PSHE
Our PSHE curriculum is designed to provide our children with the knowledge and skills to support their personal development with relationships, physical and mental well-being and changes as they progress through school.
We acknowledge that our children come from a community that has historically and continues to suffer from great deprivation (observatory.leeds.gov.uk) and we strive to ensure our children develop a strong sense of: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity to close the gap in their cultural capital. Our families come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds (over 28 different languages are spoken) and this has had a significant impact upon our approach to delivering aspects of our programme such as: citizenship, development of character, British values, inclusion and equality of opportunity.
Raising aspirations is a key part of our PSHE curriculum and we have a well developed Careers Related Learning (CRL) programme as the local area has a very high rate of people seeking jobseekers allowance (observatory.leeds.gov.uk). This need for economic understanding, understanding of technology and media is essential if our children are to develop the resilience required to make the greatest possible progress.
Empowering our children to know how to make good life choices is one important way in which our curriculum can challenge underlying physical and mental health issues such as low life expectancy and childhood obesity that affect our community Deprivation Statistics Comparison for Gipton & Harehills, Leeds (ilivehere.co.uk).
Implementation
Understanding the community and children our academy serves is essential when implementing our PSHE curriculum. We have developed a bespoke curriculum that is based on a scheme by Kapow Primary but also utilises resources developed by MindMate to support children’s mental health and well-being. Additional lessons have been developed to address unique aspects that our children face in the local community. Lessons are delivered every week by teachers as we believe it is imperative that they understand their class and can spot issues and address them quickly and sensitively.
Impact
PSHE books and Whole Class Feedback forms (WCF) are used to assess the impact of lessons. Perhaps more importantly pupil interviews are conducted on a weekly basis so that we can find out what the children have learnt and remembered. This pupil voice is used to inform any further learning that might be required. This triangulation is important for our PSHE curriculum so that it remains relevant and effective.
This knowledge underpins our drive to provide high-quality learning experiences in all areas of the curriculum, especially PSHE which allows us to confront these challenging issues head on. For example, at the beginning of each half-term we deliver a MINDMATE lesson to support the children’s social, emotional & mental health skills.
Wherever possible our curriculum is designed to raise aspirations as so for example, in science we use a scheme of work designed in cooperation with other Co-op schools that serve similarly deprived areas of the country. There are regular opportunities in every year group and subject area, including visits by people working in the scientific field, so that children get to learn about potential future careers and employ-ability.
As a Co-op school we strive to ensure our children develop a strong sense of: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.