Relationships and Health Education Curriculum Statement

Intent

The PSHE curriculum constantly evolves to be responsive to the needs of today's pupils. We aim to equip children with essential skills for life; it intends to develop the whole child through carefully planned, and resourced lessons that develop the knowledge, skills and attributes children need to protect and enhance their wellbeing. We want our pupils to be prepared for the challenges they will face in life. Through learning about health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world, children are given opportunities to develop their skills in a safe environment enabling them to grow into confident, caring and respectful members of our community.

Implementation

At The Mount Stewart Schools, we use Jigsaw as a resource for taking a mindful approach to teaching relationships and health education. Each area of the PSHE curriculum is taught in six units or "Jigsaw pieces" across the school.

The Jigsaw units are:

• Being Me In My World

• Celebrating Difference

• Dreams and Goals

• Healthy Me

• Relationships

• Changing Me

We believe a broad and balanced PSHE curriculum is essential in preparing children for life in society now and in the future. The curriculum covers a wide range of the social and emotional aspects of learning, enabling children to develop their identity and self-esteem as confident, active members of society. The curriculum provides essential education on safeguarding issues, developing pupils awareness of how and when to ask for help and support. The themes are revisited across the Key Stages, enabling children to recall and build upon previous learning in an age-appropriate manner. Key vocabulary is used and revisited across the year groups, ensuring pupils have the words to express their understanding and ask questions. Our no ceiling approach and adaptive teaching ensures that more able and SEND pupils are supported and encouraged to develop their knowledge appropriately. The Jigsaw session rules are revisited at the start of every lesson, allowing pupils to respond in a safe and supportive environment. 

Impact

At Mount Stewart, we measure impact across the PSHE curriculum. We use assessment for learning methods in every lesson to monitor understanding. Assessment opportunities ensure that children learn more and remember more. Pupil self-assessment opportunities are a vital part of our curriculum. We use the Jigsaw assessment activities to monitor understanding of the unit objectives, allowing teaching to meet the needs of the children. 

Our pupils demonstrate a deeper understanding of the topics covered in various ways. Ultimately we measure the impact of the curriculum by our pupils' behaviour and attitudes towards themselves and others. We take pride in our caring, supportive pupils who leave Mount Stewart informed about the world in which they live, prepared for the challenges and opportunities to come.

Every class has a class talking object or "Jiggie" that is used as an example in various scenarios for discussion. Jiggies also represent a talking object; that encourages pupils to respect one another when sharing ideas, listen well and allows the right to pass in topics of conversation.

Throughout Jigsaw lessons, pupils are reminded to be continuously respectful through reference to the class Jigsaw Charter. Our charter has been adapted in line with our "catch it, bin it, kill it" approach for Covid 19 safety.