At St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, we want every child to be happy and enthusiastic learners of PSHE, and to be eager to achieve their very best in order to fulfil their God-given talents. We firmly believe that the recipe for success is high quality first-wave teaching in PSHE, which is central to the life of our happy, caring school.
Our planned curriculum programme of learning opportunities and experiences, specifically promotes children’s personal, social and health development and helps them to grow as individuals and as members of families and communities. PSHE equips children and young people with knowledge and practical skills to live healthy, safe, fulfilled and responsible lives, both now and in the future. Through the explicit teaching of mental and emotional health, we promote pupils’ wellbeing through an understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies. It also contributes to safeguarding, providing pupils with knowledge, understanding and strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe, as well as equipping them to support others who are facing challenges.
PSHE also enables children to reflect on and clarify both their own and British values and attitudes, and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of attitudes and values they encounter now and in the future. Furthermore, PSHE enables our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. It aims to help them understand how they are developing personally and socially, and tackles many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.