Personal Development
Our Personal Development Strategy
Personal Development is at the heart of our learning journey here at Elm Academy. We are passionate that every pupil receives the very best education possible – filled with opportunities, activities and ‘special moments’ that will help mould them into the people they will become.
We encourage our pupils to be lifelong learners, understanding not only the skills learnt on their journey with us, but how to ‘do life’ with kindness, respect, resilience – recognising that we are all unique, with our own special gifts and talents that need to be encouraged to flourish!
These school values walk side by side with our school vision statement ‘High expectations lead to High achievers’
We support children to acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives, now and in the future. As part of a whole-school approach, Personal Development education develops the qualities and attributes children need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society. The benefits to pupils of such an approach are numerous as PD prepares them to manage many of the most critical opportunities, challenges and responsibilities they will face growing up in such rapidly changing and challenging times. It also helps them to connect and apply the knowledge and understanding they learn in all subjects to practical, real-life situations while helping them to feel safe and secure enough to fulfil their academic potential.
Our whole school approach promotes effective relationships between all members of the school community. The promotion of pupils’ personal and social development underpins other learning. PD education contributes to, and assists children to build their personal identities, confidence and self-esteem and understand what influences their decisions. Developing self-understanding, empathy and the ability to work with others helps our pupils to enjoy healthy and productive relationships in all aspects of their lives.
Always in an age appropriate way, we help the children manage their lives, now and in the future, and help them to learn everyday, essential, life skills, including:
The Development of self-understanding, empathy and healthy, productive relationships (Through the Kapow Scheme for PSHE)
- Relationships and Sex education and Health education
- Eating healthily
- Safer Schools Road Safety
- Online safety
- The promotion of good mental health and well being.
In keeping with our School ethos, the children are encouraged, and frequently reminded, to speak to a trusted adult when they have any concerns or worries.
Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
RSE teaching at Elm teaches children to develop values, attitudes, personal and social skills, and increase their knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions and choices when they are adults. Each year group will be taught appropriate to their age and developmental stage.
Why do we teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)?
There are four main aims of teaching RSE:
- To empower children to be safe and safeguarded.
- To enable children to understand and respect their bodies
- To help children develop positive and healthy relationships appropriate to their age and development
- To support children to have positive self-esteem and body image
Elm chooses to teach Sex Education, and Section 405 of the Education Act 1996 provides the right of parental withdrawal from the RSE provided at school except for those parts included in the National Curriculum. The Science curriculum in all maintained schools also includes content on human development, including reproduction, which there is no right to withdraw from. RSE lesson plans can be can be found within our Medium Term planning for all years under PSHE on our school website.
Anti- Bullying
As a school we are partners with the Diana Award Anti-bullying Ambassadors scheme. This allows us to continually be proactive and productive in creating ideas, focused days and helpful training for our ambassadors and all pupils at our school.
Our Anti-bullying Ambassadors lead assemblies on ‘what bullying is’ using the STOP acronym (Several times on purpose) as well as encouraging all pupils to be ‘Upstanders’ to any bulling behaviour instead of a ‘bystanders’.
All of our ambassadors are known for being a safe person, supportive and ready speak out and support anyone in need.
Our aims include:
- Ensuring all members of the school community has an understanding of what constitutes bullying.
- Creating an atmosphere and environment where children, parents and staff feel able to tell the school about bullying if it arises and are confident it will be taken seriously and dealt with.
- To put in place clear procedures for dealing with incidents of bullying.
- All classrooms have a ‘ I wish someone knew’ box where pupils can drop a note in anonymously for teachers to follow up on any situation that pupils may feel uncomfortable about, or need to share on behalf of someone else.
MHSST
We work closely with MHSST (Mental Health School support team). This organisation is funded by the NHS and is a children’s mental health team providing school-based support and in-depth training programmes to improve the emotional wellbeing of pupils, families, teachers and school staff. We offer a bespoke programme for pupils within our school that may need some extra emotional or mental support at varied stages within their school time here at Elm.
Each year we highlight and celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week. This is a week that highlights our on-going focus of promoting good mental health for all children.
Promoting our Character Awards
We are passionate that our school values are embedded into everyday life here at Elm. We have character awards which we encourage children to work towards within their time at Elm.
We like to celebrate kindness, respectfulness, resilience and a child’s talents whenever we can. We go out of our way every day to seek and praise all pupils who display these values in their every day lives at school, and we congratulate them for this in our celebration assemblies on Fridays. Our pupils receive a character award badge and a personal mention by their teacher in front of the school for being a fantastic example of a Elm pupil.
SMSC
Spiritual development
Through the curriculum and enriching events and trips – pupils develop:
- An ability to be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and a perspective on life
- Knowledge of, and respect for, different people’s faiths, feelings and values.
- A 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
Moral development
Through the curriculum as well as enriched learning opportunities, pupils develop:
- An ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to readily apply this understanding in their own lives, and to recognise legal boundaries and, in doing so, respect the civil and criminal law of England.
- An understanding of the consequences of their behaviour and actions.
- An interest in investigating and offering reasoned views about moral and ethical issues and ability to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others on these issues.
Social development
Through the curriculum as well as enriched activities, pupils develop:
- A use of a range of social skills in different contexts, for example working and socialising with other pupils, including those from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
- A willingness to participate in a variety of communities and social settings, including by volunteering, co-operating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively.
- An acceptance of and engagement with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. They will develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain.
Cultural development
Through the curriculum as well as enriched experiences, pupils develop:
- An understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of others
- An understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures in the school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain
- An ability to recognise, and value, the things we share in common across cultural, religious, ethnic and socio-economic communities.
- A knowledge of Britain’s democratic parliamentary system and its central role in shaping our history and values, and in continuing to develop Britain
- A willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities
- An ability to understand, accept and respect diversity (as shown by their respect and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities)
BRITISH VALUES
- The five British values build understanding and critical thinking from a personal, local, national and global context by considering democracy (an understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process), the rule of law (an appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for wellbeing and safety), individual liberty (an understanding that the freedom to hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law), mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs (an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination and an acceptance that people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself).
At Elm Academy we:
- Enable pupils to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence
- Enable pupils to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England
- Encourage pupils to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely
- Enable pupils to acquire a broad general knowledge of, and respect for, public Institutions and services in England
- Ensure further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling pupils to acquire an appreciation of, and respect for, their own and other cultures
- Encourage respect for other people
- Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England.
At Elm Academy
We actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Extra curricular activities
Within our school plan, we have created bespoke extra curricular experiences for all of our curriculum learning to be taken outside of the classroom and experienced in a ‘real life’ context, for our pupils to fully understand a topic within a subject, or see something explained and taught within the classroom ‘ in real life’!
For a full list of events, trips, visitors and experiences we offer alongside classroom learning, please look on our website under the ‘Personal Development’ section.
We have links with:
- Bournemouth Arts University
- Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
- Science Dome
- SC Holiday Clubs
- AFC Bournemouth Community
- The Guildhall Portsmouth
- Canford School
Clubs
We are proud of the clubs we offer our pupils. We understand that all pupils are unique and have different gifts; therefore we try to cater for a range of passions and pursuits.
See our ‘Clubs’ page on our Website for a full range of exciting clubs we offer at Elm Academy.