Welcome to the Festival of Thought! As the PSHE lead in our school, I’ve always been deeply intrigued by the inner workings of the human mind and the profound impact that introspection and contemplation can have on individuals of all ages. Over the years, I’ve dedicated myself to creating spaces where people can explore the bigger questions about life and the world around them without fear of judgment or repercussion. Many years ago, I introduced the concept of the ‘Festival of Thought’ within our school—a dynamic and interactive space divided into different areas to cater to various aspects of thinking. Here, both children and adults alike are invited to reflect, let go, question, and engage with the deeper issues that often go unaddressed in our daily lives. The Festival of Thought revolves around three main themes: Thinking About Ourselves: This area encourages self-reflection and introspection, allowing individuals to explore their personal values, beliefs, and emotions in a nurturing environment. Thinking About Our Communities: In this section, we delve into topics related to our immediate surroundings and the communities we belong to, fostering a sense of connection and responsibility towards one another. Thinking About the Wider World: Here, we broaden our perspective and consider global issues that impact us all, from environmental sustainability to social justice and beyond. The success of the Festival of Thought has been truly remarkable. The insights and reflections shared by participants—whether they be pupils, staff members, or governors—have provided invaluable guidance for our school’s PSHE planning, ensuring that our curriculum remains relevant, responsive, and impactful. We have since recreated the Festival of Thought on multiple occasions, finding it to be an invaluable tool, particularly during challenging times such as the pandemic. Our pupils and staff members alike have found solace and catharsis in expressing their thoughts and feelings, especially after our return to school once Covid restrictions were lifted. To give you a glimpse into the magic of the Festival of Thought, I’ve shared a video documenting our first and most recent iterations. These videos capture the essence of our journey—from humble beginnings as an experimental concept to a powerful tool for fostering meaningful conversations and connections. While you can find some resources for creating your own Festival of Thought on here, I highly encourage you to tailor the experience to suit your school’s unique needs and the individual needs of your pupils. Feel free to reach out to me if you’re interested in further support or professional development in this area. Join us at the Festival of Thought as we embark on a journey of exploration, discovery, and growth. Together, let’s ignite the spark of curiosity and inspire conversations that have the power to shape our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and the world we inhabit. Enjoy!

I have created this resource to support transition between year 6 and 7 but it could be a great ice breaker for a new KS2 class. It focuses on identifying and sharing core values and core skills.

Two lesson presentations introducing the protected characteristics to your UKS2/LKS3 classroom. There are resources included for both lessons that you can adapt to suit your class. One of them is a child friendly version of the equality Act that I downloaded from here https://crae.org.uk/. I followed them up with the sequence of lessons challenging gender stereotypes. Please let me know how you got on with the resources.

I adapted this progression in thinking document to support curriculum enrichment in our school. A few years ago, we wanted to make philosophical enquiry the focus for our cross curricular creative curriculum. This document enables teachers to confidently plan in lots of age appropriate thinking and talking opportunities. Children are instinctively curious about life. Growing up raises lots of questions, some to do with their experience, both the good and the bad, and some to do with their sense of wonder at the universe we live in. Many of our children have an interest in exploring how these ideas and experiences help them to develop their own sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose. We expect our children to think, so we need to teach them to do so. it is important to encourage them to explore thinking using all facets of their cognitive ability and respecting their amazing capacity to engage with high levels philosophical debate from a very young age. In each classroom we have a thinking and talking book displayed in a designated ‘reflection’ space. We have a philosophical question displayed, for example: Would an octopus make a good lifeguard? or There are two doors, one with yes written on it and one with no. Which door do you go through and why? In the book we write philosophical questions linked to the curriculum, for example: Can one person change the world? What does it meant to be free? What makes an everyday hero? We also introduce the topic using thinking skills activities like alphabet analysers, thinkers keys and jigsaw reveal. To provoke discussion, elicit prior knowledge and to engage the children in the subject giving them the curiosity to become independent learners. I have included an example of resources that I have adapted to support thinking in my classroom and across our school. I hope you enjoy them. Please leave feedback and a review if you do. Kind Regards, Mrs Beth Reynolds

I have been practicing different forms of mindfulness for over twenty years and have found these techniques to be a valuable method for remaining focused, calm and successful. I began teaching mindfulness as I am keen to share the benefits with others. When I am teaching, I find mindfulness is a great technique to foster in the classroom as it can create a calm and positive learning environment for both myself and the children. For several years I have been teaching children, adults and families, focused mindfulness techniques. I have always been a personal advocate of using these techniques to help us find more joy in our day to day lives. This is one of the main reasons for creating this workbook, 7 Days of mindfulness. I want to share with you some of the techniques I use regularly, the reasons I use them and the benefit of regular mindful practice. I am a teacher with an interest in promoting positive mental health in young children, teenagers and in young adults. However, I think children and young adults of all ages can enjoy my 7 days of mindfulness. Here are the audio links to accompany. https://soundcloud.com/minibee/sets/7-days-of-mindfulness-by-beth (some of the audios are unavailable as they are in edit) Please enjoy and if you find them useful, please like my resource and leave a comment. I am also interested in any feedback, how you found the session went and anything I could improve. Please feel free to send a private message if you have any questions. Kind regards and happy breathing, Beth Reynolds :) If you are interested in training to teach Mindfulness, check out: my website: bethreynolds.uk

I am posting these on behalf of Stephanie Bowgett. Stephanie is a retired teacher who worked for two years as a consultant for the Black Children’s Achievement Programme funded by the DFS. They produced loads of teaching materials to supplement the curriculum, all at public expense which were free on the National Strategies website, all lost or archived as soon as there was a government change. Most of us will remember this trauma. The following resources are part of a collection that were developed to encourage group discussion, questioning and looking at probabilities. They include strategies from the sister EAL programme designed to develop academic language and draw heavily on Philosophy for Children. All tried in classrooms in Kirklees. The following resources and other resources in the collection (see my shop) include Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Pablo Fanque, Mae Jemison, Anansi in Africa and Jamaica, a wall display of Black inventors and audits of the environment and curriculum to identify Black representation. There are several PowerPoint assemblies, including Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Ruby Bridges, Sarah Breedlove Walker, Willard Wigan, Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy. Useful sets of photos if nothing else. Stephanie has shared them so if anyone can use them they are welcome, they were paid for by the tax payer!

