Personal Development Across Our Curriculum
At St Michael’s, personal development is woven throughout our curriculum and wider school life. We want every child to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and understanding they need to stay safe, build positive relationships, look after their wellbeing and prepare successfully for life beyond primary school.
Our curriculum provides clear and progressive learning from Reception to Year 6 across a number of important areas, including:
- safeguarding and personal safety
- emotional, mental and physical wellbeing
- healthy relationships and respectful behaviour
- online safety and digital wellbeing
- careers and aspirations
- financial literacy
- citizenship, responsibility and contribution to the community.
A Progressive Curriculum
Learning builds carefully as children move through the school.
In the Early Years, children begin by developing self-awareness, recognising emotions, building positive relationships, learning how to keep themselves safe and developing resilience and independence.
Throughout Key Stage 1, pupils build their understanding of trusted adults, healthy friendships, community roles, online safety, wellbeing and where money comes from.
As pupils move through Key Stage 2, their learning becomes increasingly sophisticated. They explore areas such as personal boundaries, consent, discrimination, peer pressure, financial decision-making, careers, online influences, risk management and preparing for greater independence.
By Year 6, pupils are supported to make informed choices, understand their rights and responsibilities, manage risk, seek appropriate support and consider how their decisions can affect their future wellbeing and opportunities.
Preparing Pupils for Life
These areas are deliberately connected rather than taught in isolation. For example, pupils learn how emotional wellbeing can affect relationships, how online influences can affect both wellbeing and financial decisions, and how personal strengths, aspirations, careers and financial independence are linked.
Our curriculum is also responsive to the needs of our pupils and our local community. Where appropriate, planned curriculum learning is enhanced through assemblies, workshops, visitors and external agencies so that pupils receive relevant and age-appropriate learning about emerging safeguarding issues and wider life experiences.
Curriculum Coverage and Progression
Our Curriculum Coverage of Personal Development Priorities document provides a detailed overview of where safeguarding, wellbeing, careers, financial literacy and local safeguarding priorities are taught from Reception to Year 6.