Personal, Social, Citizenship and Health Education (PSCHE) does not currently have National Curriculum objectives but there is a clear requirement that schools promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and should make provision for PSCHE, drawing on good practice.
The Alton PSCHE provision focuses on helping children develop the skills to build and maintain friendships, to recognise and manage their emotions, to know how to keep themselves safe, to understand and manage change in their lives, including as their bodies change and for Year 6 children, the change as they transfer to secondary school.
At the Alton, we follow the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) Programme, which is a programme designed to enhance the social competence and social understanding of children. We understand that children show difficulties in social problem-solving, self-control, affective understanding and self-esteem. By teaching children strategies within PATHS lessons we can support children to enhance their social competence. The PATHS programme has the following goals:
- Increased self-control, i.e., the ability to stop and think before acting when upset or confronted with a conflict situation. Lessons in this area also teach identification of problem situations through recognition of “upset” feelings.
- Attributional processes that lead to an appropriate sense of self-responsibility.
- Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of logical reasoning and problem-solving, e.g., “if…then” and “why…because.”
- Increased understanding and use of the vocabulary of emotions and emotional states; e.g., excited, disappointed, confused, guilty, etc. Increased use of verbal mediation.
- Increased ability to recognise and interpret similarities and differences in the feelings, reactions and points of view of self and others.
- Increased understanding of how one’s behaviour affects others.
- Increased knowledge of, and skill in, the steps of social problem-solving: stopping and thinking; identifying problems and feelings; setting goals; generating alternative solutions; anticipating and evaluating consequences; planning, executing and evaluating a course of action; trying again if the first solution fails.
- Increased ability to apply social problem-solving skills to prevent and/or resolve problems and conflicts in social interactions.
We make close links to our E-Safety education and our sex and relationship education. We work closely with Place2Be to support our work in this area.
The new Relationships Education primary curriculum will be part of our PSCHE provision. This aims to put in place the building blocks needed for positive and safe relationships of all kinds - including how to treat each other with kindness, and recognising the difference between online and offline friendships.
Relationship Education
Sex and relationship education is a key part of the school curriculum and it gives our pupils important opportunities to learn how to make responsible and well informed decisions about their lives. Our scheme helps our pupils to learn respect for themselves and others and to move with confidence from childhood to adolescence. The curriculum is tailored to meet the age, emotional and physical maturity and understanding of pupils. It closely follows the KS1 and KS2 science curriculum. Sex and relationship education is taught directly and in all lessons these issues are handled sensitively by staff.
At The Alton School, we follow ‘The Christopher Winter Project’ which has been quality assured by the PSHE Association. With a strong focus on safeguarding and keeping children safe, it provides teachers with clear objectives linking to the statutory framework and up to date resources appropriate for each age group. We think it is important that children as young as Reception age are included in RSE, especially with the fast, modern world around them encouraging them to ask more questions and want more answers. It encourages children to develop their listening skills and ways to show empathy by talking about feelings and relationships with people they trust. Vocabulary is also a key element of progression in this scheme and we believe it is essential for all children to be using age appropriate, scientific vocabulary that they understand when learning about RSE.
We will liaise closely with parents, particularly over the materials being used. Parents are invited into school to view the lesson plans and any materials that we will be using beforehand and they are always informed when sex and relationship education is taking place, so that they can be prepared to answer questions within the cultural and moral setting of their home. Parents of Year 6 children may have the right to withdraw their child from some of the sex and relationship education lessons, please speak with the Headteacher about this.