Healthy Minds/PSHE (RSE)

"A healthy mind observes and questions itself. This is the path to inner peace and happiness. Don't believe everything you think"

- Vironika Tugaleva

PSHE Association evaluated research ‘A Case for PSHE’ indicates that PSHE, when taught well, helps keep children and young people safe, physically and emotionally healthy and prepared for life and work.

Intent:

At Bedgrove Junior School, our Healthy Minds curriculum is at the core of our PSHE curriculum which in turn enables us to inspire our children to become healthy, independent, and responsible members of society.  We want to challenge and develop the ‘whole child’ intellectually, morally, socially, and spiritually.  Our Healthy Minds curriculum equips children with relevant and meaningful content, which is supported through a strong emphasis on emotional well-being, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health. Children are given the opportunity to develop a rich vocabulary and subject specific terminology through the use of various oracy strategies and teacher modelling within each lesson. Weaving through the heart of Healthy Minds, are many principles of keeping safe and close links to SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural) and our British Values.  We are all aware of the importance of Healthy Minds to ensure that Bedgrove Junior School is implementing the protected characteristics of The Equality Act 2010. With an ever-changing society, we are able to provide our children with a strong understanding of the diverse world around them and support them to succeed as a positive role model in contributing to the school and the wider community.

Implementation:

• Healthy Minds is taught once a week in the afternoon for 45 minutes to an hour 

• Staff use curriculum progression documents to support planning  
  - Living in the wider world – Autumn term 
  - Health and wellbeing – Spring term 
  - Relationships and RSE – Summer term (parents/ carers will have an opportunity to look at plans and resources before teaching RSE lessons) 

• Some objectives may be carried out in the wider curriculum e.g. online wellbeing in Computing or the impact of diet and exercise in Science 

• Staff may use some Healthy Minds sessions as an oracy ‘talk outcome’ 

• If a current issue needs addressing (class, school or national), objectives may change/ an additional session may be implemented 

• All lessons begin with a ‘Mindfulness moment’ (e.g. breathing exercise, drawing to music, brain break) and a reflection question that should encourage children to consider their own response  

• Mindfulness moments can be used throughout the school day at each teachers’ discretion 

• Teachers will adapt the content of the lessons/ tasks to take into consideration children’s SEN and pastoral needs  

• Seesaw should be used to upload work from each lesson – this could be done as one post recorded by the class teacher or individual posts uploaded by the children   

• Assemblies linking to current local or global events will also stimulate, challenge or nurture children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural curiosity 

Impact:

All children at Bedgrove Junior School will be challenged to think independently in collaborative classroom communities. They will have a positive attitude to learning and a willingness to learn, alongside an ability to try new things and persevere in all that they do. They will have a good understanding of how to stay safe, healthy and develop good relationships and what it means to be a positive member of a diverse, multicultural society. All pupils will have a strong self-awareness, interlinked with compassion for others. 

RSE Consultation 

Please follow the link to watch a video presentation on how the RSE curriculum is delivered at Bedgrove Junior School.

We have RSE lessons from year 3 up to year 6 and follow the Christopher Winter Project (CWP) resource ‘Teaching SRE with Confidence in Primary Schools’. This programme reflects the recent developments in RSE and the Science National Curriculum and has been quality assured by the PSHE Association.

PSHE Association Training and Development Lead Jenny Barksfield says:

“We awarded the Christopher Winter Project’s ‘Teaching SRE with confidence in Primary Schools’ our quality mark as it achieves exactly what it says on the tin: it provides everything a Primary practitioner would need to be confident that the SRE they’re providing is comprehensive, balanced, developmental and in line with best practice in PSHE teaching and learning.  The lessons incorporate a wide variety of learning activities and a range of assessment opportunities.  The teacher’s guide is thorough and supportive.”

Within the resource there is an increased focus on safeguarding/keeping children safe. The resource also encourages children to develop the skills of listening, empathy, talking about feelings and relationships with families and friends. The resources in this scheme are age and developmentally appropriate, for example, in year 3, the importance of friendship relationships is discussed and how to have safe relationships.

The RSE programme is delivered during the summer term and we communicate with parents before the start date to fully inform parents and carers how the scheme will be delivered.

Need Extra Support?

If you would like extra support in speaking to your child about anything covered in our policy, please contact Miss Scannell or Miss Leonard (office@bjsglt.co.uk).