Welcome to Personal Development

1. Home
2. Personal Development

Enrichment and Extra-Curricular Calendar 2023-24

Personal Development Intent

The world is a rapidly changing and evolving place which means that our students will enter a society that requires them to have the necessary knowledge and skills to do the following:

• Understand a range of social and societal issues
• To have the knowledge to be able to navigate a range of risks they may encounter
• To be able to discuss and articulate ideas relating to their personal development
• To have the necessary cultural capital to access further employment, training or education well as academic qualifications to reduce any barriers to this

Our ambitious personal development curriculum is key to the personal development of our students. We passionately believe that our students have unlimited potential, and the development of their character is key. As part of this, the curriculum is planned based on powerful core knowledge delivering enhanced and enriched knowledge whilst encouraging our students vocabulary, oracy and reading skills. As part of developing culture, we have carefully integrated our responsibility foundations into our lessons, so students recognise the character skills they are developing. Personal development is a key part of developing our student’s cultural capital so they can interact and make a positive contribution to society.

Our curriculum has been carefully sequenced with clear thinking behind when topics are introduced to our students. We use student voice and links with our primary schools to help determine the correct starting point in Year 7. The knowledge builds up through all the key stages to equip our students with the necessary cultural capital to understand the constantly changing world around them.

Our curriculum is designed for flexibility so we can respond to emerging issues that are present in our school community, local community as well as national trends. As students progress through the curriculum, they may have more questions or seek support. We have signposted where students can access support whether in school through our DSLs or externally.

A key element of the Personal Development curriculum is Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) which from September 2020 the Government has made mandatory as part of statutory guidance. Parents and carers do have the right to withdraw students from RSE elements of the curriculum where alternative provision will be provided for those students on other aspects of Personal Development. If you would like to find out more or discuss any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the academy with regards to the Relationships and Sex Education content.

For further information regarding RSE in schools please refer to the government website.