Personal Development

What is Personal Development? 

Personal Development is everything the school does beyond the academic curriculum to help your child grow into a confident, healthy, and responsible individual. 

What do we believe about Personal Development (Intent)

At Northdown Primary school, we believe in the power of helping young people to understand and connect to themselves, those around them and the wider world.

We intend that every child develops the knowledge, skills and understanding to thrive personally. We want every child to feel they are valued and can contribute positively towards their community and the wider world. 

For this reason, we provide an education that reaches beyond the academic by ensuring our pupils have regular, cohesive and impactful opportunities to develop personally. 

How do we ensure every child thrives personally? (Implementation)  

Personal Development at Northdown is a cohesive journey; we provide a rich curriculum alongside meaningful opportunities that stretch across every area of school life to nurture the whole child. Explore the summaries of our Personal Development offer below: 

• Relationships, Social, Health and Economic Education (RSHE)

In line with statutory DfE guidance on Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE), we teach a carefully sequenced curriculum that empowers students to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health, and future relationships. As well as this statutory content, we cover ‘economic education’. This helps our pupils learn about money and finances. We use ‘Jigsaw RSHE’ to deliver the RSHE curriculum; this program ensures that our pupils learn how to stay healthy, safe, and happy as they progress through the school. You can read more about the specific learning for each year group in the curriculum subject tabs on this website or by exploring our RSHE Policy.

• Oracy education 

We provide weekly, structured opportunities for pupils to master the art of communication. Our Oracy curriculum is a key part of our Personal Development offer, ensuring every child has the capability, motivation and confidence to speak up and be heard. To find out more, visit the Oracy section of our website.

• Citizenship 

Each week, our pupils engage in citizenship workshops which develop cohesively as they move through the school. These sessions enable them to understand their role within the school community, local community and the wider world. 

• Values and character development 

Everything we do at Northdown aims to help pupils understand and develop their own unique character. As part of this, we teach our children about our core values of: Harmony, Curiosity, Courage, Determination, and Aspiration. To support this, we hold weekly assemblies that focus on the value of the term. We talk about, celebrate and model the core values every day, helping to embed these into our school culture. 

• Northdown Ambassadors 

We provide children the opportunity to lead through ambassador roles. This includes: Safeguarding Ambassadors, Smart Council Communication Team, Attendance Ambassadors and Opal Play Ambassadors. Read more about under the Personal Development tabs. 

• British Values 

All schools have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of: Democracy, The rule of law, Individual liberty, Mutual respect and Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These British Values thread through much of school life; however, we also host assemblies to help children understand the themes and how these can be embodied. See our British Values coverage map here. 

• Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) 

Our pupils develop in SMSC through a broad and rich range of experiences. Explore some of the ways they develop SMSC on our SMSC coverage map here.    

• Clubs and enrichment activities 

We provide a range of clubs for our pupils to experience and enjoy. This often includes: sports, arts and creative clubs, oracy clubs, social clubs and academic clubs. Each term, parents and carers receive a letter with information about the clubs offered and how to sign their child up. 

Enrichment opportunities are carefully sequenced across each year group to ensure all children have the opportunity to expand their horizons. This includes a range of workshops and trips related to their curriculum and learning. 

What is the impact of our offer? (Impact)

As a result of our Personal Development offer, we believe our pupils: 

• Engage in a rich and engaging range of experiences that enrich their lives now and in the future. 

• Develop the knowledge skills, and understanding about themselves and others to thrive and succeed personally. 

• Understand how to stay well and safe, manage risk and how to ask for help. 

• Learn how to contribute to their community and the wider world. 

• Develop self-regulation skills that support them in achieving their goals. 

• Learn about people and the wider world, helping them develop values such as curiosity, harmony and mutual respect.  

• Learn how to communicate in a range of contexts and with a range of people. 

• Develop self-regulation, motivation and aspirations for their future that help them flourish.