Intent:
At Warren Park Primary School, PSHE is an integral part of our school life. We believe that the personal, emotional and social development of all pupils is paramount. Every child has access to our bespoke PSHE curriculum which is delivered through our COSMIC curriculum. The fundamentals of our curriculum are ‘Health and Wellbeing’, ‘Relationships’ and ‘Living in The Wider World’. PSHE education at Warren Park aims to address both pupils’ current experiences and prepare for the future.
The COSMIC curriculum allows the pupils to have access to a wide, rich set of experiences. Children can work outside, experience risk, work to improve the school and explore their local community. These experiences facilitate pupil’s character and prepares them to be a responsible, respectful and active citizen ready for life beyond Warren Park. Our approach aims to develop the qualities and attributes children need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society and the global community and to embrace differences with respect and tolerance of all people regardless of religious beliefs, race, gender and abilities.
PSHE for our pupils goes beyond COSMIC lessons and intertwines through all aspects of our school life; including teacher expectation, pupil expectation, assemblies and Warren Park Values. At Warren Park we have a team of monkeys who are always on the lookout for children who ‘Listen, Think, Learn and Enjoy’ during their school day. Our values help us to achieve these goals. Because of how we value PSHE, it supports our children to be in the best possible position to access and engage with the wider curriculum.
Implementation:
COSMIC provides regular PSHE sessions which are fundamental to our school’s ethos and values. These sessions enable children to develop their voice through guided P4C lessons. In these P4C lessons children are taught how to express their opinions, to listen to others and enable them space to challenge viewpoints through questioning. This way of questioning encourages deeper thinking and a wider view of the world we live in.
We use our ‘6 Stands’ to teach children social and emotional learning. The 6 Strands enables both teachers and children to use a common vocabulary when learning about social and emotional learning. Children are encouraged to reflect on emotions and how they affect them; teachers can then guide the children in how to understand and act upon emotions and behaviour. COSMIC session facilitates a safe space for children to explore; risk and boundaries, resilience and problem solving, focus and mindset, respect for themselves and others, self-regulation and independence. The lessons are sequenced so in each year at the school they can build on prior learning and move forward in their understanding of themselves and the world we live in.
RSE forms part of the PSHE/COSMIC sessions. We currently deliver a whole school package once a year to all year groups; these lessons are sequenced so that learners access a curriculum that is age appropriate. During this session, as well as delivering a specific program of study, we also use P4C to deepen understanding and explore questions. We create an opportunity for anonymous questions via a post box system. More information regarding our RSE policy is on the website.
Our own PSHE programme provides a spiral curriculum to develop knowledge, skills, and attributes, where learning is revisited, reinforced and extended year on year.
To create a bespoke PSHE package, and to target all children affectively, we use ‘6 Strands’ to assess children’s development. This enables us to create year group targets for social and emotional learning as well as to highlight children who may require additional support. This assessment enables the COSMIC team to adapt teaching to support the specific needs of the children. The COSMIC team use this to reflect on the impact of teaching and to make changes to teaching plans.
Impact:
The COSMIC team use assessment for 6 Stands and the subject curriculum to ensure all children are accessing the curriculum successfully. We use this assessment throughout the year to enable us to evaluate the impact of the lessons as well as to ensure coverage and understanding. Each year the COSMIC team uses this information to feed into class assessments of the children. The 6 Strands assessment is used as target setting for classes but also to highlight children who may need additional support with their social and emotional learning. Members of the COSMIC team also form part of the wellbeing team and can use this information to assist with intervention and support. PSHE at Warren park ensures our children leave with the knowledge, skills and attributes they will need to manage their lives, now and in the future.