Our Personal Development Programme: Intent

Our intent is to develop well-balanced and healthy children that have the knowledge, skills and strength of character to lead successful safe lives in modern Britain. We aim to ensure our pupils are fully prepared for the next stage of their education and future careers. In our pupils, we aspire to instil a passion for lifelong learning and are committed to supporting our pupils develop the skills, knowledge and understanding they require to be successful, happy, healthy, responsible citizens with high expectations of themselves and of others. At St Margaret’s, we have designed a bespoke PSHE curriculum alongside Healthy Schools; this curriculum enables our pupils to navigate through their lives in a healthy, safe and balanced way.

Our school is committed to a comprehensive Personal Development programme that includes PSHE education, RHE education, broadening and development of talents and interests through our wide range of after-school clubs, ambassadorial roles for pupils to develop their responsibility and character and a vast array of enrichment opportunities. We aspire to equip our pupils with a solid foundation of knowledge, understanding, positive attitudes and practical skills. These enable our pupils to understand citizenship roles and responsibilities, both locally and globally, know how to earn and manage money, have the skills to have healthy relationships, know how to form resilience in order to overcome challenges, stay safe online and have the knowledge to manage risks, have skills to deal with peer-pressure and know healthy lifestyle choices so that they can reach their full potential. We embed British Values into the everyday life of our school through our School Values: Creativity, Compassion, Creativity, Resilience, Responsibility and Unity.

Personal development is at the core of our school values and vision. Our ambitious and well-planned Personal Development programme delivers all aspects of the statutory guidance and beyond including SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural), British Values, PSHE, RHE and careers guidance.

P.S.H.E.

We deliver a comprehensive P.S.H.E. curriculum that focuses on the following strands: Managing Feelings, Building Character, Health & Keeping Safe, Financial Education, Online Safety, R.H.E. and Citizenship. Our bespoke curriculum is knowledge-based but we have placed skills at the heart of P.S.H.E.. The scheme is enhanced by community projects and links and by trips and visits. We have built a scheme of work that is ambitious and provides our pupils with a world perspective, for example, by incorporating the role of citizens around the world in social change. The scheme has been designed and planned to give pupils the knowledge and skills that they need for later life such as: questioning, problem solving, freethinking, resilience, confidence, debating and presenting skills. 

The curriculum has been planned to develop pupils’ social skills, empathy, compassion, respect and understanding of the fundamental British Values. Through P.S.H.E., we develop pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural understanding.

Equality and diversity are important to us at St Margaret’s. The curriculum has been designed to give pupils an understanding of different groups in modern society such as different genders including gender identity, disability, culture, faith, ethnicity, sexuality and different ages. 

R.E.

Our R.E. curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and perspective on life; knowledge of, and respect for, different people’s faiths, feelings and values; sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them; use of imagination and creativity in their learning; willingness to reflect on their experiences; developed understanding; and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of others.

After-school Clubs

At St Margaret’s, we are committed to providing our pupils with a diverse range of stimulating and creative enrichment opportunities that are of a high quality outside of the usual curriculum to foster and develop our pupils talents and interests. These opportunities come in many forms at St Margaret’s with one being after-school clubs/events.

After-school clubs/events are an important and exciting feature of school life at St Margaret’s and contribute greatly to our pupils’ academic, personal and social development. Our aim is to develop learners who are creative, curious, compassionate, resilient, responsible, well-rounded citizens who are confident to explore and develop themselves through new experiences and challenges. These values are embedded through the wide range of after-school clubs available to our pupils, each lasting until 4:30pm, at a cost of £15 per half-term. 

We cater to an assortment of interests. These range from different sports and fitness classes to creative arts, LEGO groups, gardening, cooking, computing and even photography! Some sporting clubs include the opportunity to join teams to compete against other schools too. 

Careers

A fundamental principle of the Personal Development programme is that it prepares our pupils to be able to participate as fully engaged citizens and to successfully enter the world of further and higher education and/or employment. During the pupils time at St Margaret's, we offer a wide range of careers workshops to the pupils to increase awareness of the range of careers, to broaden their horizons and ignite curiosity and excitement for the future as well as to foster respect and appreciation for those who help us in the wider community. These range from the local PSCO, charities including Wateraid and STEM career talks - these develop a broad, deep understanding of careers, sometimes from professionals around the world and across career sectors within the UK. 

British Values 

At St Margaret's, we actively promote British values to ensure our pupils leave our school prepared for life in modern Britain. Pupils are encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance and understand that while different people may hold different views about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, all people living in England are subject to its law. These values encompass life at St Margaret's and explored in all aspects of the curriculum including in the weekly 'Philosophy For Children' sessions. 

Assemblies

Through our weekly assemblies, we promote the exploring, deepening understanding about and showing respect for different faiths and cultural diversity through celebrating respect towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities.

School Values

Our school values are: Compassion, Creativity, Curiosity, Resilience, Responsibility and Unity.

At St Margaret's, our values drive collective worship and assemblies in school, sit alongside the school curriculum and support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development including a focus on: educating for wisdom, knowledge and skills: enabling discipline, confidence and delight in seeking wisdom and knowledge, and developing talents in all areas of life; educating for hope and aspiration: enabling healing, repair and renewal, coping wisely when things go wrong, opening horizons and guiding people into ways of fulfilling them, educating for community and living well together: a core focus on relationships, participation in communities and the qualities of character that enable people to flourish together and educating for dignity and respect: the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person, treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth.