PSHE (Personal, Social Health & Economic Education)
"Live Life to the Full" is a comprehensive program that not only supports the PSHE curriculum but also integrates key Catholic teachings. It promotes the dignity of each individual, reflecting the Catholic belief in the sanctity of life and the idea that every person is created in God's image. It encourages young people to develop a positive mindset, healthy relationships, and resilience by focusing on key areas such as mental health, emotional literacy, and personal safety. The program covers various aspects of the PSHE framework, including understanding emotions, self-awareness, managing relationships, and decision-making skills, helping students grow holistically in both their personal and social lives. By focusing on emotional well-being, healthy relationships, and personal development, the program aligns with Catholic values of compassion, respect, and love for one another. It encourages students to live out the Gospel message by fostering resilience, moral decision-making, and a commitment to their own and others' well-being, helping them to grow as responsible, faith-filled individuals.
Structure of the programme:
The programme adopts a spiral curriculum approach so that as a child goes through the programme year-after-year, the learning will develop and grow, with each stage building on the last.
Module One: Created and Loved by God explores the individual. Rooted in the teaching that we are made in the image and likeness of God, it helps children to develop an understanding of the importance of valuing themselves as the basis for personal relationships.
Module Two: Created to Love Others explores the individual’s relationship with others. Building on the understanding that we have been created out of love and for love, this Module explores how we take this calling into our family, friendships and relationships, and teaches strategies for developing heathy relationships and keeping safe.
Finally, Module Three: Created to Live in Community explores the individual’s relationship with the wider world. Here we explore how human beings are relational by nature and are called to love others in the wider community through service, through dialogue and through working for the Common Good.
EYFS:
In Me, My Body, My Health, children will learn about their uniqueness in real terms, including celebrating differences and individual gifts, talents and abilities. They will learn about looking after and using their God-given bodies and develop their vocabulary around this topic.
In Emotional Well-Being, children will learn about likes, dislikes and self-acceptance. They will learn how to describe different feelings, both good and bad. Finally through a real world example, children will learn that actions have consequences; that when we make mistakes we should say sorry and ask for forgiveness.
In Life Cycles children will explore the natural human cycle of life, focusing on what children can remember about their development so far and what they know will happen as they get older. Children will also recall changes that came with starting school and identify changes to come – learning that they can cope with change. This is underpinned by the religious understanding that growing up is part of God’s plan for our lives and that we are loved by Him at every life stage.
In Personal Relationships children will expand their vocabulary by applying names to different family/friend relationships, consider positive/negative behaviour in relationships and learn to look to Jesus as their role model for a good friend. Children will learn to resolve conflict and the importance of asking for forgiveness.
In Keeping Safe. children learn practical ways to stay safe inside and out, about bodily privacy (including the NSPCC PANTS message that ‘privates are private’) and the importance of talking to their ‘special people’ if anything troubles them. Children will also learn about medicine safety and the people who help us in emergencies
Life Online: children will learn about Freddy Teddy who learns to use a new device, serving as an introduction for children to the internet and how we use it. This draws on both positives and negatives of internet use, moving into children learning some basic rules to help them stay safe online.
In Living in the Wider World, children will understand the responsibilities they have to people, places and the planet now and increasingly as they get older.
KS1:
Me, My Body, My Health encourages children to celebrate similarities and differences between people, including our God-given bodies and the things they enable us to do. Teaching also includes maintaining personal hygiene and the physical differences between boys and girls.
In Emotional Well-Being, children will meet presenters Zoe and Joey and fictional character Super Susie. They will help children to understand and articulate their own changing feelings and how other people’s feelings might differ from theirs. Children will learn how they can manage their feelings and about the consequences of their actions.
In Life Cycles, Children will learn about the specifics of the human life cycle, including the end of life. Further focus is given to children’s transition through school. Children will learn how to prepare for future changes alongside celebrating how they have already changed and grown.
In Personal Relationships children will identify the ‘special people’ in their lives who they love and can trust. In further sessions, children will learn how to cope with various social situations and dilemmas, and the importance of saying sorry and forgiveness within relationships.
In Keeping Safe, children to tell the difference between good and bad secrets. This unit also explores the risks of being online by incorporating the ‘Smartie the Penguin’ resources from Childnet and teaching on physical boundaries, incorporating the PANTS resource by the NSPCC. Children will also learn about the effects of harmful substances (including alcohol and tobacco), some basic First Aid, what makes a 999 emergency and what they should do if in an emergency situation.
Life Online helps children to understand that just like we can feel joy and feel upset in the different places we go physically, we can feel joy and feel upset in the different places we go to digitally too. Focus is given to the importance of feeling safe on the inside, especially when using the internet. Through activities and the story of Smartie the Penguin, children will learn to recognise safe and unsafe situations online, and begin to develop an understanding that not everything presented to them online is true
Living in the Wider World helps children to learn about the different local and global communities that they are part of, and what rights and responsibilities come with belonging to these communities. Children will understand more about the purpose of work and the harmful impact of gender stereotypes in the workplace, alongside an introduction to the concept of vocation. Children will also consolidate learning about what money is and will explore the choices we have with our money. All of this is underpinned by the religious understanding that our identity, value and worth comes from God.
