Personal Development

Subject Statement:

Why is PSHE education important for students in our school?

 

Effective PSHE education supports the development of physically, emotionally and socially healthy young people, equipped to live healthy, safe, productive and responsible lives and to keep themselves and others safe. (PSHE Association)

At St Peter's we know that the personal development, risk awareness and gaining of life skills is incredibly important in order for our students to go on to be successful contributors to the local community.  We aim to provide students with an all-round education developing the whole person, which will serve as a basis for a successful and fulfilled future as students, employees, employers and parents. We aim to motivate students to learn, aspire and exceed in their examination results and develop core employment capabilities for adult life.  We are following the Cambridgeshire Personal Development Framework, which includes delivery of Citizenship and Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education.

We are developing a diverse and carefully mapped curriculum across years 7-13 which actively develops the students’ awareness of key issues and helps them to make positive choices in the future (for more information on the kind of topics covered please see the curriculum map in the drop down menu to the left).  With reference to the Cambridgeshire Children and Young People’s Health and Wellbeing Survey 2024, we focus on making educated decisions about alcohol consumption, contraception and healthy lifestyles, developing awareness of the dangers of smoking and drugs, and we encourage the consideration of British Values and the value of SMSC regarding LGBTQI+, relationships and bullying.

We want our young people to be healthy, both mentally and physically, form strong and safe relationships and develop an awareness about the world and their place within it. We address the topics of consent, protected characteristics and sexual harassment in our curriculum in all key stages.  When they leave us, we will have prepared them for the world of work and taught them the skills to be able to lead happy and healthy adult lives.  Personal Development is not formally assessed, but key questions from the Cambridgeshire Personal Development Framework are asked every lesson and retrieval tasks eg recap sessions, student voice activities, take place after completion of each unit – Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.  

Our achievement of the Healthy Schools’ award has supported developments within the RSE curriculum, such as increased opportunities for physical exercise at break and lunchtimes and a travel plan supporting sustainable and safer travel to school.

We aim to provide a bespoke Personal Development experience for students identified through safeguarding concerns eg supporting with counselling for those with mental health issues, and with youth worker input for those making poor behaviour choices in the community.

The design of our Personal Development program of study plans a spiral curriculum delivered in a variety of ways:

• In Key stage 5, through outside speakers, collapsed sessions in school and visits.
• In Key Stage 4, through a combination ofweekly lesson time, and events including outside speakers.
• In Key Stage 3, through a combination of weekly lessons, plus a weekly assembly, Prep times, lessons with cross-curricular links and visiting speakers.  Students have one lesson per week. 

Personal Development in Assemblies

As well as Personal Development lessons as part of our Personal Development provision students have the opportunity to access PD themes in assemblies throughout the year and also benefit from input from outside speakers who visit at different points in the school year.  SMSC activities, during Prep Time on a weekly basis, provide an additional way to encourage students to engage in thinking about current affairs of local, national or global concern, including issues relating to citizenship and relationships.