What will pupils be studying in PSHE?
The themes for the half term, along with information about some of the topics we will be exploring are below:
Year 9 Drop Down PSHE Day
Year 7
: Healthy Me and Changing Me
In their lessons, Year 7 will look at managing anxiety and stress and healthy choices on substances.
Year 8
: Healthy Me and Changing Me
In their lessons, Year 8 will look at substance misuse, managing stress and personal health.
On 25 April, Year 9 participated in a PSHE Drop Down day, with a focus on healthy relationships. We were visited by ‘She Productions’, a local theatre company, and Jeffrey Boakye, an author, broadcaster, educator and writer with an interest in issues surrounding education, race, masculinity and popular culture. ‘She Productions’ ran drama based workshops on healthy relationships and consent whilst Jeffrey Boakye spoke to the students about their identity, having a positive relationship with oneself
and the importance of this. Students also had sessions run by the School Nurse on contraception and an online safety session run by Mr Simpson. Year 9 engaged brilliantly with the different workshops and sessions throughout the day and will use this work to continue to explore ‘Healthy Relationships’ in their PSHE lessons this half term.
Year
9
: Relationships
In their lessons, Year 9 will look at power in relationships, assertiveness and saying no and contraception.
Online Safety
Year 10
: Healthy Me and Changing Me
In their lessons, Year 10 will look at protecting their health, extraordinary bodies and extraordinary minds.
Year 11
: Preparation for exams
In their lessons, Year 11 will be preparing for exams, exploring a range of different revision techniques and how they can cope with anxiety and stress around exam season.
Years 12 & 13 : Preparation for exams
In their lessons, Years 12 and 13 will be preparing for exams, exploring a range of different revision techniques and how they can organise their time effectively when on study leave.
As we do in every half term, we will also be using whole-school and year group assemblies to explore a wider range of PSHE topics such as identity, online safety, equality and inclusion.
Every half term in this newsletter we will share some tips and guidance on online safety and ways that our students can keep themselves safe online. Many of these resources are provided to us by National Online Safety (https:// nationalonlinesafety.com/). Their website has a wealth of advice and guidance, not only for schools but for parents and carers as well, on how to keep children safe online. We would highly recommend paying this website a visit if you are concerned about
anything from online gaming, social media websites or internet safety. This half term’s newsletter focuses on a new app named ‘Wizz’ which is being targeted at young people as a way to connect with other users around the world.
We would remind parents and carers that the school policy is that mobile phones are turned off between 8.30am and 4pm. If you need to get a message to your child, please contact them through the General Office.
Where to seek extra guidance/support on PSHE topics
At the start of every PSHE lesson, we reiterate the importance of everyone’s rights and responsibilities. We remind everyone in the classroom that:
Everyone has the right to:
→ Participate or pass
→ Listen and speak
→ Privacy
→ An opinion
→ Learn
Everyone has the responsibility to:
→ Allow others to participate or pass
→ Listen and allow others to speak
→ Maintain privacy
→ Respect difference of opinion
→ Allow others to learn
If any students need to seek extra support and guidance on PSHE, or the session raises worries or concerns for them, we would encourage them to speak in the first instance to their form tutor. Other people they can speak to are their Heads of Year, Head of PSHE, Form Prefects and buddies as well as trusted adults at home.
At the end of every session students are signposted to websites or leaflets that can provide extra information or support on the topic they have covered.
