Intent
At Mill Lane Primary School, we have created a happy, purposeful and supportive environment where children are enabled to become successful learners and develop their full potential; becoming responsible members of society who are inspired to aspire.
Our vision reflects a passionate commitment to the recognition of the uniqueness of individual learners and recognises and supports the diverse nature of the children in our school.
Our curriculum ensures we offer the best possible personalised education for our pupils to support them to become safe, responsible and interested young people, and provides opportunities for them to learn about their rights and responsibilities and to appreciate what it means to be members of a diverse society both in school and in our community.
Our PSHE curriculum wholly underpins the school curriculum, creating a whole school culture which provides character building and real-life opportunities for our children in order to develop the qualities and attributes they need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society.
The curriculum has been designed to overcome any barriers to learning and through cultural capital opportunities, and a detailed and comprehensive programme of workshops, visits and visitors, we ensure that our children receive an enhanced and personalised provision to provide all children with equal opportunity, regardless of background.
We work in partnership with parents and the local community to provide the knowledge, understanding and skills that children need to lead healthy, fulfilling and meaningful lives; both now, and in the future.
The overarching aim for PSHE education at Mill Lane is to provide pupils with:
- Accurate and relevant knowledge.
- Opportunities to turn that knowledge into personal understanding.
- Opportunities to explore, clarify and if necessary challenge, their own and others’ values, attitudes, beliefs, rights and responsibilities.
- To create a culture of cultural tolerance and diversity.
- The skills and strategies they need in order to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.
- To inspire our children to aspire, through opening their eyes to opportunity and possibility.
Implementation
PSHE education underpins the whole school curriculum at Mill Lane Primary School. We teach our PSHE curriculum following the PSHE Association question-based model which incorporates objectives for Health and Wellbeing, Relationships (RSE) and Living in the Wider World. Our British Values, E-Safety and RSE are included within these areas of learning. At Mill Lane we have five characters that underpin everything that we do. Each one portrays a characteristic that we want to instill in all of our children that we hope give them the greatest opportunity to succeed. We call this LORIC, and our characters are Laura Leadership, Olly Organisation, Raj Resilience, Izzy Initiative and Charlie Communication. To further develop our RSE offer, we also use Lucinda and Godfrey resources.
As a school, we use the Zones of Regulation program as an empowering instructional tool to build safe, supportive environments that foster learning and well-being for all.
Learners benefit from:
- Increased self-awareness and social and emotional skills
- A common language for communication, problem solving, and emotional understanding
- More time spent on learning instead of on behaviour management
- A healthier, more inclusive school climate
Our RSE curriculum was developed in conjunction with our parents/carers to ensure it’s content and delivery is not only based on statutory guidance but is personalised to reflect the cultural beliefs and practices within our school community.
The PSHE, Well-Being and Curriculum Subject Leaders have hosted CPD sessions to ensure all staff have the knowledge, skills and resources to deliver sessions to children in an accessible and engaging way and to give children the knowledge and skills to recognise and understand their own feelings and to manage them in an appropriate and healthy manner.
Our structured lessons follow the PSHE Association curriculum builder question based model planning for timetabled weekly sessions, which support the teaching of our key themes. Children actively engage with our LORIC and our PSHE sessions, which are promoted throughout all lessons to encourage positive learning, behaviour and relationships across school.
The LORIC principles underpin all subjects where Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication are referred to and promoted throughout lessons as a tool to support children’s learning, independence, co-operation and knowledge building.
The PSHE curriculum is progressive throughout school and themes are revisited to ensure children have the opportunity to build on acquired knowledge and skills to suit their developmental age and maturity. This ensures key concepts are embedded in long term memory and the children are able to apply their knowledge and skills fluently and across all areas of the curriculum.
Assemblies and additional themed days ensure a broad and balanced PSHE Curriculum which recognises and celebrates all cultures and beliefs.
Mill Lane also provides a wealth of opportunity to ensure our pupils are able to develop their cultural capital through extracurricular activities, after school clubs, holiday clubs and educational visits. Children also have the opportunity to have a formal role in school life as part of the School Council, Playground Friends, Sports Leaders, librarians and as part of the Mini Police scheme to develop their sense of responsibility and leadership skills. All children and parents/carers also have access to our Parent Support Advisor for support and advice and 1:1 sessions are also available for those children requiring extra support.
Sporting opportunities and Glee Club also provide opportunity for our children to develop their interests and talents.
These experiences enrich the curriculum and provide opportunities children in our school would not otherwise have.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) follows an EY curriculum based on the ‘Birth to 5 Matters’ and ‘Development Matters’ documents and is supplemented by the PiXL objectives (My Health, My Life, My Mind and Mind to be Kind) and Lucinda and Godfrey (RSE). The key EY curriculum areas for PSHE are:
- Building relationships
Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and other children
- Self-regulation
Children are confident to try new activities, and say why they like some activities more than others. They are confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t need help.
- Managing self
Children talk about how they and others show feelings, talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its consequences, and know that some behaviour is unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class, and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their behaviour to different situations, and take changes of routine in their stride.
The PSHE curriculum in Class 7 and Class 8 is personalised for each pupil and considers their ability, speech and language development and social skills to ensure that it is accessible for each child at their own level of development.
The PSHE and Mental Health and Well-Being Subject Leaders ensure the curriculum is being implemented effectively through monitoring (book looks, pupil voice, staff voice, lesson observations and learning walks) to ensure that teachers have expert knowledge of the subject and are able to deliver high quality, effective teaching to enable pupils to understand key concepts and transfer them into their school and wider lives.
Impact
At Mill Lane we have created a welcoming and accepting culture where each child is valued for their individuality and contribution. Our children learn that we are all different but we are all equal.
Children are able to understand and explain the LORIC principles and how they help them with learning and decision making throughout their wider lives.
All children, regardless of starting point, now know more, remember more and can apply their knowledge and skills to be able to do more.
Particular improvements have been seen across school in the children’s resilience and initiative and a ‘not yet’ attitude has replaced children’s ‘I can’t do that’ state of thinking. Staff evidence has proven that children are far more willing to have a go at activities than previously and that children’s resilience has grown following an intense well-being focus.
Children are empowered with accurate and relevant knowledge about their physical and mental health and how to manage them, and UKS2 children have the knowledge and information needed to understand their changing bodies as they approach puberty.
An environment of open conversation has been created where children feel confident and able to ask questions and have them answered by teachers with the expert knowledge to do so in an age appropriate, culturally sensitive and accurate manner.
Opportunities created in formal PSHE sessions, assemblies and cultural capital activities have provided an environment where all children, regardless of background or ability make progress and have turned their knowledge into personal understanding, have challenged their own and others’ values, attitudes and beliefs and know how to live healthy, safe, fulfilling, responsible and balanced lives.
The LORIC principles have created a culture of independence throughout school where children can think for themselves and work collaboratively to achieve success.
The whole school culture of inspiring aspirations through providing real life experiences, visits and visitors has created an environment where our children have had their eyes opened to the possibilities their futures hold for them. Children in Year 6 have real life, tangible aspirations to become doctors, builders, chefs and illustrators and have been provided with the knowledge and skills to enable them to make their dreams become a reality.
At Mill Lane, the impact our PSHE curriculum has had on our children is immeasurable but has been wholly successful in developing our children into lifelong independent learners with the knowledge and skills to be successful members of our community.
Documents
MLPS PSHE Curriculum – Questions-based model 2024_2025