What is Personal Development?
Personal development is all about growing and learning to become the best version of yourself. Just like how plants need water, sunlight, and care to grow into beautiful flowers, personal development is about giving yourself the things you need to grow and become the best person you can be.
Personal Development is woven in to all aspects of school life at Chacewater School we pride ourselves on providing an environment for all pupils to thrive and mature into well-informed young adults.
The Ten areas of Personal Development at Chacewater School are:
Relationship Health Sex Education:
Chacewater School works hard to develop positive, respectful, healthy relationships. Relationships are integral to the Relationship Policy (positive behaviour policy), and as the basis of how we support children to develop at our school.
PSHE
As well as Relationship & Sex education, other aspects of PSHE teaching and learning includes:
Wider safety: How to minimise common risks: road, safety, medicines, strangers. At Chacewater School we also have visits from the RNLI, Police, Fire Officers.
Economic: Through our Discovery Education units, children are taught about making sensible choices with money, how to keep it safe, savings, taxation and pensions.
Technology and media: Different forms of media and their impact, reliability of online content, risk in sharing content. Online safety from a part of the computing curriculum) and is supplemented by Natterhub units too.
Citizenship
During our whole school assemblies and at other times too, we teach children that each member of our school is special and valuable. Through this, we aim to develop a common understanding of why schools need rules – to make people feel safe and happy (see British Values – Rule of Law). The language of the school is that we are all make mistakes and that ‘Chacewater School is a safe place to make mistakes’. Things go wrong, plans don’t always work out and we mess up sometimes. It is how we deal with them, move on and put it right, as well as being honest about the part we played, which is important. We talk about honesty and integrity, and the ‘gut’ feeling in the stomach when something is not right, and where to seek help or guidance.
Being part of a democracy (linked to British Values) is a crucial part of being a British Citizen.
There is also an understanding shared within the community, not only in Chacewater but in the national community, that people belong to different ethical, religious or pressure groups and may have views and beliefs which may not be aligned to our own. Embracing positive aspects of a range of backgrounds can only enhance our own community and give opportunity to learn more. Being in a largely monoculture community, staff are aware to present children with opportunities to discuss different identities within a community and inspire curiosity to find out more.
Contributing as a citizen is explicitly referenced to throughout the year: Harvest Festival, Comic Relief, Sports Relief and Children in Need, as well as visiting the elderly for Christmas musical afternoons.
In the history, geography and RE curriculum, the importance of society and citizenship is learned, as well as groups which have different beliefs. Debate and discussion are encouraged, within the safe and explicitly taught boundaries of the classroom, showing tolerance, acceptance, respect as well as appropriate challenge.
Character
At Chacewater we take great pleasure and pride in celebrating when children achieve great things. Whether these be small steps or great feats, children know that our Celebration Assembly is an opportunity to share our achievements. It is clear from this ethos that success and achievements comes as a result of hard work, determination and resilience.
Progress leading to achievement is celebrated, rather than solely attainment. whether this is in the classroom, in sport, music or socially, there are many ways to excel and there is an ethos of being the best that you can be.
In the relationship policy, it is clearly that the level of aspiration is high – in terms of behaviour, manners, courtesy, respect, as well as approaches to learning. All staff are responsible for ensuring that these high expectations are consistent in all areas of the school, regardless of job role, age of children and time of day.
We work hard to ensure movement around the school is calm and orderly. Children are able to respond quickly to signals to quieten for instruction and for pulling everyone together.
We’re proud of our school uniform and encourage children to show pride in their personal appearance, their learning environment and their school. We expect children to be polite to one another and when speaking to adults around school too. Tidy presentation of learning in books is something we encourage all children to aim for and support those who find this challenging. There is a consistent promotion of pride in belonging to our school community.
At Chacewater School there are a range of different school clubs which children can sign up to termly. There is a range of sporting, art, media, IT, and musical opportunities and several more. Staff support children who may have different needs to have places to enhance their personal development, as well as overcoming any social barriers, or difficulties with parental engagement. There is a fair distributed participation across all vulnerable groups, and across the range of activities which can be accessed.
