PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AT LANGLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL
At Langland Community School, our PSHE curriculum sits at the heart of everything that we do as we acknowledge the importance of developing our children as individuals as well as global, healthy citizens. We want our children to excel, learning the importance of values that will support them to develop a positive attitude towards themselves, their friendships, and their learning for now and in the future.
The overarching aims of our curriculum is that children will:
- Develop the knowledge, skills, and attributes that they need to navigate their lives now and in the future.
- Understand how to keep healthy and safe; including how to have purposeful and reciprocal relationships.
- Understand the importance of valuing similarities and differences and how to recognise and manage their emotions.
Our Personal Development Long Term Plan provides an overview of our enriching and enhancing curriculum and character development outside of the curriculum offer.
We have also adopted the Jigsaw curriculum as it is grounded in research and follows a comprehensive and progressive coverage of key concepts. Through the implementation of this curriculum, it is intended that children are taught how to navigate their changing world and supported to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
Teaching Approach
A consistent approach to teaching PSHE is monitored and supported by our curriculum leader who monitors delivery and trains and develops our teachers. PSHE sessions are taught using a combination of circle time, discussion, and response tasks. This is evidenced in PHSE floor books to enable children to reflect on the discussions that have taken place. PSHE content is evident in our classrooms daily, it is not constrained to timetabled sessions. In all classes, children check in for the day using the Zones of Regulation, which is followed up by the year group adults. Links within other subjects are made to allow children to develop a more comprehensive understanding of health, wellbeing, relationships and how to be good citizens of the wider world.
SEND
Our curriculum is carefully designed so that all children can access it fully. Adaptations are made to ensure that our PSHE sessions are developmentally appropriate for all our pupils. Pupils with identified needs are supported with Widget symbols.
Protective Behaviours
Protective Behaviours is a practical approach to personal safety, self-esteem, resilience and confidence building. The whole school programme starts from the positive of recognising when we feel safe and teaches the ability to recognise when we are not feeling safe; it also provides skills and tools to enable individuals to act and get help when they need it. Protective Behaviours recognises that life is also about taking risks and trying new things and that this is part of our development and an important life skill.
Protective Behaviours is based on two themes, which are used to teach and reinforce the basic concepts on which the process is based.
- We all have the right to feel safe all the time
- We can talk with someone about anything even if feels awful or small
The Zones of Regulation:
It is our intention that Emotional Literacy is integral to our curriculum. Emotional intelligence has been defined as: ‘...the ability to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotion, the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought, the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth’ (Salovey & Sluyter, 1997, p.10).
Consequently, we have been implementing the Zones of Regulation across the school as a systematic, cognitive behavioural approach used to teach all children how to regulate their feelings, energy, and sensory needs to meet the demands of the situation around them and be successful socially. We brought this in in part as a response to the pandemic when we found some of our older children returning from lockdown less mentally resilient and with greater levels of anxiety. In addition, we have a greater than national average proportion of children with SEN whereby specialist reports pointed towards this approach to meet their needs. At Langland, our approach to inclusion is to meet the needs of the most vulnerable through their quality first teach experience. As such, the decision was taken to adopt the approach across the school:
“The Zones of Regulation is the original framework and curriculum (Kuypers, 2011) that develops awareness of feelings, energy and alertness levels while exploring a variety of tools and strategies for regulation, prosocial skills, self-care, and overall wellness. This curriculum provides us an easy way to think and talk about how we feel on the inside and sort these feelings into four coloured Zones, all of which are expected in life. Once we understand our feelings and zones, we can learn to use tools/strategies to manage our different Zones to meet goals like doing schoolwork or other tasks, managing big feelings, and healthy relationships with others. The simple, common language and visual structure of The Zones of Regulation helps make the complex skill of regulation more concrete for learners and those who support them.” The Zones of Regulation: A Social Emotional Learning Pathway to Regulation
We intend that by the time children leave Key Stage 2 they will have:
- Built resilience.
- Nurtured their mental health and
- Developed an emotional awareness alongside positive learning behaviour.
At Langland Community School, we also understand how important it is 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. We have a well-considered approach to the teaching of the protected characteristics, to:
- eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation
- advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
- foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
Underpinning all learning and woven throughout are the fundamental British Values of:
- Democracy
- Rule of Law
- Individual Liberty
- Mutual Respect and
- Tolerance
In the Early Years:
As with our approach to all learning in the EYFS, our PSHE teaching combines direct taught sessions with hands on play experiences. Our pupils are supported and challenged by the adults working with them in whole class sessions, small groups and on a 1:1 basis. We focus on modelling expected behaviours and helping children to participate in purposeful play for learning. In everything we do we focus on the: ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning,’ promoting positive learning behaviours.
By the end of Key Stage One Pupils will:
- Have a positive relationship with themselves, peers, and adults within the school.
- Demonstrate a healthy attitude towards school and learning.
- Begin to demonstrate the British Values of democracy, tolerance, mutual respect, the rule of law and liberty.
- Know how to stay safe in their physical and digital worlds.
- Begin to have an awareness of their own mental health and well-being.
- Begin to develop an inclusive attitude that challenges discrimination in all its forms.
- Understand the changes that happen to themselves and other animals and have taken part in age appropriate RSE.
By the end of Key Stage Two pupils will:
- Have a positive relationship with themselves and the wider school community.
- Have developed a positive body image.
- Demonstrate a healthy attitude towards learning and its place in their future.
- Understand what constitutes as a healthy relationship and how to seek help if they find themselves in an unhealthy situation.
- Have respect for themselves and others.
- Know how to stay safe in their digital and physical world.
- Have an inclusive attitude that actively challenges discrimination in all its forms.
- Have an awareness and understanding of their own mental health and wellbeing and know where to turn for help should they need it.
- Understand change and have strategies to draw on when they need to approach changes in their lives.
- Understand the physical aspects involved with RSE at a developmentally appropriate level.