Our PSHE lead is Miss Newman.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is an important and necessary part of all pupils’ education. PSHE helps to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, understand risk, make informed and safe decisions and to become active, responsible citizens. 

Our PSHE curriculum at St. Margaret’s CE Junior builds on the statutory content already outlined in the National Curriculum and incorporates statutory guidance on: drug education, financial education, sex and relationship education (SRE) and the importance of physical activity and diet for a healthy lifestyle. 

PSHE at St Margaret’s CE Junior school is driven by and incorporates the school’s Christian vision and values and more information can be found HERE.

The PSHE curriculum strengthens the Christian identity of the school by offering a curriculum that promotes an understanding and respect for difference, diversity and ways of living in a way that enables children to feel safe to learn and express their views and opinions as they respond to those of others. Children and adults at St Margaret’s value the difference and diversity within our school and wider communities and flourish by living well “together in unity”. The Church of England report, ‘Valuing All God’s Children’ offers Church schools guidance, ensuring that the Christian message of “love, joy and the celebration of our humanity without exception or exclusion” is intrinsic within all aspects of the curriculum and school ethos.

See below for more information about our PSHE curriculum including the Jigsaw PSHE scheme, Protective Behaviours, RSE and Zones of Regulation and current events. 

Jigsaw Scheme

As part of our PSHE curriculum we use the Jigsaw Scheme to equip our children with skills and techniques which will support them as they develop their emotional skills. The children learn about keeping safe and healthy, independence, how to work effectively and collaboratively as part of a team, positive friendships, belonging and families. Pupils are also educated on SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural development) and British Values throughout Jigsaw lessons.

Jigsaw consists of six half-term units of work (Puzzles), each containing six lessons (Pieces) covering each academic year. PSHE is a lesson that is taught weekly in class.

• Being Me in My World
• Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
• Dreams and Goals
• Healthy Me
• Relationships
• Changing Me (including Sex Education)

Every Piece has two Learning Intentions, one specific to Relationships and Health Education (PSHE) and the other designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills.

Lessons are split into different sections to enable pupils to focus on their learning and help them understand different areas of PSHE.

Connect us – This is a game or activity designed to be fun and inclusive and to build and maximise social skills.

Calm me – This section is a mindfulness activity to help children gain awareness of the activity in their minds, relaxing them and quietening their thoughts and emotions.

Parents may want to incorporate calm me time at home, here is an example of a calm me time you could use:

Open my mind – An activity to get children to begin thinking about their learning for the lesson.

Tell me or show me – The introduction of new information, concepts and skills, using a range of teaching approaches and activities.

Let me learn – A task that pupils are set based on their new learning.

Help me reflect – An opportunity to reflect on their learning and understand what they have learnt in that specific lesson. This allows them to identify next steps for themselves.

Click on links below for Jigsaw knowledge organisers for parents to use at home:

Here is also a generic guide for parents on the Jigsaw Scheme:

Protective Behaviours

Alongside the Jigsaw Scheme we teach all children about Personal Safety (also known as Protective Behaviours/Taking Care) to ensure that they understand how to keep themselves and their bodies safe.

Protective behaviours is taught at the start of the academic year in every year group and we also revisit and revise this throughout the year. Pupils are given opportunities to explore:

· Their rights and responsibilities

· Their feelings

· Their safe place

· Their early warning signs (body signs they get when they do not feel safe)

· When it is fun to feel scared

· Choice, control, time limit

· Different types of abuse that is not safe

· The network (adults they can talk to if they do not feel safe)

There are two themes in Protective Behaviours:

• We all have the right to feel safe all the time
• We can talk with someone about anything, even if it feels awful or small

This booklet helps to explain Protective Behaviours for adults at home:

RSE

Within the PSHE curriculum, Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) is designed to equip children with the knowledge to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships, as well as preparing them for a successful adult life. The RHSE curriculum offers opportunities for pupils to learn to value themselves and their bodies. 

As a church school, we take guidance from the Church of England Education Office who promote a faith-sensitive and inclusive approach to Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (RSHE) is underpinned by two key biblical passages: 

“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them.”

(Genesis 1:27) 

“I have come in order that you may have life – life in all its fullness.”

(John 10:10) 

At St Margaret’s we have adopted the Church of England model ‘Charter for faith sensitive and inclusive Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education’, plus take guidance from ‘Valuing All God’s Children’. Relationships and sex education takes LGBT people into account. The Church of England’s teaching on human sexuality and a range of Christian views is taught, as well as a range of perspectives from other faiths and world views.  

We use the Jigsaw unit ‘Changing Me’ to educate our pupils on relationships and sex education. Parents will be informed when this will happen in school and will be given supporting information about what content will be taught. Parents have the right to withdraw their pupils from sex education lessons, however it is a statutory requirement for pupils to be part of relationship education lessons. 

If parents would like to discuss their right to withdraw their chid/children from sex education lessons they should do so by writing to the head of school.  

Supporting resources for parents:

Zones of Regulation

In addition to our PSHE curriculum we also teach pupils to understand their emotions and generate tools to help them self-regulate their emotions. Zones of Regulation sessions help pupils to understand their emotions and place them into different zones (see below).

Children learn that being in the green zone is the optimal zone to be in to be ‘ready to learn’. However, they understand that it is normal and natural to be in other zones sometimes depending on scenarios. Children learn how to identify what triggers them to enter different zones and they are equipped with different strategies, that are specific for them, that can help them move out of the red, yellow and blue zones back into the green zone. Children monitor their tools and understand which tools are best for them to use in different scenarios.

Current Events