Curriculum Leader

Mr P Freeman Myers

Intent

PSHE is a chance to give every child and young person an equal opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge they need to thrive now and in the future.​

This includes helping them to deal with critical issues they face every day such as friendships, emotional wellbeing and change. And giving them a solid foundation for whatever challenging opportunities lie ahead, so they can face a world full of uncertainty with hope.​

From making informed decisions about alcohol to succeeding in their first job, PSHE education helps pupils prepare for all the opportunities, challenges, life decisions and responsibilities they’ll face.​

This in turn achieves a ‘virtuous circle’, whereby pupils with better health and wellbeing can achieve better academically, and enjoy greater success.

Implementation

Following guidance from the PSHE Association the curriculum can be divided into  three themes:​

  • Relationships​
  • Health & wellbeing​
  • Living in the wider world​

​The themes are part of a spiral curriculum and are revisited through Key Stage 2 and 3. ​

Timetabled one hour lessons take place once per fortnight in Key Stage 2 and once a week in Key Stage 3. The learning in these lessons is supplemented by work done during tutorial sessions, assemblies and input from external speakers throughout the year.​

​The PSHE programme is supported by other opportunities in the school calendar to develop citizenship as part of the broader personal development agenda.​

Impact

Measuring impact through assessment is central to effective teaching and learning in PSHE education. It also ensures that the programme is delivering the what is intended and that students have remembered crucial knowledge.​

The impact of the PSHE programme is measured in a variety of ways and uses a combination of teacher assessment and pupil self and peer assessment. The model of assessment that is most meaningful in PSHE education is ipsative assessment. Ipsative assessment compares where a pupil is at the end of a lesson or series of lessons against where they were before the lesson(s).  Examples used in PSHE include:​

  • Baseline assessments to gauge prior knowledge and understanding​
  • Ask-it-basket end of lesson or unit question / summary of key messages​
  • Mind-map / Spider diagram​
  • Questionnaire​
  • Explain to an alien​
  • Washing line​
  • Card sort / diamond 9​
  • Discussion

All classes in PSHE are adopting a floor book approach to capture the outcomes of learning intentions found in long-term and medium-term planning.

Policies

Please see below links to our: 

An updated policy was shared with all stakeholders in September 2023 – comments and questions are welcomed to admin@hexhammiddle.org.uk.