The Personal Development curriculum at Leigh Academy Rainham encompasses: PSHE [Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education], RSE [Relationships and Sex Education] and The Pastoral Tutor Programme [Citizenship and Fundamental British Values]. All subject areas share the same common intent which has been designed to support students in their journey to become a well-rounded citizen prepared for life in modern contexts ranging from: local, regional, national and international. We aim to explicitly teach our LEIGH Learner values which are underpinned by Fundamental British Values and provide opportunities in which students are able to reflect on their progress to see how far they have developed at each key stage. In addition the curriculum has been well designed to support the following areas:
- Developing responsible, respectful, active citizens or who are able to become actively involved in life as an adult. This starts throughout the Healthy Minds programme in year 7, and is built upon through various stages in the spiralled curriculum.
- Deepens pupils’ understanding of the Fundamental British Values
- Promotes equality of all, ensuring equal opportunities and creating an environment where all pupils can thrive, regardless of race, religion, gender, belief, age, disability or sexual orientation.
- Develops the character of pupils, allowing opportunities to reflect on their own progress and conduct to help flourish in society.
- Provides the knowledge and understanding to make healthy choices, related to diet, eating and relationships.
- Provides sex education for all pupils, influenced by guidance from Medway council and the PSHE association.
- Supports pupils’ with the knowledge to understand what they need to do to reach and succeed in the career which they aspire.
Very similar to curriculum subject areas, we have a spiral curriculum whereby we examine what life skills and knowledge students need to learn to be successful in the modern world. The proposed KS4 PSHE curriculum aims to develop students SMSC by following a theme called: ‘Living in the wider world’ whereby they will be exploring key life skills such as: adult relationships, living independently, personal safety: abroad and at home, CV and Jobs, Politics and Media and financial security. In addition, our PSHE curriculum at KS3 is not static and can change depending on certain issues or topics which may be more pressing for our cohort of students and therefore KS4 will be adapted accordingly for this. To prepare students for this we use our KS3 PSHE curriculum to provide a breadth of rich knowledge of case studies and strategies needed to overcome challenges which include but are not limited to: emotional resilience, mental health, social media, careers and human connections/relationships. KS3 also helps prepare our students for further learning of PSHE at KS4 as students would very much be aware of laws. In addition, our PSHE curriculum at KS3 links to our LEIGH Learner values whereby students would be very much aware of definitions and examples of demonstrating these important societal behaviours at KS3, which will help further at KS4 as they would already be aware of the moral and immoral choices when studying sensitive topics.’
The pastoral programme which enriches cultural experiences for pupils allows them to discover their own heritage, values and shared beliefs, promoting a culture of mutual respect and tolerance for all. Many pupils willingly take part in and respond positively to key events such as whole school mock elections, Sports Day, Drama performance shows. Celebrating diversity is commonplace within the personal development curriculum, such as Black History Month, Gender History and LGBT+ History. All these events are celebrated in the academy, as well as a number of clubs/groups to support, such as a Diversity group.