PSHE (Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education)

Children are at the heart of everything we do and Christ is the light that guides us. John 8:12

 At Lostock Gralam, our mission statement underpins everything we do. We believe passionately that in order for our children to successfully demonstrate our core Christian values to others, they must first recognise them in themselves. When children can do this, they will have a healthy mind and a positive mental health and with this will go onto become positive role models and citizens.

What does PSHE look like in our school?

At Lostock Gralam we believe passionately that our whole-school ethos, our curriculum and our PSHE learning enables our children to stay safe, healthy and prepared for life’s challenges and opportunities.

We plan and deliver a PSHE curriculum that enables children to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage their lives now and in the future. We ensure that throughout their time at Lostock, children have the opportunity to learn about and experience financial planning education, careers education, citizenship and British Values teaching. We also teach children about the importance of strong and successful relationships and how these can impact on our health and wellbeing. We teach children about Relationship and Sex Education (RSE), and we empower children to know and understand about ‘No Outsiders’ and to have the ability to recognise, understand and celebrate differences without prejudice or harmful stereotyping. The children at Lostock know and understand that they are God’s children and that we are all part of God’s family, we teach children about different family structures and we encourage all of our children to use personal and social skills in order to be a positive and active member of society.

Relationships, Health and Wellbeing within our PSHE curriculum

Our PSHE curriculum has many elements that are designed to enable children to understand not only what mental health and wellbeing is but also how to have a happy and healthy mind. 

In January 2024 we introduced 'Jigsaw'. 

Jigsaw is a whole-school approach and embodies a positive philosophy and creative teaching and learning activities to nurture children’s development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings as well as building their capacity to learn.

Jigsaw has two main aims for all children:

• To build their capacity for learning
• To equip them for life

Teaching our children about healthy relationships and equipping them with the skills to have positive social experiences is a key part of our whole-school agenda to raise self-esteem and support mental health for all of our children. Each week, children will take part in a ‘Jigsaw’ PSHE lesson within their classrooms. Each lesson will form part of a ‘puzzle’, or half-termly unit of work.

Each class has their own ‘Jigsaw friend’ that helps the learning to come to life for the children.

Here is a snapshot of the ‘Puzzles’ the children will learn throughout the year.

Being Me In My World covers a wide range of topics, including a sense of belonging, welcoming others and being part of a school community, a wider community, and a global community; it also looks at children’s rights and responsibilities, working and socialising with others, and pupil voice.

Celebrating Difference focuses on similarities and differences and teaches about diversity, such as disability, racism, power, friendships, and conflict; children learn to accept everyone’s right to ‘difference’, and most year groups explore the concept of ‘normality’. Anti-bullying, including cyber and homophobic bullying, is an important aspect of this Puzzle.

Dreams and Goals aims to help children think about their hopes and dreams, their goals for success, what their personal strengths are, and how to overcome challenges, using team-work skills and tasks. There is also a focus on enterprise and fundraising. Children learn about experiencing and managing feelings of pride, ambition, disappointment, success; and they get to share their aspirations, the dreams and goals of others in different cultures/countries, and their dreams for their community and the world.

Healthy Me covers two main areas of health: Emotional/mental health (relaxation, being safe, friendships, mental health skills, body image, relationships with food, managing stress) and Physical health (eating a balanced diet, physical activity, rest and relaxation, keeping clean, drugs and alcohol, being safe, first aid).

Changing Me deals with change of many types. Each year group thinks about looking ahead, moving year groups or the transition to secondary school and how to cope positively with a variety of changes.

Mindfulness

Every class at Lostock Gralam has it's own bespoke mindfulness curriculum. Teachers carefully select breathing exercises, mindfulness activities and group work that the children take part in each week as a way of helping them to reognise a range of strategies and tools that can promote positive thinking and mental wellbeing. Our aim is that children leave each session with a new skill that they can use independently to help them when they are feeling low, worried, scared or unhappy.

No Outsiders

Lostock Gralam is proud to be a ‘No Outsiders’ school, we believe in and adopt the No Outsiders ethos that is, everyone different, everyone welcome, no one is an outsider. We value all of God’s children and we accept diversity, we welcome people’s differences and we accept every person in our school for who they are as an individual. Genesis (1:27) states that “All are made in the image of God and are loved by God.” As No Outsiders we believe that being human, and a child of God can mean a variety of different individualities such as race, disability, or LGBT+

Every class in our school reads a picture story book together that drives a learning theme around No Outsiders, the children then discuss the main ideas within the book and talk about differences in a positive, safe space.

Relationships, Sex and Health Education within our PSHE curriculum

At Lostock, the RSHE curriculum we deliver is guided by our faith in God and our connection to the Church and the Diocese. The Church of England have developed a RSHE programme for schools entitled ‘Goodness and Mercy’ and as subject leaders and SLT at Lostock we have consulted with the parents and governors of our school and decided to adopt this in our school, but with adaptations relevant to our school core values, our mission statement and the needs of our children and families. 

The core principles of our policy and SRE curriculum

Guided by our statutory requirements as outlined in the DfE document ‘Relationships Education, Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (RSHE)’, our policy and SRE curriculum aims to teach our children about relationships:

• Families and people who care for us
• Caring friendships
• Respectful relationships
• On line relationships
• Being safe

And about physical health and mental wellbeing:

• Mental Wellbeing
• Internet safety and harms
• Physical health and fitness
• Healthy eating
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Health and prevention
• Basic first aid
• Changing adolescent body

We teach about relationships in the context of the school’s aims and values.  It is important to build positive relationships with others, involving trust and respect. Children are taught to have respect for their own bodies. We promote health education through our curriculum and encourage children to make the right choices. The focus of children’s health education is on learning the characteristics of good physical health and mental wellbeing and the steps children can take to protect their own and others’ health and wellbeing. Daily exercise and fitness is a significant feature of our daily practise with children as part of this.  We consult with parents on all matters of our health education policy and look positively at any local initiatives that support us in providing the best relationships education programme for our children within a Church of England setting.

Flourish 

This term we are excited to welcome 'Flourish' into school to work with our Year 5 children. Flourish Well-Being works in partnership with schools across Wirral and Cheshire and aims to promote and improve the positive mental health and well-being of children and young people.

They build a personalised and bespoke programme to have maximum impact. During your child’s sessions, they will be discussing and teaching strategies that will improve their confidence, emotional wellbeing, and mental health.

Financial Education

Children from Reception to Year 6 take part in financial education lessons in order to learn about the value and importance of money. Children are taught, through stories, shared activities and role play, about choices people can make about spending and about the importance of saving as well as spending. Children have opportunities and experiences to explore where money comes from, how to budget, different was to pay and how we can use money to help others.

Careers Education

From reception class onwards, children learn about different careers, the ways in which different people help us and what qualities are needed to maintain different jobs. They have the opportunity to share and recognise their own strengths and set goals and aspirations for themselves when thinking about their own future careers. Our older KS2 children begin to look at what different paths they may need to take to achieve their goals, and they learn about the importance of equal opportunities within careers.

British Values

The teaching of British values and culture capital is not isolated to PSHE lessons, although our PSHE curriculum ensures that all children have the opportunity to learn about democracy, the rule of law, respect and tolerance, and individual liberty.