Blackgates

Lead: Rebecca Lunn

PSHE Curriculum Intent September 2024

PSHE education is a school subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy, happy and safe, and prepare to live, work in and make a positive contribution to society in modern Britain. Evidence shows that well-delivered PSHE programmes have an impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for pupils.

At Blackgates we have pupils who come from a diverse context, and therefore we use a variety of resources in order to meet these very differing needs. We feel very strongly we have pupils who need to be provided with strong morals and ethical debate as not all pupils will grow up with this provided in the home.

Our school, in partnership with parents, has a vital role in preparing children and young people to negotiate the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex world. Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is the school subject that deals with real life issues affecting our children, families and community. It’s concerned with the social, health and economic realities of their lives, experiences and attitudes. It supports pupils to be healthy (mentally and physically); safe (online and offline) and equipped to thrive in their relationships and careers. PSHE education helps all children and young people— to achieve their fullest potential.

PSHE education:

Contributes to physical and mental health and wellbeing, encouraging individual responsibility for health.
Contributes to the safety and protection of our children and young people, from staying safe online to understanding risks associated with drugs and alcohol.
Promotes independence, resilience and responsibility — preparing children and young people for future roles as parents, employees and leaders.
Supports employability by developing the personal and social skills demanded by commerce and industry.
Supports pupils to be critical consumers of information and develops the skills to identify misleading news or views on social media and elsewhere.

Our PSHE Curriculum:

‘1decision’:

At Blackgates Primary Academy, we base our PSHE Curriculum on the ‘1decision’ scheme. This has been introduced in September 2024. ‘1decision’ is a planning and teaching resource which supports the teaching of PSHE education in Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

The ‘1decision’ planning resource includes lesson plans, whole school and year group curriculum overviews, assessment activities and resources for teachers to use in lessons. The curriculum overviews enable teachers and pupils to track topics across the academic year alongside relevant learning expectations. The Protected Characteristics and fundamental British Values are well supported through our 1decision PSHE lessons, as well as through the daily life at Blackgates.

Each topic in the resources incorporates activities to establish the starting point of learners and assess progress. The topics included are:

Keeping/ Staying Safe

Keeping/ Staying Healthy

Relationships

Being Responsible

Feelings & Emotions

Computer Safety

Our World

Fire Safety Special

Hazard Watch

The Working World

A World Without Judgement

First Aid Special

'1decision' in Early Years

We believe teaching PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development) in the early years is of paramount importance as it lays the foundation for a child’s lifelong well-being and success. Therefore, our Early Years PSHE curriculum equips pupils with essential life skills, such as, emotional intelligence and social competence. Our PSED resources from ‘1decision’ help children develop self-awareness, empathy and effective communication skills.

Early Years have a separate ‘1decision’ curriculum to Years 1-6, whereby many of their ‘1decision’ sessions take place as and when a situation arises within the class environment, when the class teacher feels a PSHE learning point is needed and would be valuable for the class or a group of pupils. This is done through ‘Dilemma Drops’. Alongside this, Early Years take part in topic lessons on a weekly basis, which cover a variety of topics, including health, relationships, personal and social. These topics support the early learning goals, which can be seen in the ‘1decision Early Years Overview’ document.

Picture News:

Picture News sessions are taught on a weekly basis (including in Early Years), whereby a picture from a news story that week is discussed and explored by the whole school in classes. The resources expose children to current issues, including political, religious, cultural, environmental, social, moral, spiritual. discover their interests and bring the world closer to their everyday lives.

Pupils are encourage to think about and share their views on the particular news item, along with think about how the news item makes them feel. Picture News makes British Values relevant and meaningful and develop links between personal, school and community values, along with supporting the Protected Characteristics in each session. Lastly, Picture News sessions help pupils to develop tolerance and respect.

Mindmate

At Blackgates we further enhance the positive outcomes of this scheme through a whole range of other vital life skills including: Investors in Pupils, Growth Mindsets, British Values, online safety, fire safety, anti-bullying week, NSPCC Pants Rule, first aid training, road safety, water safety, cycling proficiency and railway safety.

At Blackgates, pupils begin each half term with a Mindmate (mental health and emotional well-being) lesson, the whole school sharing the same theme. The 6 Mindmate themes are:

Feeling Good and Being Me

Friends and Family

Life Changes

Strong Emotions

Being the same Being Different

Solving Problems

Zones of Regulation

We teach pupils how to regulate their emotions using the ‘Zones of Regulation’ approach. Each class participates in Zones of Regulation lessons as appropriate to the class, and this Zones of Regulation understanding has become well embedded in the school over the past few years. Altogether we believe this will provide our children with the skills and understanding that they need to manage risks, make informed decisions and negotiate life successfully. Each classroom has a Zones of Regulation display board, where the pupils can physically identify their emotion by moving a photo card of themselves to the appropriate zone. This enables pupils to identify their own emotions and think what strategies they might need to use to ensure that they are “ready to learn”. This ensures that the learning environment in each classroom is positive and calm, with learners who are able to fully engage and be the best that they can be. We want this emotional knowledge and understanding to be applied by our pupils, not only to their school life but also to their life in their homes, communities and in their futures!

To ensure a positive and safe learning environment for our children during our PSHE lessons we establish a set of ground rules with each class of children. These ground rules will then remain consistent throughout the class in all PSHE lessons.