Personal and Social Development

Learning Journey

Rationale

PSD allows students to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepare for life and work in modern Britain. It helps students to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage many of the critical opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face as they grow up and in adulthood.

By teaching students to stay safe and healthy, and by building self-esteem, resilience and empathy, we can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged students.

PSD includes RSHE (Relationships, sex and health education) and can also help to address teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity, and emotional health and wellbeing. The skills and attributes developed can help to increase academic attainment and attendance rates, particularly among students eligible for free school meals, as well as improve employability and boost social mobility.

To be successful independent learners, children and young people need regular opportunities to reflect on and identify what they have learned, what needs to be learned next and what they need to do to continue their learning. Teachers also need to be clear about the progress and achievements of the students they teach, and how their learning might be improved. Students are encouraged to self-reflect at the end of each topic and complete reflection sheets and short pieces of work which demonstrate their learning.

Content

Personal and Social Development is taught across all years and follows guidance from the PSHE Association. The content and topics chosen are based on the context of our school and the needs of our students.

Three core themes are explored:

Relationships
Healthy Lifestyles
Living in the Wider World – including careers

Concepts

Identity (their personal qualities, attitudes, skills, attributes and achievements and what influences these; understanding and maintaining boundaries around their personal privacy, including online)
Career (including enterprise, employability and economic understanding)
Power (how it is used and encountered in a variety of contexts including online; how it manifests through behaviours including bullying, persuasion, coercion and how it can be challenged or managed through negotiation and ‘win-win’ outcomes)
Change (as something to be managed) and resilience (the skills, strategies and ‘inner resources’ we can draw on when faced with challenging change or circumstance).
Rights (including the notion of universal human rights), responsibilities (including fairness and justice) and consent (in different contexts)
Diversity and equality (in all its forms)
Risk (identification, assessment and how to manage risk, rather than simply the avoidance of risk for self and others) and safety (including behaviour and strategies to employ in different settings, including online in an increasingly connected world.
A healthy (including physically, emotionally and socially), balanced lifestyle (including within relationships, work-life, exercise and rest, spending and saving and lifestyle choices)
Relationships (including different types and in different settings, including online)

Students have weekly PSD lessons which are delivered by their form tutor. In addition students in Year 7, 8 and 9 have PSHE lessons once per fortnight for an hour. This enables more content to be delivered and themes explored in further detail. Year 10 and 11 students may opt to take GCSE Citizenship.

The school also addresses PSD in a number of ways including through other subjects in the curriculum, assemblies, tutor times, theme weeks e.g. Anti-Bullying and through two themed days: Healthy Lifestyles and One World Day. Further extra-curricular opportunities come from PiXL Edge, Duke of Edinburgh and Mindfulness.

PSD provides opportunities to consider SMSC, as well as focus on Prevent.