Focus Weeks
Our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, & Economic Education) curriculum programme is integrated into a Focus Week schedule which is an exciting and imaginative scheme designed to combine the teaching of important themes – across a wide range of spiritual, moral, social and cultural topics – alongside a sense of competition, engagement and fun.
Our PSHE lessons are integrated into our tutor time programme and comprise of a weekly 25minute lesson. In addition, Key Stage Three students engage in our Enrichment programme as part of their DT rotation of subjects to cover key PSHE topics.
Furthermore, our Focus Week programme sees a theme being addressed throughout the week via tutor times and assemblies which is then extended by specific events, celebrations and trips. There could be a tutor group competition with fantastic prizes or a student-led assembly presenting the topic, a trip to a related landmark or a special guest talking to students. These are mapped to include PSHE topics, as well as broader curriculum priorities including British Values, SMSC, Careers, Every Child Matters, etc.
Furthermore, specific Focus Weeks will have PHSE Drop Down Days for set Year groups so that age-appropriate PHSE is delivered at set points of the year; whether it be sex and relationships, drugs or online safety. All sessions are mapped against the PHSE Association’s Programme of Study (Key Stages 1-5).
There is a Focus Week for every week but this year’s half-termly highlights include:
1st Autumn Half-Term
Festival of Ganesh Charturti (Hinduism)
The House Year Ahead
Black History Month
World Heroes – Gandhi]
Sexual Health Week
Child Poverty Day
Stress Awareness Week
2nd Autumn Half-Term
Remembrance
Anti-Bullying Week
Road Safety Week
International Men’s Day
Antarctica Day
British Heroines – Ada Lovelace
House Celebration 1
1st Spring Half-Term
Baptism (Christianity)
National Green Juice Day
National Story-Telling Week
Holocaust Memorial Day
Safer Internet Day
2nd Spring Half-Term
Crime Awareness Week
LGBT History Month
National Day of Unplugging
National Careers Week
House Celebration 2
1st Summer Half-Term
Worlds Health Day
World Heroines – Josephine Baker
National Bucket Day List
Pet Week
Red Cross & Red Crescent Day (Christianity & Islam)
National Vegetarian Week (Buddhism)
Be A Millionaire Day
2nd Summer Half-Term
World Reef Awareness Day
Shavuot (Judaism)
World Blood Donor Day
National Armed Forces Day
World Well-Being Week
Summer Safety Week
House Celebration 3
Each of the Focus Weeks are celebrated on our website newsfeed and our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts – look out for details…
More widely, our 2023-2024 programme is leaning towards the following foci:
School Life / Routines Catch-Up
To ensure that – in response to the historic de-socialisation and lack of routines through COVID lockdowns – we continue to re-embed and build-on the school routines, expectations, standards and events so that normality arrives quickly and actually comes back better than before.
Well-Being / Mental Health
To ensure that guidance on what to do, how to do it, and where to get support are clear and reinforced.
Equalities
To ensure that issues relating to Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and other equality campaigns are considered and respected for their over-riding messages whilst also considering the confusing and at times contradictory messages around them. This connects to our SMSC Quality Mark.
Environmental Awareness
To ensure that students are aware of the world around them and their own responsibilities for protecting the global environment. This connects to our Eco-School Quality Mark.
If you require further information on our Focus Weeks then please contact Helen Barratt, Assistant Headteacher, via office@friaryschool.co.uk.
