At The Dassett C of E Primary School our PSHE Curriculum intends to enable children to develop the understanding, skills and qualities they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. It aims to help children  understand how they are developing personally, socially and emotionally, whilst enabling them to understand and value how they fit in and contribute to our school and to wider society. Our PSHE learning equips children with relevant and meaningful content which is supported through a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing children’s physical and mental health.  It also allows us to consider the needs of individual children and support their needs. 

Our children learn to understand and respect their similarities and differences, as well as celebrating diversity. Other aspects of PSHE, such as British values, are constantly worked on and intertwined across the curriculum and supported by our school rules and values. Our children are given the opportunity to explore, clarify and challenge their own and others attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities. During PSHE lessons, the children will learn to recognise their own worth, work with others and become more responsible for their own learning and development. They will be able to reflect on their own experiences and understand how they are developing personally and socially, tackling many of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.

We aim to enable children to develop a deepening knowledge of their health and wellbeing, including their mental and physical health.

Our Relationships and Sex Education equips children with the information, skills and values to understand, and to be able to cope with, the physical and emotional changes that happen to them. It also enables them to learn how to be safe and to understand and develop healthy relationships, both now and in their future lives. The skills that they learn within PSHE lessons support them to become life-long learners. 

Jigsaw PSHE

What is PSHE Education?
PSHE Education (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) is a planned programme of learning through which children and young people acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to successfully manage their lives – now and in the future. As part of a whole-school approach, PSHE Education develops the qualities and attributes pupils need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society.

What do schools have to teach in PSHE Education?
According to the National Curriculum, every school needs to have a broad and balanced curriculum that:
• promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school.
• prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
• promotes British values.

From September 2020, primary schools in England also need to teach Relationships and Health Education as compulsory subjects and the Department for Education strongly recommends this should also include age-appropriate Sex Education. Schools also have statutory responsibilities to safeguard their pupils (Keeping Children Safe in Education, DfE, 2019) and to uphold the Equality Act (2010).

The Jigsaw Programme supports all of these requirements and has children’s wellbeing at its heart.

What is Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, and how does it work?
Jigsaw is a whole-school approach and embodies a positive philosophy and creative teaching and learning activities to nurture children’s development as compassionate and well-rounded human beings as well as building their capacity to learn. Jigsaw is a comprehensive and completely original PSHE Education programme (lesson plans and teaching resources) for the whole primary school from ages 3-11. Written by teachers and grounded in sound psychology, it also includes all the statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education, and Sex Education is also included in the Changing Me Puzzle (unit).
Jigsaw has two main aims for all children:
• To build their capacity for learning
• To equip them for life
Jigsaw brings together PSHE Education, compulsory Relationships and Health Education, emotional literacy, mindfulness, social skills and spiritual development. It is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time at their own level. There are six Puzzles (half-term units of work) and each year group is taught one lesson per week. All lessons are delivered in an age- and stage-appropriate way so that they meet children’s needs.

Please see the leaflet below for more information and overview of curriculum content across the school.

Parent Access to the Jigsaw Programme

As part of the Jigsaw approach the school will now enable Parent Access which allows parents and carers to view the standard lesson plans for their child's year group on a Puzzle-by-Puzzle basis.

The vast majority of parents will be happy with the information/processes already in place, but we recognise that from time to time, some parents may want to have a little more information to reassure their children and themselves about the content of lessons. This will vary considerably based upon different children's circumstances.

To support this, we can share custom access codes for specific units when requested.

Links can only be shared with parents/carers of pupils in your class who have requested access. 

• A parent/carers can ask the class teacher for access to the Jigsaw materials.
• The teacher will then generate the parent a code to enable access to the lesson materials for that half-term.
• The code and a corresponding web page link allows the parent to see the next half term’s lesson plan, as the teacher sees it on the screen (slides and lesson plan)
• A PDF can then be downloaded containing the link and code to send to the parent/carer for that Puzzle
• At the end of the half term, the code expires.
• Each time a parent logs in they are be asked to agree to the terms and conditions e.g. not to re-share content.
• If parents/carers have children in more than one class, they simply request codes for each child’s class from the teachers.
• Codes can be sent to parents via Seesaw.

Protective Behaviours

Alongside our Jigsaw approach, in the Autumn term of each year we undertake a short series of lessons learning all about protective behaviours. This is a progressive approach that starts from the Early Years through until Year 6.

We are a Protective Behaviours school.

Protective Behaviours (PBs) is an internal process where each person applies the ideas to their own unique experience.  
 

Theme 1 ‘We all have the right to feel safe all the time’
We explore this theme in detail, carefully looking at the connection between rights and responsibilities. We also take the concepts of blame and punishment out of commonly held ideas associated with responsibilities. Instead we focus on the ‘ability to respond’ contained within the meaning of the word. The difference between having a responsibility for ourselves and to others is also examined. Next we discover for ourselves the difference between feeling safe, fun to feel scared (adventurous), risking on purpose (which may not feel like fun but we want the goal at the end) and feeling unsafe. These differences are recognised by what we call our ‘Early Warning Signs’ (EWS), the specific bodily responses which tell us when we do not feel safe. These universal body signs mean Protective Behaviours is accessible to all people, irrespective of age, gender, sexuality, nationality, ability or belief system.

Theme 2 ‘We can talk with someone about anything, even if feels awful or small’
This theme is also explored in detail. In particular we focus on the ideas and effects of ‘talking’, and what might happen if we do not believe this theme. We encourage everyone to develop their personal networks of support; those people they could turn to if in need. Desired qualities of network people are identified and we examine how we would know if someone has these qualities. Types of networks and ways of letting people know we need to talk with them are also explored.