Personal Development
At Platt Bridge Community School, our core values of promote belief, create success, helps pupils to build individual character by understanding and appreciating differences and know that these should be valued, respected, and reflected on by having empathy and respect for one another. Throughout their time here, they deepen their knowledge of the British Values of Democracy, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Mutual Respect and Tolerance. Our Personal, Social, Health Education is taught alongside our Relationship, Sex and Health curriculum to ensure pupils can understand themselves as well as navigating the world around them.
What is Personal Development?
Personal Development is the curriculum that is provided by school that extends beyond the academic, technical, or vocational. It is used to support pupils to develop in many diverse aspects of life. The aim of Personal Development is to ensure that pupils can build knowledge, confidence, and resilience in preparation for their adult lives.
Extra curricula offer
Our curriculum extends beyond the National Curriculum to ensure there are opportunities for all pupils to engage in a wide range of experiences outside of the school day. Our provision is designed and linked to enhancing the curriculum from Reception through to Year 6. Our programme is a broad offer and includes sports, art, music, computing and many more, ranging from signing club to media club; cooking to French club and is complemented with a range of sporting activities.
Trip and visits
Trips and visits take place throughout the school year, in all year groups linked to year group pathways. The curriculum is further enhanced by speakers and experiences hosted in school throughout the year and enrichment sessions allow not only pupils to participate, but also extends to the local community.
PE and Sport commitment
We provide pupils with a wide range of PE & Sport opportunities beyond the school day. Through our sports squads’, pupils compete in a range of Borough competitions, sports festivals and local cluster fixtures. After school clubs such as Football, Gymnastics, Karate, and Athletics further provide opportunities for pupils to develop sporting skills, healthy lifestyle and positive attitudes. Pupils can access a range of competitive levels and inclusion through the year to ensure sport is accessible for all. All pupils (and parents) compete in the annual sports day help at the end of the year where achievement and participation are celebrated.
Residential visits
Residential visits in Year 4, 5 and 6 build children’s independence and provide opportunities for learning within different contexts and settings. In Year 4, pupils visit the City of York to be immersed in learning about the Vikings and the archaeological adventures surrounding the history of the area which builds on their curriculum knowledge about how the Vikings came to Britain. In Year 5, pupils access 3 day activity residential holiday that is exciting, full of fun, shared with new friends and enjoyed with laughter but they are also challenging, confidence building and learning experiences. This supports learners in the transition into the Upper Phase of school and helps build on their geographical, outdoor learning skills. In Year 6, as part of their topic, What Makes Britain Great, pupils visit the capital city of London to see key sights such as the London Eye, Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London as well as visiting Harry Potter Studios and watching a West-End show. An exciting opportunity for targeted Year 5 and 6 is the 5-day residential visit to Paris which includes opportunities for pupils to be fully immersed in French culture, speak the language and explore the geography of France.
Assembly programme
Every day, teachers and children engage in ‘Daily Reflection’ in their classes which is their chance to think about their own well-being, engage in collective worship or thoughts as well as consider events and festivals around the world and build their knowledge of other cultures.
In addition to this, once per week we have a whole school assembly. During this time, we have the chance to share stories, consider other people’s perspective and celebrate the achievements of our classmates. Currently, we are rewarding people’s achievements in Writing and Reading with our ‘Writer of the Week’ Award and ‘Reading Hero’ Award.
Each term and assembly have a broad theme which is linked to things that are going on in school/around the world that week. Here are some of the things we have/will be looking at this half term.
Music
Pupils take part in a wide range of musical activities beyond the National Curriculum. Pupils in year 4 have an opportunities to learn a music instrument through our wider opportunities programme. Pupils in the choir take part in many events both in school and outside of school to showcase their talents.
Autumn 1: Democracy and Respect
Week 1: The Queen
During this important week, we celebrated the life of Queen Elizabeth II and learned what would come next after our Sovereign’s death. We collectively held a minute’s silence and shared a special thought, either to our God or silently to ourselves.
Week 2: Democracy
This week we discussed the idea of democracy and how important it is that everyone gets a say. We launched our school council elections and gave classes the important job of voting for their representative. We also learned about the suffragettes and how important it is that we use our vote to get our say.
Week 3: National Recycle Week
During this assembly we learned about Greenpeace and their campaign for a better world. We talked about ways that we could be more eco-friendly and discussed how we could recycle more.
Week 4: National Poetry Day
Mrs Bozdogan shared her favourite poem from an anthology she got from our very own library and we talked about how it made us feel.
Week 5: Black History Month – Rosa Parks
We launched Black History Month by learning about Rosa Parks and her non-violent action to campaign for Civil Rights in America during the 1950s. We reminded ourselves of our learning on Democracy and how it is important that everyone has the right to have their say and be heard as well as having equal rights.
Week 6: Black History Month – Martin Luther King
We reflected on Dr. King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech and upon its significance and importance. We considered what life might be like for people in our country and the USA had Dr King not made this speech and gave gratitude for him and his campaign.
Week 7: Happy Diwali.
We show our friends how we have learned to understand other people’s beliefs and celebrations and live in harmony and tolerance by wishing those amongst us who celebrate it Happy Diwali. We encouraged classmates to ask each other about their experiences to explain the similarities and differences between Diwali and other religious festivals.