We follow the Corum Scarf Curriculum to teach our P.S.H.E and R.S.E in school. Collectively we refer to these as our Lifeskills lessons. Scarf stands for Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. Every term the whole school works on the same topic to help embed these messages throughout the school. 

This is supported through the use of Kidsafe, which is a program that empowers children with the skills to keep themselves safe. You may hear of your child discussing KS, who is a monkey that the children give advice to during our Kidsafe lessons. Kidsafe lessons are timetabled for Summer term. On occasion some discrete lessons may be taught if we feel a refresher would be beneficial at other points over the year such as Internet safety and wellbeing sessions. Letters will be sent home if your child has had a Kidsafe session. These outline the content of the session and we encourage parents to continue discussions on these topics at home.

Intent

The intent of our PSHE and Kidsafe curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and ensures that each of our pupils will know more, remember more and understand more about how to play a positive and successful role within our society, both as a child and as an adult within the future. Our aim is to provide pupils with a knowledge of their world, locally, nationally and globally and give them confidence to tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up within this. We aim to provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse society.  Our pupils are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. 

Implementation

It is hoped that our overall curriculum is designed to directly support the pastoral education of our pupils as well as the academic outcomes that the school aims for. The school primarily uses resources from " Scarf" to make links between our academic aims and the modern world in which they find themselves, empowering them operate positive, independently and safely within it.

Therefore, our history aims to link knowledge of Britain’s past to the diverse and democratic country that we live in today through areas such immigration, refugees and parliamentary debate.   Within Geography, our aim is to ensure our pupils have a wide knowledge of the world and the diverse cultures that exist beyond our school gates linking to topics such as Fairtrade and World Aid. Within our Science, we link the learning to environmental issues and areas of disability.  Whilst within computing pupils are taught first to be safe responsible online citizens before being shown the tools needed, through Online Safety.

It is hoped that our pastoral curriculum is interweaved throughout our curriculum; however, a lesson a week is timetabled to ensure that quality time is dedicated to these areas.

School Values

Beyond our documented curriculum, it is hoped that the school provides a culture that contributes equally towards the pastoral development of our children. Therefore, our teaching approach places great emphasis upon collaboration and cooperation: group work should be a key element of all classrooms and the school places emphasis on sports, choir and drama productions – all of which enable our pupils to achieve success together. Beyond this, pupils are encouraged to show leadership in their community through School Council.

Impact

Whilst all learning is recorded with a pupil’s social scrapbook, the width of our provision means that a range of measures are used:

• Participation in extra-curricular activity both in school and beyond is tracked and celebrated through Assemblies and Show and Tell sessions.
• Pupil Voice Surveys are used to assess knowledge of how to stay safe and emotionally confident within the school.
• Levels of volunteering both within the school through litter picking, librarians and playground leaders, and within the community through choir concerts within the local community and supporting the local foodbank and other charities.

More formal assessment of the level of knowledge they are developing will be devised throughout this academic year.

What do our pupils think?

Pupil voice is very important at Oughterside school. We always speak to our pupils regarding schemes and programmes that we use in school and Kidsafe is no exception.

Here are some comments made by pupils following our Kidsafe evaluation session:

'It teaches us to keep safe.'

'We can share what we know with our younger brothers and sisters.'

'It teaches us to keep safe and what to do if things maybe happen when we start secondary.'

'You need to know the rules about private places.'

'It teaches us how to keep safe.'

'When you are older you know what to teach your children and how to keep them safe.'

'KS helps you know what to do!'

'It teaches us what we can and can't do.'

'Some people maybe don't know how to keep safe.'

'It teaches us right and wrong.'

'We get to talk about problems.'

What do you enjoy about Kidsafe?

'I like the discussions'

'I like seeing KS'

'I like playing the games'

'I love playing ups and downs'

PSHE/RSE (Lifeskills) Consultation

Our school consultation for both PSHE and RSE happened via Zoom before the implementation of the new curriculum content launch in September 2020. Many parents attended the zoom meeting and parents completed questionnaires regarding curriculum content using Google forms. 
 

Due to the positive response to the scheme, we began to use the scarf scheme. Details of the curriculum content can be found below.

