Personal Development

Personal Development at Leigh Academy Mascalls intends to foster the holistic growth of every student, nurturing their self-awareness, character, well-being, and social responsibility. Through a comprehensive and inclusive approach, we aim to equip students with the essential life skills, values, and aspirations needed to be resilient in the face of challenge and learn pursue their passions in a caring and principled manner. The outcome is that our students will be able to lead fulfilling lives as members of modern British society.

The Personal Development Programme

INTENT

The Personal Development curriculum at Leigh Academy Mascalls encompasses: Healthy Minds lessons covering PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education), RSE (Relationships and Sex Education), Character Development lessons at KS5 and The Advisory Tutor Programme (PSHE, Citizenship and Fundamental British Values). The Careers Programme also makes up our Personal Development offer for students.

All subject areas are built upon prior knowledge, which gradually develops deeper thinking and knowledge through our spiral curriculum. The intent of this has been purposefully designed to support all students in their journey to become a well-rounded citizen prepared for life in modern contexts ranging from local, regional, national to global. The curriculum has been well designed to support the following areas:

Developing responsible, respectful, active citizens who are able to become actively involved in life as an adult.
Deepening pupils’ understanding of the Fundamental British Values.
Promoting equality of all, ensuring equal opportunities and creating an environment where all pupils can thrive, regardless of race, religion, gender, belief, age, disability or sexual orientation.
Developing the character of pupils, allowing opportunities to reflect on their own progress and conduct to help flourish in society.
Providing the knowledge and understanding to make healthy choices, related to diet, eating and relationships.
Providing compulsory sex education for all pupils, following the guidance from the Department of Education with support from PSHE association.
Supporting pupils’ with the knowledge to understand what they need to do to reach and succeed in the career which they aspire. We use the Unifrog platform to support all students, parents and carers also have access to the platform to further support students at home.

Very similar to curriculum subject areas, we have a spiral curriculum whereby we examine what life skills and knowledge students need to learn to be successful in the modern world. Our PSHE programme is not static, and can be adapted to meet the contextual needs of particular cohorts of students. Our Key Stage 3 programme provides a wide coverage of important knowledge, strategies and case studies to help students in areas such as emotional resilience, mental health, online safety, careers and safe relationships. This is further developed in our Key Stage 4 and 5 programmes, where students consider topics in a more detailed way in preparation for adult life, including finances, consent, healthy relationships and citizenship.

The pastoral programme enriches cultural experiences for pupils, allowing them to discover their own heritage, values and shared beliefs, promoting a culture of mutual respect and tolerance for all. Many pupils willingly take part in and respond positively to key events such as whole school mock elections, sports day, drama performance shows. Celebrating diversity is commonplace within the personal development curriculum, such as Black History Month and LGBTQ+. We also aim to help students engage in current affairs, through weekly advisory sessions looking at some of the most important local, national or global issues of the week.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our PSHE and SRE delivery is based on the PSHE Association Principles of Excellent Teaching:

Being taught in a safe classroom environment
Starting from where students are in terms of their existing knowledge, understanding,
skills, beliefs and attitudes
Being taught in a non-judgmental way
Being grounded in realistic scenarios but not personal experiences
Avoiding attempts to induce shock, fear or guilt
Challenging unrealistic social norms

Lessons will be varied in approach and delivery, including a mixture of discussion based learning, video clips and written tasks. Scenario based learning features heavily too, allowing pupils to apply knowledge learnt to situations that could occur during their own lives. We will ensure that all lessons, including those that may be sensitive, maintain a positive atmosphere ensuring a factual approach is adhered to, avoiding shocking or distressing information. Scenario based learning will also assist pupils in developing skills for “real life” situations. We will support pupils in making links to their learning by adopting a spiralled approach and regularly using recap tasks to ensure the retention of knowledge and skills. In addition, collaborative planning via a shared google drive to ensure all pupils receive the same learning experience. This is implemented through the planning of high quality lessons that are shared with other staff. In addition staff have access to support materials to ensure that curriculum requirements are met and subject knowledge is developed through the right sources. In addition, curriculum resources are carefully created and reviewed to ensure maximum engagement and participation by all students.

IMPACT

Our Personal Development curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We measure the impact of our curriculum in the following ways:

Pupils demonstrating a positive attitude towards people and show an understanding of cultural beliefs different to their own.
Pupils demonstrate respectful behaviour to all and this is transferable outside of school in the wider community and beyond, including through support of charity events
Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
Book scrutinies
Google forms which produce quizzes with a particular focus on: knowledge recall and communication through answering a range of application questions

Key Contacts:

Vice Principal for Personal Development - Miss Honey

Educational Visits - Mr Toal

Extra-curricular programme - Mr Cornwell

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