Personal Development at Charles Darwin School

What is Personal Development? Charles Darwin School, in partnership with parents and the community, has a vital role in preparing children and young people to negotiate the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex world. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also challenges and risks. This area is constantly changing so we use student feedback through surveys, feedback from the school council and student voice as well as emerging local and national needs to support student personal development.

Personal Development should deal with real-life issues affecting our children, families and communities. It is concerned with the social, health and economic realities of their lives, experiences and attitudes (including relationships), therefore should support pupils to be healthy (mentally and physically), safe (online and offline) and equipped to thrive in their relationships and careers.

Our personal development programme aims to build character within our students, embracing The Darwin Mindset, which includes Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication. A person’s ‘character’ develops over time and in a range of contexts and is shaped by unknown and unpredictable events. We aim to provide a variety of opportunities to develop character-based skills and attributes, striving to make a difference to outcomes for children and young people.

Parents’ and carers’ support is important to the success of our personal development programme. Students are encouraged to talk about the curriculum with parents and carers.

Why is Personal Development Important?

Personal Development at Charles Darwin School should…

• Contribute to physical and mental health and wellbeing, encouraging individual responsibility for health.
• Contribute to the safety and protection of our children and young people, from staying safe online to understanding risks associated with drugs and alcohol and knowing the law surrounding these topics.
• Contribute to the information young people need to help them develop healthy, nurturing relationships of all kinds, not just intimate relationships, and know boundaries within the law.
• Promote independence, resilience and responsibility — preparing children and young people for future roles as parents, employees and leaders.
• Support employability by developing the personal and social skills demanded by commerce and industry.
• Support pupils to be critical consumers of information, and develop the skills to identify misleading news or views on social media and elsewhere.

How is Personal Development taught

As a school, we operate a whole school approach to Personal Development and appropriate topics are explored through a combination of timetabled lessons (once a fortnight at KS3), individual subject areas, tutor time and assemblies. Subject areas contribute to certain topics such as Biology in Science and aspects of relationship and health education arise in RE, English, Drama, PE and Food Technology. In key stage 4 this is taught through a range of 18 drop-sessions within the core subjects, covering RSE, PSHE, money management and SMSC areas. We use data from the Bromley SHEU survey to ensure that we are connected to the emerging needs of student personal development. At all key stages there are drop-mornings in the timetable at key points each term. The focus of these us year group dependent.

A wide range of teaching methods are used that enable students to actively participate in their own learning. This includes the use of case studies, research, role-play, video, quizzes small group discussion and use of appropriate outside agencies (from assembly presentations to year group drop days to occasional use of drama productions).

Teaching is conducted in a safe learning environment through the use of ground rules and techniques such that students feel comfortable, that they will not be judged or put on the spot, or expected to discuss their own personal issues in class. Teaching resources are selected on the basis of their age appropriateness to students.

The Personal Development curriculum is underpinned by the ethos and values of mutual respect, and we uphold it as an entitlement for all our students. We recognise the need to work with parents and carers to ensure a shared understanding of Personal Development and to deliver an effective and personalised programme that meets the needs of our students.

The school believes that students should have opportunities to have their genuine questions answered in a sensible and matter-of-fact manner. Teachers will use their skill and discretion to decide about whether to answer questions in class and, if so, how. They will establish clear parameters of what is appropriate and inappropriate; they will follow the school behaviour for learning policy and discuss ground rules with students by taking an approach that encourages students to be mature and sensible, reinforcing the behaviour curriculum of SLANT, SPACE and STEPS.

Personal Development through PSHE lessons cover a wide range of topics and curriculum areas based on the three core themes of:

• Health and wellbeing
• Relationships
• Living in the wider world

Health Education aims to give each child the information they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing, to recognise issues in themselves and others, and to seek support as early as possible when issues arise.

Topics include:

Mental wellbeing

Physical health & fitness

Healthy eating

The changing adolescent body/taught through the science curriculum

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco (including vaping)/taught through PSHE and the science curriculum

Internet safety and harms/taught specifically through the computer science curriculum

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) will explore what healthy and unhealthy relationships look like and what makes a good friend, colleague and successful marriage or committed relationship.

At the appropriate time moving through to key stage 4, the focus will move to developing intimate relationships, to equip your child with the knowledge they need to make safe, informed and healthy choices as they progress through adult life, increasing knowledge and awareness such as dealing with difficult relationships, coercion and domestic abuse, FGM, mysogeny and sexual health. We are a nationally recognised partner of the RSE group Tender. Students are involved in workshops and presenting to other students about RSE.

Topics include:

Friendship, including healthy respectful relationships

Online relationships

Family relationships

Boundaries in relationships

Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health

Living in the wider world (SMSC) aims to teach our young people how to be responsible citizens and possess the skills needed for the future. Living in the wider world explores a variety of aspects that prepare students for their future lives including:

Culture and diversity – for example our work across the school (lessons, PSHE, tutor time, assemblies and displays on Black History month)

Careers and other work-related Learning

Personal finance management

The political system in the UK and elsewhere

Current affairs in the wider world – visited through assemblies and tutor-based activities.

The end of the year is a celebration of personal development, with the personal development week. Students in year 7-9 take part in a wide range of trips and visits across London, the South east with some going overseas. We want students to develop cultural capital and character on these visits. Some students will stay in school, for team building opportunities. During this time year 10 students work on their CV, have careers meetings, mock job interviews and take part in work experience/work-shadowing.