At Hasmonean our PSHE curriculum aims to enable children to stay safe and healthy and to understand the world around them and the communities within which they live. We aim to enable children and make a positive contribution to the life of the school, to work collaboratively and have happy and healthy relationships.
We have designed our curriculum using the objectives from the PSHE Association with the aim of preparing children to become global citizens in a diverse society where pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes that they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. The teaching and learning each year shows progression, with children building on the key vocabulary and knowledge and skills taught previously. PSHE addresses both pupils’ current experiences and prepares them for the future, because of this, our curriculum provides some repetition of learning objectives in order to develop knowledge, skills and attributes where prior learning is revisited, reinforced and extended during subsequent academic years. Learning from one area may be related and relevant to others. Whilst this framework distinguishes three separate core themes, there will be extensive overlaps, so planning may draw from more than one theme.
We aim to help the children form worthwhile and satisfying relationships based on respect for themselves and others and develop happy, confident and knowledgeable British citizens who respect all whilst at the same time developing a love for Judaism and their own identity. We aim to ensure that children develop respect and are tolerant of all and understand the diverse community that we live in.
PSHE is taught through weekly sessions by the class teachers, through 5 main areas: Family and Relationships, Health and Wellbeing, Safety and the Changing Body, Citizenship and Economic Wellbeing but learning is reinforced and built upon in Jewish Studies lessons.
Elements of the curriculum are also taught in a cross-curricular manner e.g. financial learning objectives may be covered in maths lessons, elements of the health curriculum in science and online safety in computing lessons. Alongside this, there are systems throughout the school that support the teaching of PSHE, such as ‘Zones of regulation’ to help children understand how to regulate their emotions and is in place throughout the school from Nursery to Year 6. We use Heads Up for Kids, a programme to support emotional literacy and wellbeing, across EYFS and KS1.
Our teachers reinforce the PSHE curriculum through questioning and using key vocabulary which enables discussion. Through life skills sessions, links with the local communities, fundraising opportunities, external visitors and taking part in national and international events, we provide enrichment opportunities to contextualise learning.
We strive to provide our children with learning opportunities across and beyond the curriculum through specific lessons, circle times, special school projects and other activities that enrich pupils’ experiences. There may be occasions where teachers feel it necessary to teach PSHE as a result of an issue arising in their own class or within the school or local community.
By the time the children leave Hasmonean, they will have received the skills and tools necessary to enable them to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. Pupils will be able to understand how they are developing personally and socially and tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.