Curriculum Enrichment and Personal Development

At St Mary's C of E Primary School, we are committed to providing a purposeful and empowering curriculum that fully prepares learners for the next steps in their school career and the wider world. We want our children to aspire to achieve and believe that it is essential that they understand the world they live in. Broadening our children’s horizons and giving them the belief that they are capable of achieving great things drives our curriculum. Our Personal Development offer gives the children the knowledge and understanding they need make informed choices and to be a positive influence in the communities that they belong to. 

Today’s children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also includes challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, and how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. Our aim is to develop skills and attributes such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, team-working and critical thinking.

Personal Development is woven in to all aspects of school life at St Mary's C of E Primary School and we pride ourselves on providing an environment for all pupils to thrive and mature into well-informed young adults. Our PSHE curriculum underpins this aim in the context of three core themes: relationships, physical health & mental wellbeing and living in the wider world (including economic wellbeing and careers education).

We aim to embrace the many talents and interests of our pupils and offer a vast amount of extra-curricular opportunities based on our pupil voice.  We want our learners to feel empowered with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities. We aim to give our learners the knowledge and tools they need to understand how to take care of themselves, physically and mentally, and how they can stay safe and thrive in an ever changing world. 

Our curriculum, ethos and inclusive approach at St Mary's C of E Primary School fully supports the personal development of each and every pupil. Children are nurtured and encouraged to develop attributes such as confidence, resilience and independence as well as an understanding of British Values in order that they are fully prepared for life in 21st Century Britain, and indeed, the world. Equality and diversity are promoted and celebrated throughout school and we are very proud of a curriculum which equips our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding to lead happy, safe and healthy lives whilst enabling them to develop their talents and strive for their goals.  In an age appropriate way, we help the children manage their lives, now and in the future, and help them to learn every day, essential, life skills, including:

• The development of self-understanding, empathy and healthy, productive relationships
• Relationships education
• Eating healthily
• Keeping safe on the road
• How to stay safe on the internet
• The promotion of good mental health

In keeping with our core Christian values, the children are encouraged, and frequently reminded, to speak to a trusted adult when they have any concerns or worries.   Our whole school approach  promotes effective relationships between all members of the school community. The promotion of pupils’ personal and social development underpins other learning. Personal Development education contributes to assists children and young people to build their personal identities, confidence and self-esteem and understand 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.

Enrichment

Throughout the school year, we plan quality enrichment experiences to bring our Personal Development curriculum to life, here is a flavour:

• Power2Inspire
• The Fire Service
• Berlesduna Trust Competitions
• Road safety experts working with pupils
• Chris Connaughton, Author in Residence

• Places of worship

• NATRE Spirited Art competition

• Matt Mackman, Artist in Residence

• Specialist Teachers from the Secondary School

Courageous Advocacy

Courageous advocacy is defined by the Church of England as “the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard.” At St Mary's C of E Primary School we encourage and support our children to become courageous advocates who believe that they can become ‘agents of change’ to strive towards a fairer and more joyous world. This means that they champion causes that are special and meaningful to them; connected to matters and concerns personal and close to home for them or linked to wider global issues.

All acts of courageous advocacy at St Mary’s are driven by our school’s Christian vision. Children act together with a purpose that people may live happily together in unity.  Courage is one of our core Christian values and is at the heart of all actions and decision making by children and adults. Another core Christian value is community. We actively promote the value of serving God and by doing that, serving others in the school, local and global communities.

Anti-Bullying

St Mary's C of E Primary School promotes an environment of calmness, tolerance, respect and understanding where all of God's children can flourish.  We actively promote an environment in which pupils feel safe, and in which bullying, discrimination and peer-on-peer abuse – online or offline – are not accepted and are dealt with quickly, consistently and effectively whenever they occur. 

Our curriculum actively teaches pupils how to behave with consistently high levels of respect for each other and adults.  Adults are very effective role-models for pupils.  Pupils play a highly positive role in creating a school environment in which commonalities are identified and celebrated, difference is valued and nurtured, and bullying, harassment and violence are never tolerated.

Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)

RSE teaching at St Mary's C of E Primary School teaches children to develop values, attitudes, personal and social skills, and increase their knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions and choices when they are adults. Each year group will be taught appropriate to their age and developmental stage.

Why do we teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)?

There are four main aims of teaching RSE:

• To empower children to be safe and safeguarded.

• To enable children to understand and respect their bodies

• To help children develop positive and healthy relationships appropriate to their age and development

• To support children to have positive self-esteem and body image

St Mary's C of E Primary School chooses to teach Sex Education and Section 405 of the Education Act 1996 provides the right of parental withdrawal from the RSE provided at school except for those parts included in the National Curriculum.  The Science curriculum in all maintained schools also includes content on human development, including reproduction, which there is no right to withdraw from.