Personal Development at St George's
Personal development at St George's Catholic Primary School is built upon the foundations of our Gospel and British Values which are ever present in our school Mission Statement:
Inspired by Gospel Values
And called to the fullness of life.
To learn and grow through faith, love, and laughter.
To be the best we can,
Showing Christ’s love in all we do.
These values underpin our school culture and every pupil’s daily school life.
Our personal development curriculum aims to go beyond the National Curriculum. It offers unique learning experiences which provide students with enriched cultural capital. By offering a varied and diverse set of experiences, we help to prepare students for life in modern day Britain.
Our personal development curriculum provides significant opportunities for pupils to engage in the following key areas of education:
- Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural
- Personal, Social, Health and Economic
- Character Development
- Pupil Voice and Peer Leadership
- Careers and Enterprise
Social, Moral, Spiritual & Cultural Development
Social Development
At St George's, social development enables our pupils to understand the rights and responsibilities of living in a community and being a responsible citizen.
We are committed to:
- Fostering the skill and qualities of team building through the development of self-confidence, co-operation, sensitivity to others, reliability, initiative and understanding
- Providing an environment where pupils can take responsibility for themselves and others in school and the wider society
- Acceptance and engagement with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
- Enabling pupils to develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain
At St George's, we promote social development through:
- Gospel Values
- British Values
- PSHE/SRE curriculum
- Pupil voice and peer leadership roles
- Sports Day
- Educational Visits
- Extra-Curricular activities
- Supporting the local community
Moral Development
At St George's, moral development enables our pupils to know what is right and wrong and to act on it accordingly.
We are committed to encouraging our pupils to:
- Be truthful and honest
- Respect the rights and property of others, their opinions and customs, even when they are different from our own
- Help others
- Solve differences of opinion
Consequently, we reject all forms of bullying, cruelty, dishonesty, violence and discrimination and have procedures in place for dealing with such instances.
At St George's, we promote moral development through:
- Our Catholic Faith in Action
- Gospel Values
- British Values
- PSHE/SRE curriculum
- School Mission and Vision
- Golden Time
- Collective Worship
- Supporting charities and fundraising
Spiritual Development
At St George's, spiritual development enables pupils to look within themselves, at their human relationships and the wider world.
We are committed to:
- Celebrating our Catholic Faith and our Catholic Mission
- Celebrating the religious and non-religious beliefs and values that our pupils bring as part of their family culture/heritage and to build an awareness of and respect for others’ spiritual and religious beliefs
- Fostering common human values and building spiritual capacities to promote self-worth, self-esteem and a valuing of others
- Helping our pupils to come to an understanding of themselves as unique individuals
- Developing our pupils’ curiosity, imagination, creativity and promoting a sense of awe and wonder.
At St George's, we promote spiritual development through:
- Our programme of Prayer and Liturgy
- Our whole school assemblies
- Class and celebration assemblies
- Class presentations
- School visits to places of worship
- Educational visits and visitors which inspire awe and wonder
- Themed days and weeks
- RE curriculum
- PSHE/SRE curriculum
Cultural Development
At St George's, cultural development enables our pupils to acquire knowledge and understanding of others’ cultural traditions. We value and celebrate the cultural diversity of our school and our society.
We are committed to:
- Promoting an appreciation of our own cultural tradition/s and encouraging an appreciation of other peoples’ cultural traditions
- Celebrating the richness of culture and tradition
- Providing opportunities for pupils to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities
At St George's, we promote cultural development through:
- Celebrating events
- Curriculum themed days designed to inspire, excite and inform the children for their upcoming topic
- Sharing children’s own personal experience
- Visits and visitors
- Music and Dance events
- Theatre Trips
- University Visits
Personal, Health, Social and Emotional Relationships Curriculum
At St George's, we use the PSHE Association scheme of work as the basis for our PSHE learning.
We aim to inspire pupil’s interest and curiosity to know more about how to live in the wider world. We want our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. We want them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a tolerant member of a diverse society. We encourage children to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. We aim to create lifelong learners who understand how to build strong and healthy relationships, manage their emotions and form positive beliefs, values and attitudes.
Relationships and Health Education (RHE)
At St George's, we use Ten:Ten Life to the Full to teach RHE.
Life to the Full is a Relationships and Health Education curriculum programme underpinned by a Christian faith understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God – created, chosen and loved by God. Through this programme, we aim for all children to be able to develop positive, healthy and fulfilling relationships as children and gain the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding to take them into a healthy and happy adult life.
Character Development
At St George's, we acknowledge that the experiences provided for children in their primary years has a major impact on their future wellbeing and success. It is for this reason, we have made a whole school commitment to the teaching and development of character traits, attributes and behaviours which underpin achievement and success; endeavouring to ensure that developing ‘character’ goes hand in hand with high educational aspirations and achievement.
Through our rich and exciting curriculum, we focus on teaching pupils to be their best selves, to take pride in their work, and to be positive members of the school, and greater global communities.
We want to create children who thrive on challenge, love learning, respect each other and have attributes that will ensure that they will be valued members of our society.
Our Values Assemblies teach pupils about the personal qualities valued in society. Assemblies also enable pupils to explore issues relating directly to rules, behaviour and bullying.
We hold a weekly Celebration Assembly where we celebrate children’s classroom achievements. Each week teachers choose pupils to receive certificates for a range of attributes, both personal and academic. In these assemblies we present Headteacher Awards, St George's Awards and celebrate any of our school team or individual sporting achievements.
Pupil Voice & Leadership Development
We believe that the views, experiences and influence of our pupils are a crucial part of our drive to continuously improve our provision. We therefore seek ways to listen to the views of our pupils and involve them in decision-making so that they are engaged as partners in the life of the school. We create meaningful roles for pupils to allow them to develop leadership skills.
Our Pupil Voice and Peer Leadership Roles are:
- Student Council
- Chaplains
- Safeguarding Champions
- Eco Warriors
- Reading Buddies
- Well-being Champions
Career Development & Enterprise
At St George's, we recognise the important role that is played by primary schools in enabling children to have high aspirations about their future through independent and impartial careers advice. As a school we endeavour to provide children with a range of meaningful experiences, visits and visitors to that teach them about the world of work and provide information about future careers.
Our aims are to:
- Aspire pupils to think of the future, increasing aspiration for all
- Develop and encourage a sense of ambition towards a future career
- Understand the basic skills and attitudes needed to be successful in the world of work and provide experiences of meaningful interaction with the world of work
- Provide high quality information from a wide variety of sources –curriculum lessons, growth mind set sessions, PHSE lessons, specific career sessions and visitors from a variety of careers
- Challenge all forms of stereotype (by background, gender or diversity groups) and preconceptions
- Develop self-evaluation skills and make plans for the future
- Increase knowledge of post 11 and post 16
