PSHE
Personal, Social and Health Education - PSHE
The topics for PSHE education aim to develop skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, team-working and critical thinking in the context of learning grouped into three core themes: health and wellbeing, relationships and living in the wider world (including economic wellbeing and aspects of careers education). Safeguarding and delivering good quality preventative education is at the forefront of what we deliver.
The department’s aims:
• To support Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy by educating our students about risk, harmful behaviours and when and how to make disclosures to members of staff.
• To challenge discrimination of every kind and to provide equal access to the curriculum for all our learners.
• To celebrate diversity and promote tolerance and respect within the student body and between the staff and student body.
• To build resilience and foster and encourage life-long learners in a manner which complements the School’s learning ethos.
• To deliver PSHE Association core competencies, meet the statutory requirements in Relationship and Sex Education and to fully implement the school’s Relationship, Sex and Health Education policy.
• To empower students and to give them the tools, confidence and ability to think independently and enable them to make informed decisions to mitigate the risks in their lives.
• To provide students with the information, education and tools to give them the best chance of happiness and health both now and in their futures.
Delivery:
PSHE at Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School is delivered as part of the taught curriculum at Key Stage 3 with an hour a week devoted to the subject in years 7, 8 and 9. This provision is complemented by House Assemblies, drop down days, school activity weeks and our Form Mentor programme. In Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 the curriculum is delivered in lessons and through the School’s Form Mentors and Assembly programme. Built into the programme is an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning and seek further information and support from our pastoral teams where necessary. All of our work is supported and supplemented by Kent Police’s Child Centred Policing Team who actively engage with each year group on a regular basis and provide Police Surgeries to the school community.
The department seeks to help students be the best learners they can be. Curriculum content supports the school’s Learning Ethos and at its core aims to build a stoicism and resilience which will enable our learners to meet challenges with confidence and to adapt to the changing world in an optimistic and positive manner. Approaches to learning and revision skills are built into the curriculum at every stage of the PSHE learning journey to support departments with the aim of raising attainment for all our students. Safeguarding is at the forefront of what we do as is the Equality Act 2010 and the statutory requirements of Relationship and Sex Education. Students are taught how to recognise a healthy relationship and how to build and maintain positive, lawful and respectful relationships both inside and outside of school. Students are also taught how to manage their own emotional well-being.
Mitigation of risk and education around harmful behaviour both online and in real world settings are fundamentals of the PSHE course content. We aim to give our students strategies to help them cope with an ever more complex world whilst at the same time fostering the sense of optimism, awe and wonderment that all students should have.
We teach our students how to manage their physical and mental wellbeing through diet, routine, sleep and exercise and understand that attainment, good attendance, health and healthy relationships within the school community are all essential and interlinked elements in the successful lives of our students.
These themes are taught in each Key Stage in an age-appropriate manner with additional foci on careers, inspirational speakers, adult administration and preparations for independent living being delivered in the Sixth Form.
Helping students to understand modern Britain and meet the challenges they face is at the core of content delivery as is ensuring students, parents and carers as well as the staff within the school are all equal stake holders in the shaping and delivery of the curriculum.