PSHE

At St Laurence Church Junior School, we follow a PSHE scheme called Jigsaw. Jigsaw brings together Personal, Social and Health Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development along with Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) into a weekly lesson programme. All year groups work on the same theme at the same time. These themes are:

Half term 1: Being me in the World

Half term 2: Celebrating differences

Half term 3: Dreams and goals

Half term 4: Healthy me 

Half term 5: Relationships 

Half term 6: Changing me 

We aim to give children the knowledge, skills and understanding to lead confident, healthy and independent lives and to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.  The curriculum also promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. Through Sex and Relationships education, we prepare Year 5 and 6 children for puberty and teach them about conception. There is a parent workshop prior to this unit being taught.

The parents who attended the meeting appreciated the presentation and the opportunity to discuss this topic with Mrs Allen, Mr Murphy and each other. 

A Year 5 parent said that the Changing Me unit was really helpful and useful due to a lot of Sex Education content being taught at secondary school. She said that this unit provided her older child with a good foundation and she is very keen for her younger child to be involved in the learning. 

Another parent said that they are glad a lot of effort seems to be put in to organising all of this and they appreciate it. 

If you want more information about what the Year 5 and 6 children are learning in the Changing me unit go to Key Information tab - Policies and Documents - RSE Documents.

We also raise awareness of bullying through Anti Bullying Week in the autumn term and promote British Values through celebrating Parliament week and giving some Year 6 children the opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament (summer term). British Values is also promoted through our weekly 'Picture News' worship. The Healthy Me unit works alongside what is taught in PE- children learn the importance of looking after their bodies by eating healthily and exercising and our Dreams and Goals unit supports our school Lenten Project, where children focus on fundraising, managing money and working as a team.

PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS

It is important that all children gain an understanding of the world they are growing up in, and learn how to live alongside, and show respect for, a diverse range of people. 

The Equality Act 2010, identifies the ‘protected characteristics’ as:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

At St Laurence Church Junior School, we have a well-considered approach to the teaching of the protected characteristics, in order to eliminate discrimination, encourage equality between pupils who share a relevant protected characteristic and pupils who do not share it and we endeavour to foster good relations between pupils who share a relevant protected characteristic and pupils who do not share it.

In our PSHE Jigsaw scheme, there is a strong focus on Protected Characteristics in Autumn 2, in the topic of Celebrating Difference. These lessons are taught in an age appropriate manner.  However, there are many other links throughout the scheme - please look at the document below. In addition to this planned approach, we react and respond to any incident as it arises within school or the community.

Children also explore these characteristics throughout the year through our weekly Picture News Collective Worship sessions, Anti-bullying week which is marked in the Autumn term, Parliament week which is celebrated in Summer term.