Marist Catholic Primary Surrey

Significant success with curriculum, whole-school approach, general ethos and pupil impact.

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Significant Success

In September 2019 we embarked on our Jigsaw journey. As part of an overhaul of the PSHE curriculum and development of the upcoming statutory RSHE curriculum, the Marist Catholic Primary school began developing and re-installing proactive PSHE learning. Sadly, prior to this our school had reactive circle time style lessons, which only happened after an incident and very minimal proactive PSHE learning. PSHE was neglected and no evidence of these lessons was to be found. Children’s behaviour was improving through a new behaviour policy, however the issues noted were due to social interaction problems and misunderstandings of being unique and positive relationships. We were in desperate need of a curriculum to support the wider learning and development of our children.

We purchased Jigsaw, the mindful approach to PSHE, due to its positive relations to our Catholic RE curriculum and its links to our mission statement. Jigsaw’s supportive documents were really helpful in guiding our governors, parents, staff and children with understanding the importance of PSHE and how it was going to support our RE curriculum. Further to this, using Jigsaw as the core we were able to further promote ‘Healthy Me’ through our PE curriculum. Jigsaw fitted into all our systems and school rules and allowed us to fully support the teaching across the whole curriculum and support our Catholic ethos with a greater impact.

We held some self-led training on what makes a good PSHE lesson and the impact of having a weekly PSHE lesson can have on our children’s learning and behaviour. We promoted cross curricular learning linked PSHE, RE and PE together, focussing on mental wellbeing and mindfulness and how this can be promoted in other areas of the curriculum.

The training led to staff feeling more confident and eager to teach PSHE. No persuasion needed, PSHE was on every year group’s timetable; teachers and children alike were excited for a calm, discussion-based lesson where they had the opportunity to learn about themselves and others in a respectful environment. All the children enjoyed the atmosphere a Jigsaw PSHE lesson bought to their classroom: calm, serene and mindful conversations.

Impact of Jigsaw

Since the introduction of Jigsaw, children are excited to have a Jigsaw PSHE lesson once a week. Children are feeling more confident, resilient and their understanding of self and others around them has increased. Children feel braver to speak up and share. The older children in our school complete activities in their PSHE books and work together effectively in groups and individually to reflect upon the topics taught. Children feel more confident to share their thoughts, even when they are deeply personal. Our school is respectful of one another and these personal conversations are not heard on the playground. One child reported that thanks to a PSHE lesson on being brave and expressing yourself, she felt confident to politely make requests. This made her happier and she felt more fulfilled as she was excited by her play and felt more relaxed to come to school. The power of a PSHE lesson!

Throughout lockdowns PSHE continued. We held a well-being week, mental health days and Children’s mental health week was a huge hit. Teaching of PSHE continues to be of a high standard and teachers are using a wide range of resources to supplement their lessons and engage children into deep and meaningful conversations. The Jigsaw Recovery Programme and resources were reliable and supportive for our children who needed extra support on the return to school. Upon our return to school, PSHE and children’s wellbeing and mental health has been at the forefront of teachers’ minds. We continue to pursue PSHE topics such as British Values and Celebrating Difference in all we do. Our Census celebration and learning includes these lessons and provides us with the opportunity to relate our PSHE learning to real life scenarios.

PSHE, mental health, anti-bullying and well-being are a high priority in our school and is reflected in all we do. The children love that they talk about mature topics and are inspired and motivated when their opinions are heard. As we moved into the statutory RSHE curriculum Jigsaw has been invaluable, providing staff with a consistent resource they were already familiar with, children were familiar with the routines of a PSHE lesson and as a school who had already begun implementing Jigsaw, it was an easy transition for all to move into the new RSHE curriculum.

Our Jigsaw Friends live in our specialised Nurture room, where our SEND children enjoy a sensory cuddle or talking time. Our classes use the Jessie Cat to embrace the talking element of lessons and ensure everyone gets a chance to speak. The children nurture and care for our Jigsaw Friends.

Looking forward

Our plan is to fully embed the Jigsaw way into all elements of our school life. We are planning to fully implement assessment of PSHE using Target Tracker and run more Jigsaw events.

Parents feedback shows that the celebration and awareness of mental health is paramount for them and their children. Continuing our academy network meetings will be invaluable to developing our school ethos for both children and staff well-being. We will continue to support staff with the teaching of RSHE ensuring they feel comfortable, prepared and guided to teach some of the difficult topics. The ever-developing bank of resources will continue to grow which will support our children’s learning more. Using the Jigsaw Community Area for ideas will continue to be supportive.

We are looking forward to seeing how Jigsaw can develop the confidence of our children still further and are excited to continue to develop and grow resilient, confident, self-regulated, mindful young people who appreciate and understand the ever-changing and diverse world that surrounds them.

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England

Marist Catholic Primary School

The Marist Catholic Primary School has around 420 pupils and is a part of a Primary MAT

Headteacher: Kate Licence

Jigsaw Champion: Leanne Oliver

Contact us

Have any questions? We'd love to hear from you. 

(String: +44 (0)3331 882133)
phone

+44 (0)3331 882133