Heston Primary School

PSHE is a vital subject in education and to society as it enables children to develop their knowledge and skills on how keep themselves healthy and safe. At Heston Primary School, we promote an ethos of developing and maintaining positive relationships- caring and respectful, good habits and an understanding of how to be healthy (physically and mentally) and safe. We implement this by encouraging students to be resilient, responsible and reliable through many open discussions during lessons. PSHE education helps pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities. An effective PSHE programme can also tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils.

PSHE (which includes the statutory Relationships and Sex Education) is taught weekly through a planned programme of work that follows the Jigsaw PSHE programme. Jigsaw brings together PSHE Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. Jigsaw is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. This enables each Puzzle to start with an introductory collective worship, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike. At HPS we pride ourselves on our ambitious, supportive and inclusive approach to supporting the development of high quality social skills and positive mental health. This is taught through discrete weekly PSHE lessons, whole class expectations and reminders. Our PSHE does not end with specific PSHE lessons, we use our outdoor lunchtime provision, assemblies, specialist workshops, nurture groups and social skills sessions, one to one mentoring and counselling and high quality support for mental health through play therapy and parental support. As a result of this effective provision the school was awarded an Optimus Wellbeing Award in 2021.