PSHE - RSE and Mental Health and Wellbeing

PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) is a core part of educating our children to be able to, as Jesus said, 'live life in all its fullness' (John 10:10) At Witton Church Walk, we believe PSHE is a subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. It helps children and young people to stay healthy and safe, while preparing them to make the most of life and work. When taught well, PSHE education enables pupils to achieve their academic potential, allowing them to flourish in all aspects of life, and to lead confident, happy, healthy, independent and productive lives.

In Early Years, the majority of PSHE is taught through the Personal, Social, Emotional Development area of learning, however some other objectives linked to PSHE fall into Communication and Language and Understanding the World. For more information, please visit the Early Years Tab on our school website.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, PHSE comprises of three main elements –

• Health and Wellbeing – Children acquire knowledge and skills to inform them of the elements of a healthy and balanced lifestyle including a specific focus on mental health. Children will explore themes around keeping safe – including following rules and information about harmful illegal and legal substances such as drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Within this part of our curriculum there are some non-compulsory elements of the curriculum on Sex Education – ‘Ourselves and Growing and Changing.’
• Relationships – Exploring what healthy relationships look like, diversity within families and marriage and family life. Children will also complete an exploration of friendship and managing hurtful behavior and bullying and engaging in safe relationships. They will develop feelings of self-worth - respecting oneself and others.
• Living in the Wider World – Looking at our rights and responsibilities, developing the children’s media and digital resilience as well developing the children’s money and economic wellbeing.

In Key Stage 1 and 2 PSHE is taught on a weekly basis but it also integrated into all other aspects of school life. The children will learn about Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World in a cross curricular, interlinked manner through our Heartsmart principles. Mental health and Wellbeing aspects of PHSE is again delivered through Heartsmart but is supplemented through our myhappymind mental health and wellbeing lessons.

The Heartsmart Principles Include –

Don’t Forget to Let Love in – Learning how important, valued and loved we are.

Too Much Selfie isn’t Healthy – Exploring the importance of others and how to love them well.

Don’t Hold Onto What’s Wrong – Understanding how to process negative emotion.

Fake is a Mistake – Unpacking how to bravely communicate the truth.

No Way Through isn't True – Knowing there is a way through every situation, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Please see a document at the bottom of the page that shows which National Curriculum objectives are taught in each year group.

Please visit our small steps document to view the accumilation of skills / knowledge understanding the children will gain as they progress through each year group. 

Please note, our non-compulsory Sex Education lessons which form part of our PSHE curriculum offer will not be taught until Summer B. During early Summer Term A, all stakeholders (teachers, senior leaders, governors and parents) will be involved in devising the curriculum with a variety of high-quality resources to ensure a bespoke curriculum that complements our vision and values and meets the needs of our pupils and individual cohorts. In plenty of advance of these lessons, parents and carers will receive a letter communicating the content and nature of these lessons so there is an opportunity to clarify any questions or concerns you may have and to ensure parents are able to confirm they are happy for their child to partake in these lessons. For more information on this process please do not hesitate to contact school, or our PSHE and RSE lead, Miss Simcock.

As part of our PSHE curriculum this year our school with be delivering Myhappymind. This will reinforce Heartsmart lessons and will focus on Mental Health education. Specifically - 

• That Mental Health is a normal part of daily life
• That there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise,
  nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different
  experiences and situations.
• How to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words
  to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings. 
• How to judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and
  proportionate. 
• The benefits of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation, voluntary and
  service-based activity on mental wellbeing and happiness. 
• Simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and
  family and the benefits of hobbies and interests. 
• Where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support),
  including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone
  else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online). 
• It is common for people to experience mental ill health. For many people who do, the
  problems can be resolved if the right support is made available, especially if accessed early
  enough.  

Again - These will be taught through five themes - 

Meet the Brain! 

In Autumn A the children learnt about the elements of the brain. How to recognise when the brain is working well and to notice when the brain is not working well. The children explore that if we have a Growth mindset we can grow our character and capabilites. 

Celebrate 

In Autumn B the children will explore their character strengths and will deveop an understading of how we can use our character strengths to our advantage.

Appreciate 

Children will explore gratitude. 

Relate 

Children will explore the necessary skills to build postive relationships. 

Engage 

Children explore hopes and aspirations and accomplishment. 

For more information please see our Myhappymind overview document. 

Please find some useful websites below. 

Visit the Heartsmart Family Edition website by clicking on the Robot below - 

Click on the Brain below to explore myhappyymind for families - 

Files to Download