PSHE

Intent 

We pride ourselves at Lynch Hill that personal development has a very high profile within the school through all aspects of school life. It is our intention through our curriculum to encourage and provide opportunities for pupils to have a positive mind set. All staff have a good understanding of Lynch Hill Values (PRESENT – Passion, Resilience, Equality, Safety, Enrichment, Nurture and Teamwork) and they are a focus for Thought for the week, assemblies, Kidzone sessions and class charters. We strive to develop the whole child, through our curriculum and we want pupils to leave our school ready for secondary school and the wider world, recognising what it means to be a good member of the community with a strong sense of identity and independence. 

Personal, social and health education, or PSHE, aims to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding to lead confident, healthy and independent lives. 

 Implementation 

The Jigsaw PSHE programme supports staff to provide knowledge and develop skills, using a child-centred approach, ensuring lessons are fun for pupils and teachers. The lessons are challenging and allow pupils to focus on ‘opportunities, experiences and responsibilities of life’. The plans offer a broad and balanced curriculum, with inclusivity and it meets the needs for our school. This will contribute to pupil’s personal development by allowing them to participate, explore and learn. 

Pupils at Lynch Hill are given opportunities to discuss life in Britain and the wider world and are presented with non-biased scenarios in Topic lessons or class discussions about events in the news. Our first Jigsaw unit offered the chance for pupils to appreciate and fully understand diversity and to celebrate it. 

Jigsaw is also supporting and providing staff with the necessary tools for delivering the RSE curriculum. From September 2020 the new government guidelines for teaching RSE across the school came into play and the Jigsaw materials have helped staff to feel more confident in the delivery of age-appropriate teaching of RSE for each key stage. 

We provide excellent pastoral support for pupils through well-trained staff providing the access to ELSA sessions and other therapies. Our PiXL character and culture resources help us to further develop character and develop resilience and confidence in all pupils. 

Children are actively taught about risk online and to recognise the dangers of inappropriate use of technology and social media. 

We promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle through the Active Movement programme and children are given many opportunities to participate in a wide range of activity clubs before and after school. Active teaching in present in all lessons, children are more active in lessons within the classroom too. 

Pupil voice is celebrated through school councils, young leader roles and in all lessons. The language associated with the British Values is used actively in school and democracy is used in lessons when elected school council and active ambassadors.  Our behaviour regulation policy models the rule of law and our rights and responsibilities within our school community. 

Impact 
Observations of Jigsaw lessons and pupil focus groups on relevant topics show our pupils are becoming analytical thinkers who ask questions and are confident to discuss a variety of topics. 

Displays across the school show some of the topics that are explored and the links created with our school and British Values. Our assembly themes, units of work across a range of curriculum subjects explore pastoral care and cultural capital of the school for example: Mental Health week, anti-bullying week, safer internet week, black history month and festivals (Eid and Diwali). 

With our commitment to getting children moving, lunch times are now far more active and pupils enjoy the games on offer. This has had an impact on improving pupil behaviour. Careful monitoring of behaviour logs provides an insight into issues and staff are able to deal with these directly. Teaching staff are on lunch duties in the classrooms and on the playground, giving them further opportunities to play with pupils and to really get to know them. 

Links with other subjects, such as History/Geography, give further opportunities for pupils to broaden their knowledge and embed our values. 

Active movement has made a positive impact on our pupils and their well-being. Classes in KS2 have Active ambassadors appointed to encourage children to be active in the classroom and pupils will actively stand-up to answer questions, including stand-up registers and stand-up reading. The monitoring of attendance has shown that pupils’ attendance at Lynch Hill is above national averages.