PSHE

PSHE Vision Statement: 

Our Intent

Within our PSHE Curriculum at St Mark’s, we aim to help children to develop in all areas of their personal character and support them to grow and flourish in all areas of their present and future lives. We follow a PSHE approach titled ‘Character Education’ from the University of Birmingham which is closely aligned with our school values of Compassion, Hard Work, Accountability, Respect and Trust.  We also want our children to be fully aware of those around them, be prepared to face the challenges that they may come across in life and have the skills and knowledge to safely navigate between them, following the Christian values they have been caught at St Mark’s.

The key components are taught across the whole school during different school terms in the year and are as follows:

Implementation 

• Our long term PSHE Curriculum Map outlines what each year group will learn during each term. Please follow the link
• Our school collective worship outline is also linked to the main themes within the PSHE curriculum, so key messages are repeated and reinforced and moral and spiritual dimensions are added to the social ones
• PSHE lessons take place each week for 30-45 minutes
• Coverage of whole school themed days and weeks also allows us to extend our PSHE focus. These opportunities include Anti-bullying week, Safer Internet Day, Mental Health Awareness Day etc.
• External Agencies play a key role across the year in enabling us to share and teach aspects of PSHE. These include St Giles – Gang and Weapons awareness workshops for Years 5 and 6; NSPCC -     ; Community Police – Online Safety; Action Breaks Silence – Stopping violence against women; TFL -travel safety for Year 6 and London Fire Service workshops for Years 2 and 5.
• We have class worry boxes, which enables children to anonymously raise concerns within their classrooms and to known adults
• A school counsellor and a drama-therapist working the school and have a regular caseload who they support
• Three members of staff are involved in helping children across the school with pastoral support. We use a triaged approach to identify and respond to need.
• Periodic events, such as a work experience day, class cake or craft sales or a dragon’s Den event are held across the year, to provide children with an aware of enterprise, finance and economics.
• The school employs a home school liaison worker who supports parents with children will issues as they arise.
• Classes have reflection boxes for children to share any information that they are worried about.

Impact 

• Entries in children’s books are assessed in line with learning objectives. We particularly look at reflection activities planned in as part of the Character Curriculum.
• We gather feedback from pupil voice on a half termly basis to ascertain information about behaviour, mental health and their general well-being.
• Behaviour incidents are assessed on a weekly and termly basis in a hope that they demonstrate a downward trend due to the input that the children have received.

Accompanying documents

PHSE Positional Statement

Long Term Plan Character Education