Supporting the S.P.H.E. curriculum

SUPPORTING S.P.H.E. CURRICULUM

POSITIVITY WEEK

At the beginning of February we held a Positivity Week in school for all in our school community. The purpose of this focus on positivity was to provide some balance to the pervasive news of economic gloom, bad weather and media coverage of international disasters, gang violence etc. Often children are too aware of such serious issues and can sense the effects of adult stress and worry. The basic idea is to get everyone to laugh a little more and generally be nice to one another. Activities included,

Complementing and encouraging each other, young and old
Painting a ‘Smile’ on your face – be brave, wear it to and from school
Good news Newstime
School assembly – name, identify and sing happy birthday to children and staff whose birthday it is
Photo display of staff when they were children in primary school – Guess Who?
‘Stand-up’ joke telling sessions in class or assembly
Spotlight on Good Work board
‘Homework–off’ vouchers for anyone ‘caught’ being positive by the Principal
Co-operative learning – using team games to engage children to learn while having ‘fun’

At the end of out Positivity Week we all felt a lot happier, confident and relaxed. We will continue to strive to be positive in our daily routine and don’t forget, pass the smile!

STAY SAFE PROGRAMME

Stay Safe is a personal safety skills programme which aims to:-

give children the skills necessary to enable them to recognise and resist abuse/victimisation.
teach children that they should always tell an adult about any situation which they find unsafe, upsetting, threatening, dangerous or abusive.
develop children’s self-esteem, assertiveness and self-protective skills.

At St. Patrick’s NS we teach the Stay Safe programme one term per cycle. For more information see www.staysafe.ie

WALK TALL PROGRAMME

The Walk Tall programme is designed to give primary school pupils the confidence, skills and knowledge to make healthy choices, particularly in relation to illegal and legal substances and prevent the misuse of such substances.

At. St. Patrick’s NS we teach the Walk Tall programme one term per year. For more information see www.walktall.ie.

RSE PROGRAMME

Aims of our RSE Programme:

To help young people develop healthy friendships and relationships
To promote a healthy attitude to sexuality and to relationships
To enhance the personal development, self-esteem and well-being of the child
To develop and promote in the child a sense of wonder and awe at the process of birth and new life
To enable the child to be comfortable with the sexuality of oneself and others while growing and developing

At St. Patrick’s NS we teach the RSE programme one term per year. For further information please see our policy on Relationships & Sexuality in our policy section.