PSHE & PPA
Recognising how our behaviour impacts others and understanding the potential outcomes
We believe it is important for young people to be given the opportunity to learn from experience. By letting young people role-play negative and positive outcomes of challenging scenarios, we give them a safe way to experience risks and learn from their mistakes.
This results in those children having a strong memory of those consequences and allows them to make an informed decision when faced with that choice themselves in the real world.
Reporting their experiences to a trusted adult
Children experiencing a problem many not want to explicitly tell an adult what is happening to them, often it can be easier to talk about the character, what they are experiencing and decide an appropriate resolution for them. This can elevate the embarrassment of discussing a personal problem, or the worry about getting told off for discussing it in at all.
Resolving challenges, working through problems and finding strategies for self-help
We believe in helping children generate their own tools to resolve problems, ones which work for them. By working with young people creatively they go on a journey of discovery, understanding their own emotions, developing empathy for others, and learning how to build strong, trusting relationships. We know that children need to learn to look after themselves and those around them, so we are dedicated to helping them on that path.
Performance
An engaging, 30 minute performance showing characters experiencing a turbulent journey of moral dilemmas (e.g. anti-bullying). The characters are a visual representation of what the audience may be experiencing / potentially could experience in the future.
Teachers often feedback to us that the performance gives them the ideal platform to have open discussions with their students, and if difficulties arise to remind them of what the characters experiences,
or most commonly as an early intervention tactic before troubles surface.
By viewing a performance the audience are left with a visual memory of situations they may come across, this is valuable because the students can:
Performance and Workshop
An active, fun and interactive workshop gives children an opportunity to explore the various themes highlighted in the performances.
‘Learning and understanding takes place when the student explores various roles, investigates different aspects of human relations, and takes independent decisions while in the role‐play setting. Scaffolding takes place when the student builds on knowledge and experience through looking for solutions and problem solving.’
All of the activities within the workshop are design specifically to lead participants on a journey of learning. The different elements of the workshop transition to each other smoothly, allowing a learning experience which is progressive and full of self-discovery. Often teachers praise the way their students learn a multitude of lessons without seemingly realising it.
We are able to help participants feel at-ease and comfortable, giving them the space to discuss their thoughts and opinions, and the time to reflect on their learning.
Cognitive development takes place when children gain new experiences and make discoveries. As development progresses, the child gains experience which enables it to deal with new conditions and circumstances. Cognitive constructivism is based on the idea that students learn by building on previous knowledge and are active in creating new understanding. To be able to learn, the student must be an active participant in the process of understanding, knowing, and achieving.
Follow on Workshops
We believe that continuing the learning a set period of time after initial work has taken place, is a hugely impactful way to reinforce and cement positive outcomes.
We can also monitor the effectiveness of the learning by measuring how much the students have retained.
Often with this model of practice, the teachers have identified a group of young children for varying reasons:
- The children may be in particular need e.g. they may be susceptible to becoming involved in bullying others, needing the lesson of impact and consequence taught again.
- The children may be particularly influential in their class and teachers may choose to ask these students to be the leaders of the subject with in their class.
Champion Training
Working with identified children within the setting we conduct champion training for a variety of different reasons:
- Older students learning to educate younger students on particular subjects e.g. training secondary school children on safer internet knowledge and accompanying them to primary schools to repeater that learning to the students.
- To give students the knowledge and responsibility to be peer mentors within their school.
Teacher Training
We believe that teachers are some of the most important people in the world – and that they truly have one of the most challenging jobs. We aim to give teachers the tools to use creativity within their teaching methods, helping them with engagement and innovative ways to discuss challenging topics. We do not claim to be experts in their field by any means, but we can help by sharing our practice.
In our experience, often teachers are not provided with enough time or resources to teach PSHE subjects. Even though 100% of teachers that we speak to believe that a social and emotional education is a priority, it is still not a mandatory subject in schools.
We can creatively share our practice to teachers, helping them to incorporate a different style of learning into their everyday.
Parent Engagement Programme
We believe that a whole rounded approach to teaching challenging subjects is necessary. Having parents, their children, and their teachers all singing the same tune is vital to cementing positive, lasting learning. We work with schools to engage parents in the subjects we teach to children, gathering information on how they feel and their input – and relaying that information back to the school.
Where possible we prefer children to present their learning to their parents, which gives added value in the parents leaning.
Anti-bullying
Click Here to read more about our work to support Young People in Anti-bullying including lesson plans, workshop days and parent assemblies.
Online Safety
Click Here for more information about our work to support Young People in Online Safety including lesson plans, workshop days and parent assemblies.