Category : PSHCE

Y4 have been having discussions about loneliness and considering the difference of being alone as opposed to being lonely.  All agreed that it is often nice to have some ‘Me Time’  alone doing the things we enjoy  (reading, colouring, drawing, listening to music, painting our nails, practising football skills  etc).  However, if an individual is lonely, the children agreed that this oftens brings about negative emotions such as sadness, despair, worry,  anxiousness and the feelings of isolation and exclusion.

Our task was to identify ways to  ‘Tackle Loneliness’ to both help and support an individual (or even ourselves) and improve wellbeing and self-esteem…

• Talk to someone you trust and share how you are feeling
• Join a club that you are interested in or take up a hobby
• Reach out to someone who feels lonely – Ask them how they are feeling and reassure them that help is there for them
• Be kind and be there to listen
• Think about all of your positive qualities – reflect on what you can do and be proud of who you are and what you have achieved
• Be kind to yourself – remember that you are special

We then created some fantastic posters promoting ways to tackle loneliness…

We now feel that we have the knowledge and a better understanding of how to tackle loneliness to help both ourselves and others if those feelings ever arise.

Y3 have been discussing this years theme of loneliness for Mental Health Week 2022.  We shared our own definitions of what loneliness means and how it can affect an individual’s wellbeing. The children then shared strategies for coping with emotions of sadness and worry and agreed that reaching out and sharing our feelings with others is a way to help ourselves.  We then recorded all of the individuals in our own lives that are there to support our own wellbeing and who we can turn to should we need a little help.

Y3 have been learning about the importance of our wonderful Emergency Services and how to make a 999 call should the need arise.  The children shared their opinions on when the Emergency Services should be called and all agreed that it should be when urgent assistance is required only.  We also learned that 112 can also be called to reach the Emergency Services too.

Here are some of the posters we created from this important lesson…

We also learned that when calling 999 that we should remain calm, speak clearly and give as much information as we can to get the help that we need.

In Year 4, we have been discussing the effects of smoking upon the health of those who choose to smoke, as well as the effects it has on those around them.

A posed scenario led to a little role play in Mr Morgan’s class whereupon Ricky in the scanarios was seen smoking by his younger siblings who he made promise not to tell their Dad. The promise was a little to hard to keep and Dad was told in the best interest of Ricky.

Here are some of the children in Year 4’s opinions of smoking…

We then discussed the reasons as to why people choose to smoke and identified that it is often as a result of peer pressure and wanting to fit in.

We all agreed that smoking is a habit that comes with many risks to our health and that having a better understanding of the impact and effects it has can help us to make better, healthier choices and say NO to being pressured into doing something we do not want to do just to fit in!!!

Our focus this term in our Healthy Me! unit of Jigsaw has so far enabled us to reflect on the friendships we have formed within the communities we belong to.  We discussed the fragility of friendships and agreed that to maintain a friendship we need to be tolerant, accepting, loyal, respectful, kind and forgiving. 

We then focused on Group Dynamics and how within groups there are often leaders and followers and that working together to be inclusive is a must.  Discussions then centred around a posed scenario about a P.E lesson whereby certain individuals took it upon themselves to take charge, one individual did not want to be part of the P.E lesson and so removed themselves from the situation and another had a valid contribution to make but was finding it too difficult to be heard or included.

The children then had to work collaboratively to identify the leaders, followers and by-standers within the posed scenarios group dynamic.

From this, we then compared our own group’s dynamics and found that we all took on differing roles where some of our peers became leaders, followers and bystanders. This led the children to conclude that they need to be more aware that everyone feels included and valued,  not only when working collaboratively as a group, but in all the learning activities we work upon within the learning environment.