Why do we teach Personal Development?
The Personal Development curriculum aims to impart skills and knowledge to pupils to enable them to make safe, healthy, and happy choices in life and to shape the next generation of British society with a strong sense of community. An intended by-product of pupils’ increased understanding of relationships, social skills, morality, British Values etc. is better access to the academic curriculum; pupils explicitly learn how to work together, discuss topical issues respectfully, consider the moral implications of dilemmas faced by characters in the stories that they read or the historical figures that they study.
All aims of the Personal Development curriculum work towards the development and flourishing of human goodness.
Our approach
At Ark Tindal, we recognise the importance of the influence that a rigorous and inclusive Personal Development curriculum can have on the lives of young people. We strongly believe that not only is it our moral responsibility to develop our pupils beyond the academia, but it is also key to our pupils’ future success and life chances.
There are many parts to Personal Development at Ark Tindal:
To make sure that all of our commitments are met, we teach an in-depth PSHE curriculum that covers objectives within other areas of Personal Development; for example, citizenship is taught through the PSHE curriculum. PSHE is taught weekly and every year group covers the same three themes, building pupils’ knowledge & understanding incrementally and sequentially each year. These three themes are:
- Health & Wellbeing
- Relationships
- Living in the Wider World
Character Education
In order to be happy and live a good life, experience fulfilment, develop morality and build the practical knowledge and wisdom to make the best choices in life, good character must be intentionally developed.
The school’s approach to character underpins the school vision of inspiring ‘all children to flourish into confident, successful and well-rounded individuals.’ We believe that character is developed through the teaching and practice of virtue. By teaching our pupils about virtues and providing a platform to practise and develop their use, pupils at Tindal learn to become virtue literate, using their understanding and experience to make meaningful choices.
To reflect the significance of character and virtue in school, character is woven into the entire curriculum, with each subject considering what opportunities to develop character exist so that pupils can talk about and reason with virtues in English, History, Geography, Science and across the whole curriculum. To encourage the development of the language of virtue, classes are named after virtues:
|
Nursery |
Love |
|
|
Reception |
Kindness |
Creativity |
|
Year 1 |
Curiosity |
Honesty |
|
Year 2 |
Gratitude |
Forgiveness |
|
Year 3 |
Empathy |
Responsibility |
|
Year 4 |
Humility |
Courage |
|
Year 5 |
Civility |
Determination |
|
Year 6 |
Autonomy |
Integrity |
Aims of our Personal Development curriculum
- Impart skills and knowledge to pupils to enable them to make healthy, safe and happy choices in life
- Develop pupils’ character and sense of morality so that pupils gain the practical wisdom to be virtue literate, flourishing into happy, confident and well-rounded individuals as stated in the school’s vision statement.
- Ensure that pupils have a solid grasp of defining features of British citizenship such as British Values and awareness of legislation that promotes equality in modern Britain
Year 1 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
Roles of different people |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
What rules are |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
Keeping healthy |
|
Year 2 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
Making friends |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
Belonging to a group |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
Why sleep is important |
|
Year 3 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
What makes a family |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
The value of rules |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
Health choices and habits |
|
Year 4 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
Positive friendships (including online friendships) |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
What makes a community |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
Maintaining a balanced lifestyle |
|
Year 5 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
Managing friendships and peer influence |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
Protecting the environment |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
Healthy sleep habits, sun safety & medicines |
|
Year 6 - Personal Development
| Autumn | |
|---|---|
|
Relationships; civil partnership & marriage |
|
| Spring | |
|---|---|
|
Valuing diversity |
|
| Summer | |
|---|---|
|
What affects mental health and ways to take care of it |
|