Personal Development
Purpose of study
At New Horizons Seaside Primary we firmly believe that ‘Everybody Matters, Everybody Succeeds’ and so in line with this, we have developed ‘Personal Development’ (PD) to encompass the principles of PSHE, along with the government’s new Relationships Education curriculum. By enabling our children and young people to develop their own skills, knowledge and understanding of how to be who they are, understand the world they are growing up in and how to keep themselves safe in all areas of their world, we believe that we are giving each and every one of them the best chance for their lives ahead. Our curriculum has been designed with our children in mind and may vary in content to reflect the ever-changing world we live in.
Aims
The four cornerstones of Relationships Education (Primary) aim to ensure that all pupils:
· Recognise, develop and maintain healthy relationships with friends and family
· Conduct themselves safely online and know what to do if they feel worried
· Understand how to maintain a healthy lifestyle
· Develop an awareness of how to look after their emotional health.
Please use the link below to see the following policies:
1. NHSP Personal Development Policy (Combined Relationships Education / PSHE Policy)
2. NHSP RSE Policy (Relationships and Sex Education Policy)
Intent
At New Horizons Seaside Primary, our aim for the Personal Development curriculum is to reflect the school’s vision and values. At the core of this is to demonstrate and teach the skills, knowledge and understanding that pupils need to lead confident, healthy lives and to become informed, active and responsible citizens. Children will learn about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, sex, human sexuality and sexual health. Personal Development is taught in the context of relationships and promotes self-esteem and emotional health and wellbeing to encourage children to form healthy and meaningful relationships, based on respect for themselves and for others. New Horizons Seaside Primary believe in working in partnership with parents and carers so that the child’s physical, moral, mental wellbeing and emotional development can be supported at home.
Implementation
Personal Development is the backbone to our entire curriculum, the golden thread that runs through it and is an integral part of everything we do at New Horizons Seaside Primary. Not only it is seamlessly embedded within our non-core curriculum such as science, computing and physical education, it is also taught as a structured lesson, once a week in all year groups.
The SCARF programme we have adopted to deliver our Personal Development curriculum has been carefully selected to ensure that it covers all RSHE statutory requirements and because it meets the varying needs of our children. The spiral curriculum design allows children to develop their skills and learning year on year with each new topic building on the last. Children engage in discussions, debates and hands on activities which promotes positive behaviour, safety, achievement and wellbeing and supports pupil development in terms of our key DREAMS Attitudes for Life.
There are six key themes which are taught in every year group. These are:
British Values and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development are carefully woven throughout the Personal Development curriculum. This enables our children to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
We are passionate about delivering structured lessons which excite and motivate the children but to further enhance the personal development of all of our pupils, we have adopted a unique addition to our curriculum in the form of ‘Exploring New Horizons’. Please click the following link for further information:
https://www.seaside.w-sussex.sch.uk/exploring-new-horizons-118-curriculum
This initiative involves 118 experiences that we would like all our children to benefit from before they leave us at Seaside. Some of the activities link directly to our residentials which take place in Y4, Y5 and Y6 and many of them take place within school but they all aim to actively enhance the personal development of our pupils.
Our children learn how to become confident, ambitious and motivated young people, people who are aware of the world around them, people who have learnt to adopt our DREAMS Attitudes for Life. The pupils at New Horizons Seaside Primary achieve all of this whilst enjoying being a child by taking part in activities which involve them getting wet, muddy and most of all – having fun!
Impact
New Horizons Seaside Primary will assess the impact of the PD programme in several ways including lesson observations, teacher planning and book looks alongside discussion and feedback from both children and parents. The teaching and learning of PD will be continually reviewed allowing any changes that need to be made. Achievements in the development of skills and values taught through PD can be celebrated in a number of ways including assemblies, displays and weekly certificates. Parents and carers will be informed of their child’s progress in PD through informal discussions, parents evening and the annual school report.