In Portsmouth, one of the aims of PSHE is to raise the aspirations of the children.  This is linked to our drive to improve attendance to help the children have the best chances in life.  As such we hold an aspirations' week every year where professionals come in to speak to the children about their careers and how school attendance helped them achieve their goals.  This year we had speakers from public health, the police service, school nurse, the tax office, the air ambulance, web designers and the entertainment industry.  We finished the week by dressing up in clothes for our dream career and raised money for the air ambulance at the same time. 

Our PSHE curriculum is one full of discussion and questions.  It promotes oracy and empathy and encourages the children to ask questions.  As our priority is the full engagement of all children, most of our learning is recorded in ‘Big Books’.  An example of which can be seen in the gallery here. 

As a school we feel it is important for the children to realise how fortunate most of them are and encourage them to think of those who are not in their position.  As such, we support many national charities, one of which is Children In Need.  Children supporting children.  The children dress up in yellow, pyjamas or Pudsey themed clothes and donate whatever they can afford on the day.  In class we learn about how the charity uses the money raised which gives the children an awareness of the scope of need within our society and also the value of money and generosity and the difference it can make. 

As a school we live by and promote the Fundamental British Values in all that we do.  These are tolerance of others, mutual respect, democracy, individual liberty and rule of law.  We help the children understand democracy and the rule of law by creating classroom charters and by voting for a school councillor.  Being kind is part of our school motto and encompasses respect and tolerance of others.  These values are incredibly important to our society and we will continue to promote them to help our children be ready for a world outside of education. 

Our children today are faced with a fast-paced, ever-changing world where there are so many demands asked of them.  This can feel quite overwhelming to some children, so part of the PSHE curriculum centres around discussing with the children how they can recognise what being mentally well, or unwell feels like and who can support them.  As an extension of this, Year 6 are fortunate enough to have a mindful movement coach – Claire Tamplin – deliver a series of lessons on the importance of positive mental health and how our bodies react to stress and how we can combat it.  This utilises the principles of yoga such as breathing techniques and gentle movements and the science of how the mind and body are connected.  The children thoroughly enjoy the sessions and are encouraged every time to see themselves as unique and enough as they are. 

As a school we like to encourage the children to show empathy and compassion towards others.  This year, we took part in NSPCC Number Day which focused on a fun day of maths but had a serious message behind it about supporting children in their hour of need.  Our children enjoyed maths and wrote pledges about the NSPCC and why we should support it.

Part of the curriculum in PSHE is to prepare the children for life beyond school – ‘Living In The Wider World’.  We do this in a variety of ways but one of them is to foster an understanding of responsibility in the children.  In year 6, we have chosen 18 prefects, a head and deputy head girl and boy to take on roles of responsibility around the school.  These include setting up the hall for assemblies, being involved in parents' evenings and year 2 parents open mornings and running a reading club for our younger children.  It was hard to choose the prefects as there were so many that were deserving, but the lucky children all showed a dedication to school life and followed all the school values without exception. 

Every year, the children elect a school councillor for their class.  This forms part of our teaching on the fundamental British Values, one of which is democracy.  The children learn about the Rule of Law and what democracy means before they either nominate themselves as a council candidate and then create a manifesto as to why they should be voted for, or listen to those who want to be elected.  Each class has 4–5 candidates running to be a school councillor.  We then have an official voting day complete with voting booth, ballot papers and a card inviting children to vote.  Our school prefects act as officials for the event where they explain the procedure, collect voting cards and give out ballot papers.  This is all to give the children a ‘real-life’ experience for later life.  This year, we were lucky to have Amanda Martin MP to announce our school council electives in an assembly. 

As a school we pride ourselves on promoting the Fundamental British Values through everything we do.  Two of these values are tolerance and respect.  One way in which we show this is as a school is our support for Show Racism The Red Card.  We believe that racism has no part in our school community, so we do a lot of work around understanding the stereotypes around this and how we can challenge them.  We have a dress-up red day and complete work that is recorded in the class big book.  We also enter the Show Racism The Red Card competition.  This year’s entries are seen in this gallery.