PSHE

Intent

PSHE is arguably one of the most important lessons we teach at Linden Road. Our curriculum intends to support pupils on their journey through life and provide them with the skills, knowledge and experiences to help them through the challenges of modern society. We intent to give our children the tools to make their own informed opinions, choices and decisions and help them to develop their own set of values that they will take with them through life. 

Ultimately, staff and parents want the children to be happy and we understand that many factors can influence a child’s emotional well-being. Our curriculum has a strong focus on mental health and well-being, self-esteem, feelings, identity and belonging to support children with their understanding and management of emotions.

Our curriculum also supports children to develop their understanding and tolerance of others – hoping to encourage pupils to be respectful, considerate, empathic and understanding of people’s differences. Our aim is that children are brave and empowered individuals who celebrate individuality and are confident to be themselves.

Throughout all of our PSHE themes there is an overriding emphasis on tolerance and respect – our aim is that children and staff have mutual respect for each other. We advocate kindness and celebrate this throughout school, praising children for acts of kindness and for being supportive to others.

Safety is paramount and our curriculum covers many aspects that aim to keep children safe. Themes such as Respect and Privacy and Family cover complex and sensitive content, which aim to educate children on forms of abuse and where they can find support networks if they are worried about anything in relation to this. Online safety is a growing concern that our curriculum aims to tackle, supporting children to keep safe online as well as in the real world. 

Many of our themes within our PSHE curriculum at Linden Road are taught within the context of a fiction book. These books are used as a stimulus to start conversations in the classroom. Children empathise with the characters in the books to talk about their own experiences in a safe environment. Whilst the fiction books provide a starting point for our learning, it is vital that our children are able to apply this to real life so we ensure that we make explicit links to real life contexts to support children in their development.

Staff, parents and the safeguarding team at Linden Road work closely together to support children in every aspect of their lives and we hope that our bespoke programme of study helps us to achieve this.

You can follow our PSHE learning by searching on Twitter @Linden_PSHE or check out our Learning Showcase!