PATHS
Overview:
PSHE helps to give pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become informed, active, responsible citizens.
PSHE is delivered throughout the Federation through the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) programme. This programme is designed to promote social competence, awareness and understanding, as well as facilitating educational processes in the classroom.
Conceptual Units
The PATHS® Programme for Schools (UK Version) Curriculum includes four conceptual units. The units are:
- Emotional understanding
- Self-control
- Social problem solving
- Peer relations and self-esteem
For All Children#;
There are four major factors that are addressed by focusing on self-control, emotional understanding, problem-solving skills and creative self-expression.
- First, we teach children to “Stop and Think”, a response that facilitates the development and use of verbal thought.
- Second, we provide children with enriched linguistic experiences which will help mediate understanding of self and others.
- Third, we teach the children to integrate emotional understanding with cognitive and linguistic skills to analyse and solve problems.
- Fourth, and very critically, we encourage the development of verbally mediated self-control over behaviours
In our schools:
The PATHS curriculum within the Federation is embedded across the school from Reception to Year 2. We have ensured that all EYFS & KS1 classes have access to feeling faces within the classroom to allow the children to show us how they are feeling throughout the day.
- All classes and MSAs have emotion/feelings faces in their lanyards to support pupils to identify their emotions in situations across the school day.
- Each day a child in every class is selected as the PATHS Special Person. This child has special responsibilities and privileges and receives a compliment slip as part of the PATHS programme. Compliments come from both the staff and their peers and they take this home to then be added to by their family.
- All classes have a PATHS display, PATHS’ pupil of the day/Special Person, Feelings poster, and individual pupil emotion key rings to access and display how they are feeling.
- PATHS lessons are taught weekly throughout the Federation. These lessons are designed for each year group and contain activities using pictures and photographs. The lessons use a range of teaching methods such as stories, role play, puppets and adults modelling behaviour to the children. The lessons are relevant to the children’s individual experiences as they encourage pupils to recall personal experiences, feelings and thoughts to make informed choices.
- Teachers evaluate and assess the children in PSHE/PATHS termly.
- Within the EYFS continuous provision to develop each child’s personal, social and emotional skills is evaluated daily through observations.
