Personal development

Personal Development is at the heart of everything we do at Durrington and we believe that it should be at the centre of the pupil’s learning journey. Our aim is to support children to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. Personal Development helps pupils to thrive as individuals and build their own character through their primary education.

As a Church School, our Personal Development offer is under-pinned by our Vision and Values. It is weaved into, and a crucial part, of everything we do from our relationships with the children, to our strong curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities. We view Personal Development as holistic, striking the balance between giving the children meaningful experiences, which they remember forever, without making events tokenistic and sacrificing too much of their daily curriculum offer.
 

Intent

Our intent is built around our vision, that ‘Together We Grow, We Learn, We Thrive’.

Our Personal Development offer is developed to fulfil the following three aims:

1. For our children to Learn

• To ensure that all children have access to a broad and balanced curriculum, so they can develop a deep understanding of knowledge and skills in each subject.
• To develop children’s understanding of themselves and others, develop social skills and understand society, build a firm set of personal beliefs and to engage in the community they live, alongside understanding the communities of others.
• To develop our children’s understanding of Personal Development topics including, but not limited to: health, British Values, Protected Characteristics, Relationships and Sex Education and e-Safety

2. For our children to Grow

• To develop the character of our children and ensure they understand the behaviours and habits required to become effective learners. This includes teaching them through the lens of our holistic set of Durrington values (respect, hope, honesty, perseverance and love) and offering them student leadership opportunities which help prepare our children for life in the modern world and a diverse and ever-changing community and work place. 
• To ensure that our children follow the golden rule and treat others how they want to be treated and they learn that showing love, compassion and empathy towards others makes the world a better place. This includes raising awareness of environmental issues, and teaching our children the importance of showing love towards our planet and all creation.

3. For our community to Flourish and Thrive

The summary of our vision, ‘Together We Grow, We Learn, We Thrive’ links us to the parable of the mustard seed, through which growth is nurtured from the smallest beginnings into something strong, life-giving and full of hope for all. We are also a 'Thrive' school. This may be consistent language but they are different things. Our vision is rooted in the Christian understanding of ‘thriving’ and our Thrive SEMH programme provides the means through which this vision is lived out each day.

• To ensure that children feel confident to express their beliefs and take action, whilst understanding and appreciating how other people’s actions are driven by their beliefs, thoughts, feelings and experiences.
• To ensure that all children feel that they belong in our special community, so – combined with our high aspirations and expectations – they feel safe, encouraged and prepared to flourish both during their time at Durrington and beyond.

Implementation

Pupils’ Personal Development grows throughout their time at Durrington. Whilst it is not explicitly taught as a subject, it is embedded through everything we do and is at the heart of our curriculum and all policies and procedures.

All children experience the same offer and we ensure that any necessary adaptations are made for disadvantaged pupils and children with special educational needs and disabilities. As described in more detail in our SEND Policy and Pupil Premium Strategy, we allocate the necessary funding to ensure that all our pupils are included in all aspects and elements of school life so they feel that they belong and can flourish. As well as a specific, curriculum-focused offer for each class, many of the opportunities for our children to develop personally are embedded into the areas below.

• 'We are Durrington' Vision and Values
• Collective Worship
• PSHE and RSE Curriculum
• E-Safety teaching and learning
• British Values and Equalities
• The Protected Characteristics 
• The teaching of Emotional Literacy and Mental Health
• Progression in Oracy
• Opportunities for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development
• RE Curriculum
• Play Pod
• Student Leadership Opportunities 
• Extra-Curricular Opportunities
• Community Links and Service 

We also have school leaders, where pupils are democratically voted in to take on a position of responsibility. They are invited to wear a badge and carry out their duties to make the school a better place. We currently have:

• School council
• Librarians
• Litter pickers
• Worship leaders
• Eco-Warriors
• Hall Heroes

For more information on each of these areas in detail, please read our Personal Development Policy and Mapping document below.

Impact

Pupils develop a strength in character from the wide and rich experiences we offer at Durrington. Our vision and values, and the learning and opportunities we provide for all pupils, enables them to develop their own character and identity.

Pupils develop a positive mind-set and have high aspirations of themselves. This enables them to be courageous, showing determination and self-belief to try new things and see mistakes as opportunities to learn. Therefore, our pupils flourish in all areas: academically, emotionally and personally.

Our pupils build strong foundations during their time at Durrington: they hold positive school memories and their Personal Development sets them up for their future.

The Head Teacher (responsible for PHSE, RE, Church School Flourishing and Personal Development) consistently monitors the impact of our Personal Development offer through observations, Floor Book monitoring and the ongoing assessment of pupils through the Thrive Online profiling. We use whole-school pupil surveys, at least twice a year, to ensure that our pupils’ voice is a large part of assessing the impact of Personal Development. We also use Parent View, and responses to both parent and staff surveys, as additional evidence of the impact of our Personal Development curriculum.

Click here to read our Personal Development policy

Click here to read our Personal Deveopment Mapping