Welcome to Personal Development
Personal Development
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We know that young people need both a strong academic foundation and well-developed character strengths to really thrive in education and the world beyond.
Our goal is to help all of our students develop five vital character strengths and to equip them with the skills and social intelligence to have a positive impact on the world around them.
That’s why our Personal Development curriculum is underpinned by a deliberate and sustained focus on developing the five key character strengths of tenacity, optimism, respect, curiosity and hard work (TORCH). Each of these traits supports academic achievement and lifelong health and wellbeing. Indeed, by developing our students’ self-knowledge, our curriculum enables young people to recognise the tools they have to face the challenges of life beyond school, helps them to recognise and manage risk and inspires them to believe in a future full of possibility.
Our Personal Development curriculum is enhanced by our collaboration with Bounce Forward (a nationally-recognised charity dedicated to developing resilience in young people) and, as a Healthy Minds School, we ensure our students not only explore all of the statutory elements of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education but also have the opportunity to really investigate some of the most powerful influences on their sense of self including social media; through timetabled lessons for all students, tutor time, assemblies and an annual programme of Personal Development Days (drop-down days), our research-informed approach therefore empowers young people by:
- Providing a carefully sequenced and responsive programme of study
- Fostering and developing five key character strengths (TORCH)
- Championing the importance of self-respect and personal ambition
- Celebrating the potential of each and every student to be a change-maker
- Guaranteeing participation in a range of local and global action projects
- Embedding social action through affiliation with local and international partners including WE Schools