PSHE & RSE

Intent

At New Close Primary School we use the Jigsaw scheme of work for our schools personal, social and health education. This is the mindful approach to PSHE it provides a thorough curriculum package for 3-16 year olds. The rationale and philosophy underpinning Jigsaw resources is based on mindfulness philosophy and practice, sound psychology and is evidence-based. The Jigsaw program looks at how the brain works and how learning happens. The Jigsaw lessons are structured to maximise these processes. Children and young people are at the heart of all Jigsaw Programmes. The aim is to improve learning capacity, resilience and emotional well-being and mental health and thereby enhance their life-chances.

Implementation 

Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, brings together Personal, Social, Health Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. At New Close the children take part in one Jigsaw lesson a week. Teachers focus on tailoring the lessons to their children’s needs and to enjoy building the relationship with their class, getting to know them better as unique human beings. Teaching strategies are varied and are mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation. 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 assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike.

In Jigsaw, mindfulness is developed in three main ways:

a) Through the ‘Calm Me’ time in each Piece (lesson). This consists of breathing techniques, awareness exercises and visualisations, enabling children not to empty their minds but to quiet them and become aware of the activity within them and manage it positively.

b) Through the taught curriculum. Lessons (Pieces) help children to explore their thoughts and feelings, to expand their emotional vocabulary, explore thoughts-feelings-consequence sequences, build their confidence and express themselves in a safe environment.

c) Through the ‘Pause Points’ in lessons (Pieces) which ask children to ‘Stop and look inside’ to practise observing their thoughts and feelings relating to what they are learning about in that lesson. Jigsaw Jerrie Cat is introduced in the first Puzzle (Being Me in My World) through two whole-school assemblies and acts as the trigger for PAUSE.

There are six Puzzles in Jigsaw that are designed to progress in sequence from the start of each academic year:

• Term 1: Being Me in My World
• Term 2: Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
• Term 3: Dreams and Goals
• Term 4: Healthy Me
• Term 5: Relationships
• Term 6: Changing Me (including Sex Education)

Each Piece has two Learning Intentions: one is based on specific PSHE learning (purple) and one is based on emotional literacy and social skills development (green). The whole school works on the same Puzzle at the same time, meaning that each Puzzle can be launched with a whole-school assembly and learning can be celebrated by the whole school in a meaningful way.

The Impact

At New Close we are be eager to ensure children are making progress with their learning throughout their Jigsaw experience. Therefore, each Piece (lesson) has a formative assessment activity that children can use to self/peer assess their understanding in that lesson. 

Younger children colour in or tick the Jigsaw Friend (thumb up, thumb down, thumb neutral) which corresponds to their personal assessment for the purple and green learning intention for that Piece (lesson). For ages six to seven there is also a comments box that can be used for setting formative targets or for children’s general TINT (to improve next time) about the Piece (lesson).

My Jigsaw Journey tasks for the older children follow the same approach with students ticking or colouring the appropriate box for each learning intention in a Piece (lesson). There is also a box for them to record if they were absent for a particular lesson, and a TINT (to improve next time) to record formative targets or comments.

RHSE (Relationship, Health and Sex Education)

At New Close we pride ourselves on delivering effective, age-appropriate relationships, health and sex education (RHSE) that meets the needs of all our pupils within an inclusive and supporting learning environment. RHSE is taught through a spiral delivery that enables pupils to build upon their prior learning by revisiting some themes to further develop knowledge, values and skills in an age and stage appropriate manner.

We use the Jigsaw Scheme of Work for Mindfulness PSHE to deliver content and make links across other areas of the curriculum. We encourage our parents to discuss all aspects of the relationship, sex and health education with their child by communicating each terms' objectives.

Our policy has been developed with all stakeholders, including consultation with parents and has been incorporated to run alongside our PSHE policy.

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