PSHE

Intent

At Montem Academy, we aim for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) to be embedded throughout the school. Although it is not a statutory subject, we strongly believe that this subject is necessary in developing the whole child and that children are entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum. 

PSHE education is a subject that provides children with the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, safe and to be prepared for modern day Britain. It helps them to understand how they fit in and how they can contribute to the world around them. 

We also aim to develop children’s self-esteem, self-confidence and their knowledge of how to control and manage their thoughts and feelings. We want our students to be mindful of their own and others well-being, health and safety, and that they develop awareness of differences around them and that they accept differences. We want our students to use the techniques learnt from the subject and apply them to their community and the world around them.
 

Implementation

Our approach to teaching PSHE at Montem is through a weekly PSHE lesson, where we follow a scheme called Jigsaw.  Our Jigsaw scheme is a mindful approach to PSHE, teaching the children emotional literacy, social- and lifelong skills. Jigsaw helps us nurture the children to be confident and successful, increasing their capability to learn and prepare them for the challenges of the modern world. It also contributes to SMSC (spiritual, moral, social, cultural) development. 

The scheme consists of six units of work, one for each half term and there are six lessons within each half term. Our coverage is as follows:

Autumn term 1 – Being Me in My World
Autumn term 2 – Celebrating Differences 
Spring term 1 – Dreams and Goals
Spring term 2 – Healthy Me
Summer term 1 - Relationships
Summer term 2 – Changing Me 

Every lesson has two learning intentions. One specific to Relationships and Health Education and the other is designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills. The wide range of teaching and learning activities are engaging and mindful of different learning styles and the need for differentiation. 

This spiral approach to PSHE allows for clear progression throughout the year groups. With each year group studying the same unit at the same time, at their level, building sequentially through the school year, facilitates whole-school learning themes. Every half term, to introduce the new theme, we have an assembly. 

To further ensure optimum progression, every lesson is split into six parts. 

1.    ‘Connect us’ is an activity which enhances social skills, positive relationships and collaborative learning.
2.    ‘Calm me’ is the time in the lesson where children relax, unwind and think about themselves and their emotions.
3.    ‘Open my mind’ introduces the new topic.
4.    ‘Tell me or show me’ introduces new information, concepts and skills.
5.    ‘Let me learn’ is where the children use their new learnt knowledge and make sense of it themselves through an activity. 
6.    ‘Help me reflect’ is where the children take the time to think about their learning and progress.