Personal Development is at the heart of our school learning journey.  It encourages and embeds a range of skills that allow children to develop "learning for life".

As part of a whole-school approach, personal development supports the qualities and attributes children need to thrive as individuals and as members of society. Personal development prepares them to manage opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face growing up in a rapidly changing world.

It also helps them to connect and apply the knowledge and understanding they learn in all subjects to practical, real-life situations while helping them to feel safe and secure enough to fulfil their academic potential.

The promotion of pupils’ personal and social development underpins other learning. PD assists our children to develop their personal identity, confidence, self-esteem and reflect on what influences their decisions. Developing self-understanding, empathy and the ability to work with others helps our pupils to enjoy healthy and productive relationships in all aspects of their lives.

How we develop these skills

We support the children to manage their lives, now and for the future in an age appropriate way. By helping them to grow in resilience and learn essential life skills, through:

• Our core Christian values and virtues
• Our learning powers of resilience, reflectiveness, resourcefulness, teamwork
• Developing pupils’ character, giving them qualities they need to flourish in society
• A rich, broad and enquiry led curriculum is in place which helps to embed the knowledge and skills for personal development into every day
• A daily act of Collective worship supporting personal and spiritual development
• Big enquiry questions support PD and the focus on these ‘critical skills’ by providing opportunities to debate and analyse situations from multiple viewpoints within our school curriculum.
• Opportunities to grow in Spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) are woven throughout the entire day throughout the curriculum
• Promoting British values, including democracy and preparing pupils to become active members of society
• Opportunities to have a voice within class debates, votes, school council 
• The development of empathy and healthy, productive relationships through Relationships and PSHE Education
• Eating healthily
• Keeping safe on the roads
• How to stay safe on the internet/online
• The promotion of good mental health
• Promoting equality and diversity so that pupils respect others, as well as promoting tolerance and understanding of different religious and cultural beliefs
• Children are introduced to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, RRE school
• Through learning about Fairtrade, children develop a sense of being connected with others globally and this helps them to develop the sense of being a global citizen
• Supporting children’s personal development to becoming articulate, empowered citizens who make a difference to others
• Wider community/citizenship work e.g. support for a variety of Charities
• Opportunities to develop talents e.g., specialist music teacher, after-school clubs run by Premier Sports and a variety of clubs through the year e.g. Choir/song writing, Art, Nature/Gardening
• Performing to a variety of audiences in and outside of school- virtually and in person.
• Pupil leadership roles: Peer mentors, School Council, Fairtrade Reps, Play leaders, Librarians, Sports leaders, Junior road Safety, Cyber ambassadors

Visits and workshops
Throughout the school year, we are fortunate to have various visitors to help bring our Personal Development curriculum to life, including visits from:

The Police, The Fire Service, The School Nurse service, Road safety training-Bikeability, Charities e.g. NSPCC, Winchester Beacon, speakers and experts in their field, e.g. pilots, artist, farmer, composer, professional rugby player  

Children have opportunities, throughout their time at the school, to have rich, varied experiences and trips and also attend a residential trip by the coast in years 5 and 6.

Children develop their ‘cultural capital’ that prepares them for future success e.g. working with experts through valuable links and projects with organisations such as the Anvil Arts, The Grange Festival Opera, HMS. 

Behaviour and Anti- Bullying

We set high expectations for pupil behaviour and conduct, including punctuality and attendance. Preston Candover CE Primary School promotes an environment free from threat, harassment and any type of bullying behaviour by:
• Ensuring all members of the school community have an understanding of what constitutes bullying
• Creating an atmosphere and environment where children, parents and staff feel able to tell the school about bullying if it arises and are confident it will be taken seriously and dealt with
• Having clear procedures for dealing with incidents of bullying

In keeping with our School ethos, the children are encouraged, and frequently reminded, to speak to a trusted adult when they have any concerns or worries.

Emotional Literacy (ELSA) support
We have additional pastoral support for pupils from our ELSA at the school.

Living the Values awards and learning power awards

Each week pupils from across the school are presented with awards for actively living our school values and learning powers.

High quality professional development for staff

We are committed to high-quality, ongoing staff CPD so that all staff can build and support pupils’ personal development. For example, training from our Educational Psychologist and Leader in Me.

We assess the impact of Personal Development in several ways including teachers’ planning, lesson observations, pupils’ books alongside discussion and feedback from children, staff and parents.

Achievements in the development of skills and values will be celebrated in a number of ways including in Collective worship/assemblies, displays, newsletters. Parents and carers are informed of their child’s progress in personal development through informal discussions, parent consultations and the annual school report.

Useful links:

NSPCC, Childline, PSHE Association

Place2Be https://www.place2be.org.uk/

Anna Freud Centre https://www.annafreud.org/parents-and-carers/