Intent: This is what we want for your child.
At Barley Fields Primary, we provide a warm, safe and happy environment where children can freely share and learn from their experiences. It is our intention that the children will understand their rights (UNCRC) and their responsibility to uphold these. We want the children to know how to be safe in the different situations they will face throughout their lives and how to develop and maintain healthy relationships. We strive to ensure our children can make informed decisions as safe, responsible citizens with a focus on the online world they navigate each day, both socially and within school.
We believe that developing a growth mindset in our children will help them to build resilience, independence and confidence; embrace challenge; and foster a love of learning. We aim to ensure that our children enter Key Stage 3 with confidence, high aspirations and a belief in themselves. Throughout their primary school journey, we strive to instil the importance of understanding the protected characteristics in the world our children are growing up in. We will prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life and as a result, our children will be able to play a positive and successful role in today’s society.
Implementation: This is what it will look like in the classroom.
Our children follow a carefully structured PSHE curriculum designed to progressively enhance their understanding of the world and to provide them with the skills to know how to keep safe and healthy. Our bespoke PSHE curriculum promotes discussion, encourages self-respect and helps to develop global citizens.
Our PSHE Curriculum follows a sequence of teaching that progressively builds and revisits our three key strands:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Relationships
- Living in the Wider World
At Barley Fields Primary School, we recognise the importance of building strong relationships built on mutual respect. By revisiting the three main themes across each year group, children consolidate the key skills needed to stay safe; develop and maintain positive relationships and to be active citizens in the wider world.
We have written our curriculum, not only within the Government guidelines, but also considering the personalised needs of our children. Our curriculum incorporates the Rights Respecting Schools Agenda, Global Goals, a Growth Mindset approach and an understanding of the Protected Characteristics. These are all integral parts of our school ethos. Our approach to PSHE starts in Early Years and progresses across school.
Unlike other curriculum subjects, PSHE is not taught in discreet blocks. PSHE is delivered weekly by the class teacher to ensure our key areas and topical themes, often identified through Picture News, can be addressed promptly. The delivery of the curriculum, through detailed curriculum plans, allows for adaptive teaching and gives teachers the skills and expertise to teach and deliver bespoke sessions to each class. Our lessons are focused on debate, discussion and circle time. We understand the importance of children having a positive and purposeful PSHE curriculum by giving each child a voice and ensuring their views and ideas can be heard.
At Barley Fields Primary School, we encourage and guide our children to play a positive role in contributing to our school and the wider community. Assemblies are closely linked to PSHE, Rights Respecting Schools, British Values and SMSC and these cover any additional sessions that would benefit the whole school. Our community-based visitors give children the support and expertise to stay safe in our local area – focussing on areas we know are relevant to our children. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and to appreciate what it means to be a member of the diverse society in which we live. Visitors such as the emergency services; first aid workshops; pedestrian safety and Careers Week complement and strengthen our PSHE curriculum to offer additional learning opportunities that enrich children’s experiences. We want our children to be safe, keep safe and teach them how to stay safe. Our curriculum is also enriched by external companies, such as Relax Kids, which support emotional health and well- being.
Our school curriculum character for PSHE, Serena the Citizen, has been designed to represent the curriculum end points as children progress through school. Our children are regularly exposed the core skills and knowledge to support them in becoming a positive member of the community and the wider world.
Impact: This is what it will mean for our children.
The impact of our PSHE curriculum is that children are able to make appropriate decisions in a range of everyday scenarios, helping to shape them into happy, healthy, confident and independent members of the community.
Our PSHE curriculum and our teaching and learning pedagogy leads to children who are able to:
- Approach a range of real-life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves through modern life
- Recognise and apply the British values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of Law and Liberty
- Recognise their rights as a child, protected characteristics and environmental issues linked to our global goals
- Look after their mental health and well-being
- Understand and manage their emotions to keep themselves and others safe
- Appreciate difference and diversity
- Develop positive, healthy relationships with their peers both now and in the future
- Access the internet safely, recognising the impact of their online footprint
We are proud that every child will have access to a high-quality, sequenced and adaptive PSHE curriculum throughout their journey at Barley Fields. We are proud that our PSHE curriculum promotes a respectful environment within the classroom, accessible to every child.