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Personal Development
As a Trust we pride ourselves on identifying and signposting our pupils to clubs, events and wider opportunities that they may want to explore that can enhance and develop their passions and expertise.
Personal Development is at the heart of our Rights Respecting school curriculum learning journey. It develops, promotes and enables a range of skills that allow our children to be really effective life-long learners.
Together, our school community learn about UNICEF children’s rights, putting them into practice every day. Children’s rights are promoted and realised, adults and children work towards this goal together.
We support every child to acquire the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their emotions, feelings and to learn to communication these effectively through an ethos and culture of inclusion and mutual respect.
As part of a whole-school approach, PD 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 pupils 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 assists children and young people to build:
- their personal identities;
- confidence;
- self-esteem;
- understanding of their own decision-making.
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. Our talented team adapt and responding to the approach that enables each individual to be successful.
Skills Children Learn:
Always in an age appropriate way, we help the children shape and manage their lives, now and in the future, and help them to learn every day essential, life skills, including:
- The development of self-understanding, empathy and healthy, productive relationships;
- Relationships Education;
- Eating healthily;
- Keeping safe on the road;
- How to stay safe on the internet;
- The promotion of good mental health.
Relationship Education
Relationship Education
From September 2020, Relationships Education is now compulsory in Primary Schools.
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.
To embrace the challenges of creating a happy and successful adult life, pupils need knowledge that will enable them to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships and to build their self-efficacy.
Pupils can also put this knowledge into practice as they develop the capacity to make sound decisions when facing risks, challenges and complex contexts.
Understanding Relationships and Health Education in your child’s primary school: a guide for parents
Visits
Visits
Throughout the school year, we are fortunate to have various visitors to help bring our PD curriculum to life, including visits from:
- The Police
- The Fire Service
- A dental health advisor
- Road safety experts
- Kent Magistrates Service
Anti-Bullying
Anti-Bullying
Valley Invicta Primary School at Kings Hill promotes an environment free from threat, harassment and any type of bullying behaviour. As an official Anti-Bullying school trained by the Diana Award Scheme;
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.
Our Anti-Bullying Ambassadors have been trained to engage our pupils to change the attitudes, behaviour and culture of bullying by building skills and confidence to address different situations, both online and offline.
The Diana Award website has a page dedicated to Anti-Bullying Support and Advice - please click here
Anti-Bullying Badges
As an Anti-Bullying team we have already completed many activities raising the profile across our school. Since joining the Diana Award 4 years ago, we have been awarded our well-being badge which highlights our commitment to focus on and improve well-being across all pupils, with positive and anti-bullying initiatives at the heart of the work. In addition to the well-being badge we have collated lots of evidence towards our online safety badge, which focuses on teaching our pupils how to stay safe online. The activities we have done as a school towards all of these badges has been a collaboration between the staff and pupil anti-bullying leads and is run in tandem, to give our pupils a voice but also to create the anti-bullying leaders of the future.
As part of our Online Safety Badge application, we provided evidence of assemblies, newsletters and external workshops we had run in school that ensure our pupils are having regular, current teaching on the topic to ensure they can be resilient and confident decision makers.
Our Anti-Bullying Team meet regularly in school and this academic year we will be focusing on our community badge, with the children choosing and delivering how they can raise awareness of anti-bullying within and beyond the school gates.
We believe that providing regular and consistent training for staff and pupils on anti-bullying means that if the worst should occur, it can be addressed and solved quickly. We are a ‘telling’ school and we ask pupils to share their thoughts and feelings, as they are always valued and will always be listened to.
Project Salus
Salus
Salus offers a huge range of innovative services and evidence based training programmes to improve the lives of children.
Children, young people and families also help to govern the services they deliver in school. Through strong pupil voice and participation, Salus are able to ensure that they offer the most effective service to improve well-being and engagement.
Please take a look at their Website to find out more.
Personal Development Events
Opportunities to promote Specific PD events
Each year we celebrate national and international events which work to reinforce or work to celebrate inclusion and personal development, such as:
- Children’s Mental Health Week
- UNICEF International Children’s Day
- Anti-bullying Week
- National On-line Safety Week
- World Autism Awareness Week
- Concern Worldwide Refuge week
Celebrating Success
We aim for all our pupils to have a positive attitude to learning and to be proud of their achievements both in school and out of school. Every Thursday we have a whole school Celebration Assembly that is extremely popular with both the children and teachers. The Celebration Assembly gives us all a chance to share the fantastic learning that goes on in our classrooms and to celebrate individual achievements.
Each week we celebrate:
Achievement Award: A child from each class receives praise and a certificate to recognise their achievement and effort over the week.
Rights Respecting Award: One child from each class receives praise and a certificate to recognise their Rights Respecting behaviour and their commitment to the Rights Respecting Schools initiative.
Dojo Award: A child from each class is presented with a certificate for achieving the most dojos across the week.
Lunchtime Award: A child from each class is presented with a certificate for excellent behaviour and helpfulness supporting the Midday Meal Supervisors.
We also hold a termly celebration assembly when we invite parents into school to celebrate children being awarded a certificate for the following areas:
- Reading Achievement
- Mathematician Achievement
- Writer Achievement
- Ready Respectful and Safe
- Creativity
- Sports Personality
- Governor Award (as voted for by our Local School Board)
All the children who are celebrated in the Celebration Assembly are also mentioned in our weekly school newsletter.