Clubs also give an opportunity for staff to share their strengths and passion, and to work with children who may have strengths within these areas as well as developing new areas of strengths and interests.
Each year there is at least one opportunity for each year group to go on an educational visit to enhance their Curriculum learning. Children in Year 6 look forward to their annual residential trip too. Families with who are financially disadvantaged are supported to attend the residential so that no child misses out.
British Values
The four aspects of British Values are part of our school ethos, explicitly taught in assemblies and modelled in our relationships and processes. Children are encouraged to discuss the importance of each aspect and why each is important and we often reference assembly stories or issues back to our British Values to help us better understand them.
Democracy: Democracy is practised at Chacewater when children have the opportunity to stand and vote for positions of responsibility – School Parliament Members. Democracy is explored in depth during children’s learning on Ancient Greece, what it means and how it started.
Rule of Law: Our school Learning Values: be Kind; be respectful; be honest; be brilliant are well established and referred to as positive markers of our relationships with one another. Children understand that we have rules to keep us safe and happy. We often relate our school rules to the law and understand that we have laws in our country to keep us safe.
Individual Liberty: Children understand that because of the sensible nature of law making (i.e. to keep us safe) we have the freedom to make our own choices. As long as we respect the rights of others, then we are free to pursue our ambitions, free from limitation and discrimination. In the UK our Human Rights are protected by law. At Chacewater, we encourage children to have passions and be passionate. We encourage them to have views and to make their own decisions and stand up for what they believe in.
Tolerance and Respect: Children at Chacewater have the understanding that mutual respect is understanding that we do not all share the same beliefs and values. We help children to understand and respect the values and beliefs of others whilst not imposing our own. For our children in their immediate context, it is possibly about having a view on a particular issue, or liking a particular style of music, and ensuring that a lack of respect is appropriately challenged. In the wider context, staff are aware of the largely monoculture catchment of Chacewater and challenging stereotypes, ensuring that correct information is learnt and exposure to diversity across the curriculum is crucial to our children’s lives.
Inclusion, Equality and Diversity
Children at Chacewater School understand that no one should be treated differently/less favourably because they belong to a specific group. It is also discussed that it may appear that some groups of children are treated unfairly, but children with different needs may need different levels of support.
The Nine Protected characteristics are introduced through the wider curriculum, as well as through English, in particular class readers, in which groups with protected characteristics are often represented and explored.
The Equality policy is key in developing an understanding of inclusion across the school.
The Nine Protected Characteristics are: Age, Disability, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Reassignment, Marriage and Civil Partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race, Religion and Belief
These are often shared with children in a broader sense through our class stories and assemblies. Themes from the Nine Protected Characteristics are discussed and explored with children as points of learning and ways building positive relationships with one another.
SMSC
Spiritual: faiths and values are not only taught explicitly through our RE Curriculum, but also celebrated in assemblies and the cultural diversity within each classroom through the staff knowledge of the children. Creativity is celebrated and children have the opportunity to appreciate the natural world we live in, awe and wonder through the extensive outside environment and the beautiful local area: Millennium Green; Community Garden. Additionally, through our PE Curriculum and our focus on ‘healthy body, health mind’ we teach children how important physical activity can be to spiritual wellness. Specialist visitors, trips and experience days all help to provide children with spiritual opportunities.
Moral: Through the relationship policy and the school ethos, there is an understanding of right and wrong, humans make mistakes, but also honesty, integrity and doing the right thing. All staff are involved in challenging behaviours which appear not to be right, and support children in understanding different options in behaviour. Children know that there are consequences for behaviour. Our school approach to behaviour is positive. We focus on improving behaviour and support in getting it right in the future, opposed to a focus on sanctions.
Social: Positive relationships are at the foundation of our school. We invest considerable time and energy in building and teaching positive relationships with all of our children and families.
Cultural: The Chacewater School community are aware of the lack of cultural diversity within the school, but also celebrate Cornish culture and how this shapes us: festivals, traditions and deep history. Staff are aware to present positively and knowledgeably about a range of culturally religious, ethnic and socio-economic communities as part of our curriculum learning, assemblies and experience days.
