COVID 19 Update

At Monkshouse, we are always keen to support our pupils. Being very aware that the Covid 19 pandemic has caused disruption and will have had all sorts of impact on children, we have included some additional lessons that we hope may help as children have returned back to school.

Some children will have been eager to get back to the safety and predictability that school provides for them, others may have been anxious. Our aim is to offer a safe, calm, caring, welcoming school community to all our pupils, parents and staff to ensure routine and solidity.

The ‘Recovery’ Package

The recovery package, which Monkshouse offers to pupils, comprises of:

• An assembly acknowledging the Covid situation, drawing out the positive themes from it e.g. community spirit, helping others, Colonel Tom, NHS, etc. and supporting British Values and togetherness.
• Lesson plans focussing on:
• Welcome back to school including a temporary Jigsaw Charter to support respect for personal space (social distancing), hygiene, etc.
• Belonging and feeling safe at school
• Reconnecting with friends at school
• The Coronavirus explained and keeping safe and well
• Managing worries, fears and anxieties
• Being positive and looking forward to learning
• Gratitude and appreciation
• Loss and bereavement

The Jigsaw Approach

At Monkshouse, we believe PSHE education is essential to pupils’ well-being and holistic development. Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, brings together Personal, Social, Health Education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. The curriculum also includes the statutory RSHE (Relationships Education, Sex Education and Health Education) and has a strong focus on emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

Here at Monkshouse, PSHE Jigsaw is delivered through weekly lessons being tailored to the specific needs of each class – this enables us, as a school community, to build relationships within our classes, and get to know one another better as unique human beings. Teaching strategies are varied and are mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation.  Jigsaw is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. This enables each Puzzle to start with an introductory assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike.

Mindfulness

Thoughts and feelings motivate and determine actions/responses/behaviours. If we are caught up in thoughts and feelings and are not aware of them as they happen, the responses that follow may not be under our control, and may not be in our best interest or appropriate in the situation. In Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, mindfulness is developed in 3 main ways: 

a) through the ‘Calm Me’ time in each Piece (lesson). This consists of breathing techniques, awareness exercises and visualisations, enabling children not to empty their minds but to quiet them and become aware of the activity within them and manage it positively. 

b) through the taught curriculum. Lessons (Pieces) help children to explore their thoughts and feelings, to expand their emotional vocabulary, explore thoughts-feelings-consequence sequences, build their confidence and express themselves in a safe environment.

c) through the ‘Pause Points’ in lessons (Pieces) which ask children to ‘Stop and look inside’ to practise observing their thoughts and feelings relating to what they are learning about in that lesson.

The Six Puzzles (Themes/Units of work)

There are six Puzzles in Jigsaw that are designed to progress in sequence from the start of each academic year:

Term 1: Being Me in My World

Term 2: Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)

Term 3: Dreams and Goals

Term 4: Healthy Me

Term 5: Relationships

Term 6: Changing Me (including Sex Education)

Each Puzzle has six Pieces (lessons) which work towards an ‘end product’, for example, The School Learning Charter. Each Piece has two Learning Intentions: one is based on specific PSHE learning and one is based on emotional literacy and social skills development. The whole school works on the same Puzzle at the same time, meaning that each Puzzle can be launched with a whole-school assembly and learning can be celebrated by the whole school in a meaningful way. 

Safeguarding, British Values and PREVENT

Here at Monkshouse, we take children’s safety and well-being very seriously, trying to empower them to speak up and get help if needed and to know how to keep themselves safe. We are eager to support and contribute to government agendas. The Relationships and Changing Me Puzzles have a strong safeguarding focus in particular, obvious to teachers but not necessarily so explicit to children. Our philosophy is to grow resilience and positive self-esteem and confidence in children, so they can recognise when they feel uncomfortable in a situation and know who to trust and how to speak up for help. They respect themselves and their bodies and know what healthy relationships feel like.

Relationship and Sex Health Education

At Monkshouse, we believe RSHE is an important part of safeguarding children, as knowledge empowers them, helping them to stay safe and cope with puberty understanding why their bodies will change. The DfE guidance clearly states the statutory requirements, i.e. what children MUST be taught by the end of primary school. RSHE includes learning about ‘the changing adolescent body’ to equip children to understand and cope with puberty. The National Curriculum for Science, includes learning the correct names for the main external body parts, learning about the human body as it grows from birth to old age and reproduction in some plants and animals.

The Jigsaw PSHE Programme includes lessons on ALL aspects of compulsory Relationships and Health Education, designed in a sensitive, spiral, age-appropriate curriculum. Monkshouse uses resources from the Jigsaw RSHE Programme for puberty (including periods) which is addressed before onset so pupils are prepared in advance for changes they will experience. Therefore, puberty is covered from Year 4 upwards and a letter sent out to parents before the delivery of this lesson. ‘Body Matters’ is hosted once a month (Covid dependent) to key stage 2 children for if they have any questions or issues they wish to discuss. The Red box project is ongoing, offering children and staff emergency sanitary items.