What Is Jigsaw?
Teaching that prepares our pupils for life
At Cestria we aim to enable the young people in our charge to become well rounded, not just in academia, but socially, emotionally, and mentally as well. In order to promote this, over the course of the school year, pupils from Reception through to Year 6 participate in a range of lessons and activities linked to PSHCE/RSE. (Personal, Social, Health and Citizen Education/Relationships and Sex Education)
The JIGSAW scheme connects the pieces of the PSHCE/RSE puzzle through PSCHE/RSE education, the development of emotional literacy, the nurturing of social skills and the introduction of spirituality.
Resources
Each year group completes the same piece of the puzzle during the same time of the school year: Alongside JIGSAW, the school incorporates PSHCE/RSE into everyday school life. Themes covered are as follows.
- Autumn Term 1 – Being me in my world
- Autumn Term 2 – Celebrating difference
- Spring Term 1 – Dreams and goals
- Spring Term 2 – Healthy me
- Summer Term 1 – Relationships
- Summer Term 2 – Changing me
From a pupil’s point of view, the Jigsaw resources provide an opportunity for peer to peer or whole-class discussion. There are also opportunities for individual work as well. All of the activities build on the themes and encourage the children to use and develop a range of cross-curricular skills such as speaking, listening and writing. Each pupil is given an opportunity to develop and grow as an individual and as part of a community and to be able to understand who they are and how they relate to other people in the classroom, year group, school and their families. From a School perspective Jigsaw also complements and reinforces the work that is carried out in our Classroom Book Based Assembly Schedule.
Mindfulness
Following the ‘JIGSAW’ scheme of work, pupils take a mindful approach to PSHCE/RSE. On what sometimes can often be busy days, these few minutes of calm, provides opportunity for the children to focus their mind and body. Also checking their emotions through mindfulness, really has helped the children. The impact was been more than just setting the tone for the lesson, but also actually about helping the children to stop and focus.