RSE Workshop

Following consultation with parents and pupils during the initial launch, we decided to include Sex Education in our Lifeskills lessons. This is a none compulsory single lesson which is taught to pupils in Y6 in the second summer term. This means parents do have the right to withdraw their child from this lesson. 

Each year we have a parent workshop to share the lesson content with current Y6 pupils. This also gives parents opportunities to ask any questions. We have now taught the new curriculum for several years and continue to receive positive feedback from parents following the lesson. Invitations are sent to parents regarding this session.

This year the workshop will be held on Tuesday 27th June at 2.30pm. The session will last approximately 30minutes and has been held during the school day to prevent any issues with child care. If you are unable to attend but would like to see the information, please speak to Miss Warwick.

Statutory Guidance for PSHE - Department for Education

Oughterside Foundation School Lifeskills (PSHE and RSE) Policy

This Policy has recently been updated to reflect current practise and is under review.

RNLI Visit  - 8th March 2024

This morning we had a visit from the RNLI who spoke to us about the important role they have and how they keep us safe. They also spoke to us about we can prevent ourselves from getting in to danger.

He showed us photographs of the lifeboats that are stationed at Maryport and Silloth. He then spoke to us about all the kit then need to wear to keep them safe and warm during a rescue.

Sea Rescue

First they showed us there insulating base layer to keep them warm because it’s cold in the water. The suit was similar to the suits our current KS2 classes wore when ghyll scrambling last year. 

Mrs Jackson tried on the suit with steel toe caps which would be their next layer. 

The final layer would be their life jacket to keep them afloat. Their life jacket also enables them to carry lots of safety equipment such as a flare to warn people someone in trouble and a PLB which shows their exact location if they are ever in trouble. A PLB is especially important when they are preforming rescue missions at night as if they get in to trouble the darkness would make it especially difficult to see.

The lifeboat team also wear helmets. Julian explained that the reason their helmets are yellow is because the froth on a rough sea is white so the yellow helmet provides a contrast and makes it easier for them to be seen. Some helmets have built in radios so they can communicate with other members of the rescue team.

Swift Water Kit

The kit used for river or flood searches is slightly different due to the speed of the water. These kits are designed to provide an even quicker response.

He spoke about how when they arrive on a rescue mission there will be the leader, the team and the casualty. He said that the leader is the most important person, then the team and then the casualty. This is due to the fact that if the leader or team get in to trouble then there won’t be anyone left to rescue the original causality.

The biggest difference with the suits is that the boots are detachable on the swift water suit just in case their feet get trapped by debris.

Again they carry lots of kit in their life jacket such as a tow rope, a knife to cut any ties, and a radio for communication with the rest of the team. The life jacket also has a ‘cow tail’. They use the cow tail to secure themselves to a rope held by the team on land. This is to keep the team members safe if they have to enter the water. 

Rescue!

Julian demonstrated lots of different ways that the team would save a causality. He told us that they avoid entering the water whenever possible as entering the water endangers themselves. 

Online Safety Talk - Cumbria Constabulary 29th November 2023

Our local PCSO, Pete, spoke to all our classes about online safety.

He spoke to our KS2 classes about the dangers of speaking to people online. He gave the example of a person who superimposed a photograph of a teen on to images in order to fool a teenager to meet them. When the teen went to meet this person they were faced with a 50 year old man, as opposed to their teenage friend who they thought they were meeting.

He highlighted the fact that they were unlikely to speak to people they do not know outside, so why would it be ok to speak to people they don’t know online.

We also spoke about age limits and that these are to help protect people from being exposed to something that is inappropriate or could make us worried.

The Kidsafe rules of speaking to a trusted adult were reinforced during this session.

Food Bank Assembly - 27th November 2023

Stuart from the food bank came in to school today. He brought along his friend

Norman, his rabbit. They were talking to us about friendships. 
Stuart challenged two of the pupils to eat smarties using a very long spoon. The pupils found that this was impossible, however they could both enjoy the smarties if they fed them to each other!
 

Stuart also told the children about the biblical story where a man who was unable to walk was carried by his friends to be healed by Jesus. This was only possible with the help of his friends.

Stuart and his friend Timmy the tin of tuna then explained how they help people at the food bank.