Our Intent
The intent of our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum is to deliver an education which draws on excellent practice, rooting in the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, helping them to understand more about how to play a successful positive and active role within our society.
The objectives of our overall curriculum are set out to empower and support our pupil’s pastoral education through Jigsaw, a scheme of work aimed at preparing pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. The scheme of work makes excellent links between our academic aims and the modern world in which children live in today. St Teresa’s pupils will access a bank of resources through Jigsaw, accessible to all abilities, facilitating good quality teaching and learning.
At St Teresas, we reinforce the importance of positive mental health and promote a pupil’s sense of self worth by creating opportunities for them to contribute to school life and the wider community. We challenge them to continuously live out our school core values of Love, Teamwork, Ambition and Trust. In addition, our PSHE curriculum aims to equip all our pupils with a firm understanding of what it means to live by British values, individual rights and responsibilities as well as quipping children with a sound understanding of risk, with the knowledge and skills necessary to make safe and informed decisions in life.
Our approach
St. Teresa’s curriculum focuses on embedding good lifelong learning behaviour through the NED mantra (Never giving up, Encouraging others, Doing your best). In our school, PSHE can encompass many areas of study including but not limited to:
- drug, alcohol, and tobacco education
- financial education
- sex and relationship education (SRE)
- the importance of physical activity
- diet for a healthy lifestyle
- bullying
- personal health
- family and relationships
- citizenship and the world of work
All year groups participate in discrete PSHE lessons on a weekly basis, where they will develop the key skills to recognise emotions, manage and maintain friendships and keep abreast with current affairs which affect the world around them locally, nationally and globally. Supported by the PE and Science curriculum, children will also be taught to keep their minds and bodies healthy, the importance of balanced nutrition and the impact of exercise on their mental well-being.
In addition to Jigsaw, St Teresa’s aims to put the ‘how’ and meta-cognition of learning at the heart of education through Building Learning Power Week (BLPW) once every half term. This approach assigns PiXL’s LORIC characters (Laura Leadership, Olly Organisation, Raj Resilience, Izzy Initiative and Charlie Communication) to a key focus each half term. Examples of other themes explored within PSHE teaching and learning are Mindfulness, Children’s Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day.
The breadth of our PSHE provision extends to:
- Nick Carter’s – ‘Deep Fear’ workshop, aimed at helping children manage fear and anxiety,
- Key texts for each year group
- Worry Ninja Workshops
- High school transition sessions with SATs/ Educational Well-being Practitioners.
- Moving up- Parents workshops for Year 6
- Parent Gym- Workshop for parents for early years comprising of 6 workshops in the autumn term around key themes, e.g. communication, setting boundaries, effective communication.
Relationship Education is taught in the summer term following guidance from the Catholic Southwark Diocese, covering many aspects of the Science curriculum and teaching pupils about safe and positive relationships whilst managing changes in their bodies as they grow. Please see our SRE section of the website for more information on this.
Whilst all PSHE learning is documented in a class scrapbook, pupil voice at St Teresa’s remains paramount to the success and delivery of our PSHE curriculum. Our children are encouraged to form sensible and fair views, opinions and perspectives based on passions, interest and ambitions.