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PSHE and RSHE

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"The school creates a caring and nurturing environment for my very shy/anxious child"

"Whenever my child has had anxiety or nervous issues with in school (particularly in the period after lock down) there was a programme in place and he thrived. No issues since."

"When we got divorced, the school helped **** deal with her emotions and were good in supporting her through this."

"The school motto of a caring gamily school could not be more fitting. An absolutely wonderful school and staff who care so much about our children"

- PARENT COMMENTS - 2022

‘It is vital that the education system prepares all pupils for life in modern Britain. Schools have a critical role to play in helping to shape rounded, resilient young people that can face the challenges of the modern world with confidence. They must provide opportunities and encourage their pupils to develop a wider set of skills, which far from being a distraction from academic achievement are vital for pupils’ academic success. These same skills will prepare them to go on to contribute positively to the economy and to society as fully engaged citizens.’

Government Response: Life Lessons: PSHE and SRE in schools

Department for Education 2015.

At Gawber Primary school, the wellbeing of our children is paramount and embedded in everything that we do. Staff pride themselves on forming strong and positive relationships with our children, establishing a safe and happy environment. Children feel happy and safe at Gawber. Children and staff live by our ethos of 'a caring family school' and use this to positively impact their wider community.

Here are some of our children collecting a Health and Wellbeing award from the Darton West Ward Alliance 'Stars of Darton West' awards. Children at Gawber are recognised for their positive contribution to our local area.

Through our curriculum, ethos and positive behaviour management policy, our children believe strongly that they have a voice and that their opinions will be listened and responded to. They feel part of our ‘Gawber family’ and therefore want to make a positive contribution to the life of the school. Children at Gawber behave with integrity and are increasingly mature, sensible and supportive to each other. These are qualities we embed throughout daily school life and are focused on through PSHE and RSHE lessons on developing self-awareness and interpersonal skills.

In September 2020, RSE (Relationship Education) became compulsory in primary schools. Gawber Primary School recognise the importance of this and also goes above and beyond this statutory requirement to ensure that our children are provided with a curriculum that is bespoke to the needs at Gawber. We recognise how important it is that we support children in building the skills needed to stay safe and build resilience both within the school and in their life outside of school. After considerable research, we decided that the 1decision scheme was the best scheme to use as our main support of the teaching of RSHE at Gawber. We made this decision because the scheme ensures year on year progression on the wide range of areas covered in the RSHE curriculum (both statutory and non- statutory). This scheme ensures that all subject content is covered but also gives the flexibility to adapt or supplement the scheme so that we can provide bespoke opportunities and activities to reflect and support the specific needs of our children and also reflect the issues that are relevant to them and/or the area in which they live. We adapt our teaching/assemblies to address issues that have occurred both locally and in the wider world as they arise. The children engage positively in their discrete lessons and especially enjoy the videos that enact real life situations using child actors. Themes are embedded throughout the curriculum with cross-curricular links being made where relevant.

As well as our whole school learning approach, at Gawber we recognise that children are also individuals facing their own personal problems/concerns and that at times, they may need more personalised support. To achieve this, we have established an excellent mental health support team led by our Senior Mental Health Lead, Mrs Bradshaw. This is supported by Mrs Hanson (a trained wellbeing practitioner and our KS2 Wellbeing Leaders. We also have a team of ‘big brothers and sisters’ at Gawber. These are KS2 children who support younger children with social and emotional skills, adopting the role of a 'big brother or sister' and leading on modelling positive behaviours in school.

Children who require additional support are identified in various ways. We have a close working relationship with the parents/carers of our children who feel confident in contacting school and sharing any issues that they feel their child may be facing. Excellent relationships between the staff and children ensure that children who need extra support are quickly identified and additional support put in place. Children also complete the Three House diagnostic sheet at the start of each year, which gives class teachers the opportunity to identify areas that require support both as a whole class or on an individual basis. Individual support ranges from a block of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) sessions for children to wellbeing sessions led by our wellbeing leaders to our 'big brother and sister' programme to support younger children. Children who have accessed wellbeing support often go on to becoming wellbeing leaders, which enables them to share the strategies they have learnt.

Some children also enjoy spending time with Peggy, our therapy dog who loves to read! Peggy visits us once a week (along with her handler, Liz) and spends time with children in school who may benefit from her company.

The introduction of Wellbeing Leaders and our ‘school big brothers and sisters’ have been a fantastic success! They were introduced with the intention of establishing peer to peer pastoral support, especially for those children with more social and emotional needs. They lead assemblies, run wellbeing sessions and generally support all our children with their own wellbeing. Strong relationships between our oldest and youngest pupils are evident and examples of this can be witnessed in school every day.

As a result of the wide, rich set of experiences on offer at Gawber Primary School, our children are able to learn the lifelong importance of managing their wellbeing.

To further promote health and wellbeing in school, we have:

Dedicated Wellbeing/RSHE Governor, who delivers First Aid sessions to our KS2 children.
School clubs that cater to a wide range of children’s interests and promote independence, peer relationships and confidence
An active and effective School Council, democratically elected by their peers to support British Values, who have established links with the wider community i.e. Barnsley Hospice
E-safety learning and support for children at various points across the school year
Regular dedicated wellbeing sessions
Expert visitors from a variety of backgrounds who are able to provide workshops and talks around topical areas such as Search and Rescue and Fire Service
School visits/ visitors promoting life skills such as swimming lessons, bikeability, and Crucial Crew (to name just a few)
School council
Weekly certificates celebrating positive behaviour and learning attributes
Children’s successes outside of school using our Gawber Primary School Twitter Page
Opportunities to celebrate different languages, cultures and religions led by children at our school where possible
A variety of extra-curricular activities on offer throughout the year
Opportunities to learn about and celebrate British values
Opportunities to learn and understand our Gawber Rules of Law

In FS2 the areas taught feed into our whole school progression. These are taught using story books provided by 1decision and are used to promote discussion and the use of appropriate language to enable the children to access this programme in KS 1.

'The children love the Rainbow Drops books. They can say if something is safe to do and explain why.'

Mrs Crossely, Foundation Stage 2 Teacher