At Brierley Hill Primary School, we believe that PSHE is fundamental to developing confident, respectful, and responsible individuals who are prepared for life in modern Britain. Our curriculum is structured around Jigsaw PSHE, adapted to follow the CUSP teaching cycle, ensuring:
💡 A knowledge-rich approach – Embedding explicit vocabulary instruction and key concepts.
🔄 Retrieval and fluency focus – Using connect cycles to revisit and reinforce knowledge.
🗣 Oral rehearsal and partner discussion – Encouraging pupils to articulate their thoughts, emotions, and reflections.
🤝 Social and emotional development at the heart – Ensuring pupils develop resilience, self-regulation, and positive relationships.
🏅 School values embedded in PSHE – Reinforcing ambition, perseverance, respect, and excellence in personal development.
🌍 Real-life application – Ensuring pupils learn practical skills for life, relationships, health, and well-being.
Our ambition is that every child leaves primary school as a responsible, emotionally intelligent individual with the skills to navigate relationships, challenges, and opportunities with confidence.
In EYFS, PSHE is embedded within the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) for Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED), ensuring children develop:
🧠 Self-regulation – Learning to manage emotions and behaviour appropriately.
🤝 Building relationships – Understanding fairness, kindness, and turn-taking.
💡 Managing self – Developing independence, perseverance, and responsibility.
Through structured play, guided activities, and rich discussion, children:
This early focus ensures that children enter Key Stage 1 with strong social and emotional foundations
We follow the Jigsaw PSHE Framework, adapted to align with CUSP principles, ensuring a carefully sequenced progression of learning.
✅ A knowledge-rich curriculum – Focusing on explicit teaching of concepts and vocabulary.
✅ A structured progression model – Ensuring key themes are revisited, deepened, and applied.
✅ Whole-school values embedded into PSHE – Encouraging pupils to reflect on their actions and choices.
✅ Practical and real-life applications – Teaching pupils how to stay safe, form positive relationships, and develop self-awareness.
Each unit of Jigsaw PSHE is taught using the CUSP teaching cycle, ensuring knowledge is systematically embedded and recalled.
| Jigsaw PSHE Puzzle | Key Theme | |
|---|---|---|
| Being Me in My World | Identity, belonging, responsibility | |
| Celebrating Difference | Diversity, respect, anti-bullying | |
| Dreams and Goals | Ambition, resilience, perseverance | |
| Healthy Me | Physical and mental well-being, safety | |
| Relationships | Friendships, family, emotions | |
| Changing Me | Personal growth, RSE, transition |
Each PSHE lesson follows a structured CUSP-inspired cycle, ensuring pupils develop deep, meaningful understanding.
🔄 Pupils recall previous learning to strengthen retention.
📖 Vocabulary recall – Revisiting previously taught terms and definitions.
🗣 Explicit teaching of PSHE language, ensuring pupils can articulate emotions, relationships, and social concepts.
💡 High-level discussion prompts, encouraging pupils to engage with complex social ideas.
🎭 Role-play, storytelling, and scenario discussions help children apply learning in real-life contexts.
🤝 Partner talk ensures pupils articulate their ideas clearly before whole-class discussion.
📖 Writing or verbal reflections, applying the lesson’s key themes.
🎨 Creative tasks (e.g., mind maps, posters, personal goals).
🛡 Practical safety skills – e.g., online safety, road awareness, managing conflict.
🌍 Community links – Understanding diversity, tolerance, and respectful interactions.
By following this teaching cycle, we ensure that PSHE is not just discussion-based but knowledge-rich, vocabulary-driven, and grounded in real-world application.
At Brierley Hill, PSHE is not just a weekly lesson – it is embedded into our whole-school culture.
Pupils are celebrated for demonstrating ambition, perseverance, respect, and excellence in their social interactions and personal growth.
Pupils engage in:
🗨 Partner talk and structured discussion to help pupils articulate emotions.
📖 Thinking Hard questions to challenge perspectives and encourage deep reflection.
By embedding PSHE into daily school life, community engagement, and whole-school initiatives, we ensure that pupils develop not only knowledge but the ability to apply it in real-life situations.
📊 Reflective journals – Capturing pupil responses to PSHE lessons.
🗣 Oral discussions and partner talk – Assessing articulation of social and emotional learning.
🏆 PSHE awards linked to school values – Celebrating pupils who demonstrate key attributes.
🔄 Formative questioning and structured reflections – Checking for conceptual understanding and personal growth.
Assessment in CUSP PSHE is not about data but about personal development, ensuring that every child progresses in emotional literacy, social skills, and confidence.
By the time pupils leave Brierley Hill Primary, they are:
🤝 Confident in relationships – Understanding how to build, maintain, and repair friendships.
🛡 Emotionally resilient – Able to manage emotions, self-regulate, and seek support when needed.
🌍 Respectful, tolerant citizens – Understanding diversity, inclusion, and social responsibility.
💡 Equipped with life skills – Ready for secondary school and the wider world.
PSHE, rooted in Jigsaw but adapted to enhance fluency, vocabulary, and retrieval practice, ensures that every child leaves primary school emotionally intelligent, socially aware, and confident in their personal development.
For more details, including:
📌 Jigsaw PSHE Planning with CUSP Adaptations
📌 PSHE Vocabulary Progression Overview
📌 Community and Real-Life Learning Opportunities
Please contact our Curriculum Lead, Tom Amphlett, at info@brierleyhill.dudley.sch.uk.