Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) helps to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to develop as confident, healthy and independent individuals and is a fundamental aspect of the children’s well-being.
Using the Coram Life Education (Scarf) resources, Personal, Social and Health Education lessons at St Mary’s Primary School help to promote physical and emotional well-being for all our children. Our planning for PSHE covers emotional health and well-being, financial awareness, sex and relationship education, drug, tobacco and alcohol education, bullying and citizenship, at a level appropriate to children’s age. Parents are invited to see the video and curriculum materials we use as part of the children’s Sex and Relationships sessions. A copy of the school’s Sex and Relationships Policy is available from the School Office or on the downloads section of the website.
At St Mary’s we promote British values and prepare children for life in modern Britain; through PSHE and across the curriculum, children explore democracy, rights and responsibilities, respect and tolerance of those of different faiths, beliefs and opinions.
There's now a proven link between pupils' health and wellbeing, and their academic progress. Crucial skills and positive attitudes developed through comprehensive Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) are critical to ensuring children are effective learners. We recognise how important these skills and attitudes are in unlocking pupils' potential, helping to raise achievement and closing the gap in educational attainment.
SCARF provides a whole-school approach to building these essential foundations – crucial for children to achieve their best, academically and socially.
Opportunities to further children’s development in Personal, Social and Health Education are embedded throughout our curriculum. A wealth of enrichment activities further support and complement our PSHE curriculum. These include residential trips, school visits, community events, sports, arts and music clubs and events. ELSA sessions support individuals and small groups who need additional support.
Personal and Social skills are at the heart of our school values and are the focus of school assemblies, class reward systems. Children are actively involved in making decisions and discussing issues surrounding their health, friendships and wellbeing through the School Council and other pupil voice activities.
PSHE is one of the many ways in which we support the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of our children.
Please also see our audit on how our school is Promoting Fundamental British Values throughout our curriculum.
We make safeguarding implicit and explicit in our curriculum. We run a number of events throughout the year for children and parents as a minimum such as Life Education, Anti bullying week, Safer Internet Day, Dorset Police Safer Schools and Communities training for pupils and parents, fire safety and first aid (year 6.)
RIGHTS RESPECTING SCHOOL:
We are a Rights Respecting School. The Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) recognises achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at the heart of a school’s planning, policies, practice and ethos. A rights-respecting school not only teaches about children’s rights but also models rights and respect in all its relationships: between teachers / adults and pupils, between adults and between pupils. Click here to read our journey to Rights Respecting Schools' status! Click here to read our RRS report from UNICEF.
SUSTAINABILITY
Our Eco club make a fantastic contribution to lowering energy consumption and highlighting sustainability issues. In the past, we have been a pilot school for the Carbon reduction project - a scheme which aimed to cut energy use, energy costs and carbon emissions. The Eco club elected light monitors, used energy monitoring software to track use electricity use across the school and raised the profile of recycling in school, amongst many other things. There is now a regular village litter pick by our children after an agreement reached with the Parish Council. In this way, we feel we are helping our local community. This year, they are looking at making our grounds bee friendly!