PSHE and Citizenship

Personal, health and social education takes place during these sessions. We take many of the excellent learning resources from the older SEAL programme, but tailor them to our own pupils’ needs and to their lives. The school works pro-actively to ensure that, from a young age, our children learn to treat one another with respect, empathy and care.

We believe that a knowledge of the environment and how we, as humans, affect the planet is of fundamental importance. This ‘Education for Social Responsibility’ (ESR) forms the core of the learning in these sessions, as the children learn to show thought and consideration for the world around them.

Children learn more about the world around them through discussions of current affairs and key events on a local, national and international scale. Even from a young age, our pupils should begin to gain an understanding of politics, democracy and the values of this country.

During these sessions, we aim to develop the pupils’ philosophical and critical thinking skills. The children are taught that our brain works like any muscle in the body and ‘stretching’ it with tricky thoughts and challenges helps us to improve our all round learning. There is a whole school ‘Thought for the Week’ and the children are pushed to verbalise their thinking through open questions and discussion.

All classes have circle time with their form teacher in which they can express their thoughts and feelings. This provides a safe and relaxed environment for the children to build up relationships with their peers and form teacher, as well as tackling issues and topics appropriate to their age. The school’s core values of care and consideration for each other are reinforced throughout.

At Collingwood, the welfare and well-being of our children is of vital importance and we pride ourselves on our excellent pastoral care of our pupils. Children have access to a ‘worry box’ in their classroom and any issues are dealt with sympathetically and thoughtfully. We all believe that a happy child is a thriving child.

RSE aims to teach pupils to be accepting of the different beliefs, cultures, religions, sexual orientations, physical and mental abilities, backgrounds and values of those around them. We want our pupils to lead a healthy and safe lifestyle, teach them to care for and respect their bodies and provide them with all the right tools that will enable them to seek information or support, should they need it, both during their school years and after.