Intention

At Thornton Primary School, we deliver a high-quality PSHE curriculum that is accessible to all pupils and designed to maximise outcomes for every child. Our aim is to equip children with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead happy, healthy, safe and successful lives both within school and beyond.

Our curriculum provides children with opportunities to learn about our school values, British Values, rights and responsibilities, and what it means to be a positive member of a diverse society. We encourage pupils to develop confidence, resilience, self-worth and a strong sense of responsibility, while recognising the important contribution they can make to school life and the wider community.

We use the Coram Life Education SCARF programme as the main framework for our PSHE curriculum. Learning is carefully sequenced so that children build on prior knowledge and skills as they progress through school and are prepared for future learning.

Through our PSHE curriculum, we meet the statutory requirements for Relationships Education and Health Education, while also providing wider learning in areas such as personal safety, economic wellbeing, citizenship, road safety, healthy lifestyles and making safe and informed choices.

As a result of our PSHE curriculum, we aim for children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society who understand themselves and others, respect difference and have the confidence to respond positively to the moral, social and cultural issues they may encounter as they grow.

Implementation

SCARF Scheme of Work

Our PSHE curriculum is primarily delivered through the Coram Life Education SCARF programme.

The following units are taught across the school:

Me and My Relationships

Valuing Difference

Keeping Myself Safe

Rights and Responsibilities

Being My Best

Growing and Changing

 

At the beginning of each half-term, the first PSHE lesson also focuses on one of our core school values: Love, Respect and Ambition. These values are reinforced through whole-school assemblies and throughout wider school life.

Enrichment and Additional Programmes

Our curriculum is enhanced through a range of additional programmes and resources, including Kidsafe, Pol-Ed, road safety education and our Raising Aspirations Programme.

Kidsafe supports children's understanding of personal safety, recognising unsafe situations and knowing how and where to seek help. Pol-Ed, developed in partnership with Lancashire Constabulary, further develops pupils' understanding of safety, safeguarding, citizenship and the law, helping them to make safe and responsible choices.

Road safety education is incorporated across our curriculum, while in Year 6, pupils take part in our Raising Aspirations Programme, encouraging them to recognise their strengths, think positively about their future and develop ambitious goals.

Each term, classes also take part in a Citizenship Project, giving pupils opportunities to contribute positively to their school or wider community and develop their understanding of active citizenship.

Our Friday afternoon enrichment programme provides pupils with a broad range of purposeful experiences that develop confidence, resilience, teamwork, independence and positive relationships. It also supports our wider work to promote good attendance by strengthening pupils' engagement, sense of belonging and enjoyment of school.

A Curriculum for All

We are committed to ensuring that every child can access and succeed within PSHE. Teachers use adaptive teaching approaches which allow all children to learn the necessary knowledge and develop a range of skills. This can take many different forms, such as pre-teaching concepts, providing additional 1:1 support or implementing 'scaffolds'. Within The Orchard, our Key Stage 2 SEND unit, the children take part in additional PSHE lessons linked to specific areas of their EHCPs to help prepare them for the next stage in their learning.

Learning Connections

PSHE connects closely with many other areas of our curriculum. Through Computing and our assembly programme, pupils learn how to keep themselves safe online, develop positive online relationships and behave responsibly in the digital world. During Forest School, children develop their understanding of risk, responsibility and personal safety when using tools, exploring the outdoors and taking part in activities such as fire lighting. In Science, pupils learn about the human body, growth and reproduction, making appropriate links with Relationships Education and the Growing and Changing aspects of PSHE. Teachers make these connections explicit so that pupils can apply their learning across different subjects and real-life situations.

Vocabulary

Developing subject-specific vocabulary is an important part of our PSHE curriculum. Key vocabulary has been identified for each year group so that pupils can develop a secure understanding of the concepts they encounter. Teachers revisit and reinforce this vocabulary so children can express their thoughts, feelings and understanding with increasing confidence.

Impact

Our PSHE curriculum aims to ensure that pupils leave Thornton Primary School with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to make safe and informed choices.

 

We want our pupils to:

• develop positive and respectful relationships
• recognise and manage their emotions
• understand how to keep themselves safe, both online and offline
• respect and value difference
• understand their rights and responsibilities
• make informed choices about their physical and mental health and wellbeing
• develop an understanding of economic wellbeing and responsible decision-making
• recognise when and how to ask for help
• develop confidence, resilience and independence
• contribute positively to their school and wider community
• have high aspirations for their future

Assessment

We use SCARF assessment resources to monitor pupils' progress and understanding across the PSHE curriculum. Children complete activities at the beginning and end of units to help teachers identify prior knowledge and evaluate progress. Teachers also use ongoing formative assessment, including discussion, questioning, observation and pupils' work. SCARF and programme-specific "I can" statements help teachers assess whether pupils have developed a secure understanding of the key knowledge and skills taught.

Impact

Assessment

We implement the SCARF Assessment resources to assess and track our children's learning across the PSHE Curriculum. Where our curriculum is supplemented with additional schemes/programmes such as Road Safety, we utilise the specific resources to assess our children's learning.

In order to effectively assess learning, the children carry out a pre-unit and end of unit assessment each half-term. This type of assessment activity enables both the teacher and the children to clearly see the progress that they have made. Using this, and ongoing formative assessments, we assess children using the SCARF/scheme specific 'I can Statements' to ensure children have developed a secure understanding of the essential knowledge they need to have.