I am posting these on behalf of Stephanie Bowgett. Stephanie is a retired teacher who worked for two years as a consultant for the Black Children’s Achievement Programme funded by the DFS. They produced loads of teaching materials to supplement the curriculum, all at public expense which were free on the National Strategies website, all lost or archived as soon as there was a government change. Most of us will remember this trauma. The following resources are a part of a collection developed to encourage group discussion, questioning and looking at probabilities. They include strategies from the sister EAL programme designed to develop academic language and draw heavily on Philosophy for Children. All tried in classrooms in Kirklees. The resources found here and in the collection (see my shop) include Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Pablo Fanque, Mae Jemison, Anansi in Africa and Jamaica, a wall display of Black inventors and audits of the environment and curriculum to identify Black representation. There are several PowerPoint assemblies, including Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Ruby Bridges, Sarah Breedlove Walker, Willard Wigan, Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy. Useful sets of photos if nothing else. Stephanie has shared them so if anyone can use them they are welcome, they were paid for by the tax payer!

I am posting these on behalf of Stephanie Bowgett. Stephanie is a retired teacher who worked for two years as a consultant for the Black Children’s Achievement Programme funded by the DFS. They produced loads of teaching materials to supplement the curriculum, all at public expense which were free on the National Strategies website, all lost or archived as soon as there was a government change. Most of us will remember this trauma. The following resources are part of a collection, developed to encourage group discussion, questioning and looking at probabilities. They include strategies from the sister EAL programme designed to develop academic language and draw heavily on Philosophy for Children. All tried in classrooms in Kirklees. The following resources and others in this collection linked to this (see my shop) include Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Pablo Fanque, Mae Jemison, Anansi in Africa and Jamaica, a wall display of Black inventors and audits of the environment and curriculum to identify Black representation. There are several PowerPoint assemblies, including Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Ruby Bridges, Sarah Breedlove Walker, Willard Wigan, Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy. Useful sets of photos if nothing else. Stephanie has shared them so if anyone can use them they are welcome, they were paid for by the tax payer!

I am posting these on behalf of Stephanie Bowgett. Stephanie is a retired teacher who worked for two years as a consultant for the Black Children’s Achievement Programme funded by the DFS. They produced loads of teaching materials to supplement the curriculum, all at public expense which were free on the National Strategies website, all lost or archived as soon as there was a government change. Most of us will remember this trauma. The following resources are a part of a collection that were developed to encourage group discussion, questioning and looking at probabilities. They include strategies from the sister EAL programme designed to develop academic language and draw heavily on Philosophy for Children. All tried in classrooms in Kirklees. The resources here and other linked resources (see my shop) include Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Pablo Fanque, Mae Jemison, Anansi in Africa and Jamaica, a wall display of Black inventors and audits of the environment and curriculum to identify Black representation. There are several PowerPoint assemblies, including Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Ruby Bridges, Sarah Breedlove Walker, Willard Wigan, Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy. Useful sets of photos if nothing else. Stephanie has shared them so if anyone can use them they are welcome, they were paid for by the tax payer!

I am posting these on behalf of Stephanie Bowgett. Stephanie is a retired teacher who worked for two years as a consultant for the Black Children’s Achievement Programme funded by the DFS. They produced loads of teaching materials to supplement the curriculum, all at public expense which were free on the National Strategies website, all lost or archived as soon as there was a government change. Most of us will remember this trauma. The following resources were developed to encourage group discussion, questioning and looking at probabilities. They include strategies from the sister EAL programme designed to develop academic language and draw heavily on Philosophy for Children. All tried in classrooms in Kirklees. They include Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Pablo Fanque, Mae Jemison, Anansi in Africa and Jamaica, a wall display of Black inventors and audits of the environment and curriculum to identify Black representation. There are several PowerPoint assemblies, including Muhammad Ali, Walter Tull, Ruby Bridges, Sarah Breedlove Walker, Willard Wigan, Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy. Useful sets of photos if nothing else. Stephanie has shared them so if anyone can use them they are welcome, they were paid for by the tax payer!

I deliver mindfulness lessons to 7-11 year olds and during the lessons I use lots of models to represent the process of mindfulness. The glitter jar is one of those tools that has proven to be a big hit with the kids. This is just a set of simple instructions to make a jazzy glitter jar. I hope you enjoy this resource, if so let me know. Enjoy :) EDIT: Remember to use biodegradable glitter

I created this presentation as a way to help my year 4 children to better understand and identify the many different feelings they have, to be able to name them specifically and to enable them to better express themselves when they have a problem . This is also an excellent way to develop emotional vocabulary for story telling. I hope you enjoy this resource, please let me know if you find it useful. Thank You :)

Are you new to the role of PSHE and want a template to help you write whole school planning for your school? In a recent moderation, this panning was viewed as exemplary so you will find this a great start. My advice is to think about your school and how you can weave and embed the PSHE and RSE curriculum into all areas of the curriculum. Included, is a year by year overview of PSHE planning from early years to year 6, our school policy documents and a skills and knowledge planner. This should provide a great start to anyone new to the role.