At The Mead Infant and Nursery School we aim to  equip our children with the knowledge, skills and personal attributes they need to develop positive, respectful relationships and to make informed choices about their physical health and mental wellbeing. Consequently PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) is fundamental to everything that we do.

Since September 2020 PSHCE has been designated a compulsory part of the National Curriculum. At The Mead we welcomed this move forward as we feel that PSHCE underpins all of the children’s learning, values and interactions with the school community and beyond. This subject revolves around a planned series of learning through which our children acquire the knowledge, skills and understanding that they need to manage their lives and relationships as they grow up in what is a rapidly changing and evolving world.

We follow a spiral curriculum which builds year on year, revisiting areas as and when relevant to the year group. The main themes that we cover in PSHCE are: Responsibility and Rights, Health, Safety and Risks, Goals, Relationships Education, Money, Identity and Feelings and Friendship. Within this we actively promote the British Values.

Relationships education is vital for helping children manage their friendships and relationships within, and beyond school, particularly in being able to recognise and maintain a healthy relationship, and to know what to do about an unhealthy relationship. Throughout their time with us, our children work on these aspects through active learning, circle time discussions and focussed activities. Individual work, paired, group and class work builds relationships both within, and beyond our school environment.

Underpinning much of our PSHCE are our school learning behaviours which are taught across the school. Our learning behaviours  teach children what it means to be an effective learner and are based on a growth mind set. This enables our children to think independently, become critical thinkers and move their learning forward, both in class and out. More detail about our learning behaviours can be found in the knowledge organisers section.

 

Relationships Education is now also compulsory and this aspect is also built on within our PSHCE lessons. We live in an ever changing world where children and adults have access to ever evolving means of direct, and indirect access, to others 24 hours a day. Our PSHCE seeks to address these issues and ensure that our children can manage their own well-being and empathise with others.  Through partnership with our community at school and beyond, we seek to instil, and embed a care for themselves, others and the environment.