PSHE

At Pickhurst Infant School, we aim for children to be able to identify different feelings and to be able to express them.

We want them to have an understanding of how their actions affect others and also to understand that people may behave differently. We want children to be able to make healthy choices in life and be confident on saying no to things that might harm them.  This is embedded through our Pickhurst Values for Friendship, Respect, Excellence, Determination and Resilience.

Our vision is that children will be able to take risks in their learning but know how to stay safe at home and in the community.  Through carefully planned and resourced lessons PSHE develops the child’s cultural capital by improving their knowledge, skills and attributes needed to protect and enhance their wellbeing.  Through PSHE children will learn how to stay safe and healthy, build and maintain successful relationships and become active citizens, responsibly participating in society around them. Children will have the opportunities to create personal understanding and explore and challenge a range of values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities.

The Relationships and Health Education (RHE) is an integral part of the Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum as well as being linked to other areas of the curriculum too.

The curriculum is split into core themes:

• Relationships
• Health and wellbeing
• Living in the wider world

PSHE enables children to respectfully explore the diverse beliefs, values and attitudes that individuals and societies hold. They help pupils to develop themselves, their understanding of the world, and their ability to communicate their feelings using appropriate language. PSHE helps children to acquire British values and attitudes which are necessary if they are to make sense of their experiences within school and life itself, value themselves, respect others, appreciate differences and diversity and feel confident and informed as a British citizen.

At Pickhurst our learning objectives come from the PSHE Association and are embedded in the Heartsmart Programme which we follow.  Each half term the school covers a ‘heartsmart’ principle within our PSHE lessons, and these principles are then embedded in whole school assemblies.  

The Five Heartsmart Principles are:

• Don’t Forget to let love in
• Too much selfie isn’t healthy
• Don’t rub it in, Rub it out!
• Fake is a mistake
• ‘No way through’ isn’t true

The lessons are designed to be delivered in a creative manner, using many approaches such as role play, discussion and games.  These activities enable confidence and resilience.

Alongside this we teach the NSPCC’s underwear rule and have an annual Anti Bullying Week, following the theme of the Anti- Bullying Alliance.  All of which aim to help children to make positive, safe and informed decisions.  To support this each class has a worry box, a well- being scale displayed in their classroom and a poster, developed by the School Council, on strategies to help self -regulation.

Every child’s social and emotional development is intrinsic within the school’s intent and so PSHE is evident in all aspects of school life; from our school values, to our forest school experiences, transition programmes and opportunities for independent learning.  It also supports other areas of the curriculum such as R.E, PE and Science.