positive relationships and enhances collaborative learning. It sets the atmosphere at the beginning of each Jigsaw Piece and can be used again at the end should the teacher feel the atmosphere needs to be lifted after some deep work during the lesson.
- Calm me – This section of the Piece helps children gain awareness of the activity in their minds, relaxing them and quietening their thoughts and emotions to a place of optimum learning capacity. This will also engender a peaceful atmosphere within the classroom. It is an invaluable life skill, which also enhances reflection and spiritual development. This underpins the mindful approach advocated in Jigsaw.
- Open my mind – The Reticular Activating System of the brain filters the many stimuli entering the child’s mind at any given time. It is designed only to allow in that which is significant. Therefore, it is important to engage this system with the most important aspects of learning intended for each piece (lesson). If we do this well, it will enable children to filter out activity around them not significant to this learning intention, thereby improving concentration and learning.
- Tell me or show me – This section of the Piece (lesson) is used to introduce new information, concepts and skills, using a range of teaching approaches and activities.
- Let me learn – Following Piaget’s learning model, after receiving new information/concepts, children need to manipulate, use, and play with that new information in order for it to make sense to them and for them to ‘accommodate’ it into their existing learning.
- Help me reflect -Throughout Jigsaw, children are encouraged to reflect on their learning experiences and their progress. By reflecting, children can process and evaluate what they have learnt, which enables them to consolidate and apply their learning. They are also asked to stop and become aware of their thoughts and feelings in any given moment in Pause Points (brief pauses within the lesson where the children can have a couple of moments to just stop and be to consider whether what they are learning may be particularly meaningful to them).
- Closure – Each Piece needs safe closure. This will always include the teacher praising the children for their effort, positive attitude and achievement, as well as giving one or two sentences to summarise the key learning points for the children.
In addition to this, teachers have the freedom to plan with detail and attention to their individual children. Learners can be scaffolded and any individual needs can be supported where necessary.
The summative assessment process offers criteria for children either working at, beyond or towards the age-related expectations. Greater depth children can be challenged to ensure that they are being given the opportunities to enrich their learning further.
Impact
Our PSHE curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression and enable every child to reach are related expectations as a minimum, with opportunities for many to exceed these.
Assessment in Jigsaw is both formative and summative. The two clear learning objectives for each lesson (piece) allow the teacher to be mindful of the assessment elements within that session that can formatively help them pitch and plan subsequent lessons. Activities are included in each lesson to give the children the opportunity to self-assess using simple pictorial resources designed in a child-friendly, age appropriate manner which allows children the opportunity to identify areas for self-improvement.
In addition we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Pupil discussions about their learning
- The ongoing monitoring of standards across the curriculum by subject, middle and senior leaders.
