Humanities
Religious Education at The Orchard Centre is designed to provoke challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
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It offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development. It enhances students’ awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, as well as of the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures.
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RE has an important role in preparing young people
for adult life, employment and lifelong learning.
It enables students to develop respect for
and sensitivity to others, in particular those
whose faiths and beliefs are different from their own.
It promotes discernment and enables students to combat prejudice.
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At KS4, students follow the AQA GCSE in Religious Studies (Specification A), studying units on:
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Christianity
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Sikhism
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Relationships and families
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Religion and life
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Religion, crime and punishment
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Religion, human rights and social justice
Lawnswood Campus
The Orchard Centre
Lawnswood Campus
Nightingale Home and Hospital Service
RSHE
Intent
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At The Orchard Centre we believe that teaching a quality RSHE curriculum allows pupils to attain the knowledge, characteristics and skills to keep themselves safe and healthy, and to prepare for living and working within the local and wider community. The Jigsaw RSHE scheme of work supports learners to reach their academic potential and equip them with the skills for adult life, by focusing on building resilience, emotional literacy and nurturing physical and mental health.
Implementation
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Jigsaw offers a comprehensive Programme for secondary PSHE including statutory Relationships and Health Education, in a spiral, progressive and fully planned scheme of work, giving children relevant learning experiences to help them navigate their world and to develop positive relationships with themselves and others.
Jigsaw consists of six half-term units of work (Puzzles), each containing six lessons (Pieces) covering 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)
Every Piece has two Learning Intentions, one specific to Relationships and Health Education (PSHE) (in purple) and the other designed to develop emotional literacy and social skills (in green)
Impact
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By the time our children leave our school they will:
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Be on their way to becoming healthy, open minded, respectful, socially and morally responsible, active members of the community and wider society.
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Be able to approach a range of real life situations and apply their skills and attributes to help navigate themselves through life in modern Britain.
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Be able to develop positive, healthy relationship with their peers both now and in the future.
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Have respect for themselves and others.
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Appreciate difference and diversity.
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Be able to label, understand and manage their emotions.
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Understand the physical aspects involved in RSE at an age appropriate level.
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Be able to look after their mental health and well-being.
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Have an improved or positive self-esteem.
Subject overview
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There are 6 half-term units (Puzzles) in each year group from ages 11-15 (UK Years 7-10), and 4 units (Puzzles) in ages 15-16 (Year 11) (to allow for the reduced teaching time because of examination season).
The Puzzles, sequenced and developmental from the beginning to the end of the school year, are thus:
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Autumn 1: Being Me in My World
Autumn 2: Celebrating Difference
Spring 1: Dreams and Goals
Spring 2: Healthy Me
Summer 1: Relationships
Summer 2: Changing Me
Ages 15-16, just 4 Puzzles:
Being Me in My World
Dreams and Goals
Healthy Me
Relationships
Each Puzzle has a Big Question, encouraging a philosophical approach as well as providing a focus to be reflected upon as the Puzzle progresses, another way to assess learning progress and become aware of how opinions may be changing with added learning.
All the statutory requirements for RSHE are met across the ages 11-16 programme, and Jigsaw PSHE is aligned with the NCFE (Northern Council for Further Education) RSHE Awards, allowing students to gain external accreditation for their work in this subject without creating extra planning for teachers.
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6 lessons in each Puzzle
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Each Puzzle has a Puzzle Map showing the overview of the 6 lessons with their Learning Intentions and 6 lessons (Pieces) comprising:
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a one-page lesson plan overview
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a slide show with teacher notes and student activities
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What does Jigsaw 11-16 cover?
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Jigsaw’s spiral curriculum covers:
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all the outcomes in the DfE statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education guidance (England 2019)
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all the outcomes in the PSHE Association Programmes of Study (2020)
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all set within an inclusive, comprehensive and holistic whole-school PSHE/HWB Programme across regions.
Mapping grids showing where and how these outcomes are built in are built into each Puzzle and available from the Community Area, including a snapshot summary of the content of each Puzzle. Further to this, Jigsaw has a strong safeguarding thread running throughout and a clear focus on positive mental health and respect for self. The mindfulness practice is a key aspect of this.
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The Approach
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The approach throughout Jigsaw starts from the assumption that young people want to know this information and are keen to have the opportunity to explore it and their own thoughts and feelings about it in a safe environment.
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Jigsaw expects student engagement and takes an inclusive and mature approach to the subject. We do not skirt around the issues young people need to know about in order to keep themselves safe and make well-informed choices. Some issues could be considered sensitive, so teachers need to know their students as well as possible and be vigilant to signs of anyone needing pastoral support should any of the lessons be particularly pertinent or raw for anyone.
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The Jigsaw Charter, a set of ground rules, is established at the beginning of the programme and reinforced at the beginning of every lesson to help create and maintain a safe learning environment.
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Fundamentally, this is created by the nature of the relationship the teacher can build with the students. This can be challenging but is essential if students are to gain as much from the lessons as possible.
