Personal Development

Our Vision for Personal Development

  • Head – All of our students will have access to powerful curriculum knowledge that will help them make informed decisions about how to keep safe and live healthy and happy lives.
  • Heart – Our students will develop their faith through following Christ’s example in a world of social pressures. They will be taught to foster a love for their school, local and national communities, grounded in both Gospel and British values. Through their learning, they will cultivate respect for themselves and for others by building positive relationships.
  • Hands – Our students will develop healthily, morally and spiritually by applying their curriculum knowledge through enriching experiences beyond the classroom as well as becoming responsible citizens in a rapidly changing world.

Personal Development Curriculum Sequence – Why this? Why Now?

By the end of Year 7 we want our young people to be fully established into our school community, be active members of our school and fully understand what it means to live out our School Mission statement of “Faith, Love, Respect”. We help our Year 7 students achieve this through:

  • A behaviour and school culture curriculum called Basic Training, that teaches our Year 7s about our high school expectations.
  • RSE lessons that teach our students what positive friendships and relationships look like
  • Learning facts of puberty and personal hygiene
  • Learning what a Career is and what is meant by skills and qualities in the workplace

By the end of Year 8 we want our students to have gained an informed understanding of protected characteristics and a greater awareness of the influence that their choices have on themselves and others. Our Year 8 students learn this through:

  • Learning about prejudice, stereotyping and how to spot and challenge forms of discrimination
  • Learning about personal finance, individual human rights and the law
  • How to look after one’s physical health and how these impacts on mental wellbeing
  • How to understand the labour market and how particular skills, qualities and qualifications match up to particular Career Pathways

During this crucial academic year, our ambition is equip our young people with the knowledge to make healthy choices and to resist social pressures. By the end of the academic year our Year 9 students will have chosen their GCSE Options for year 10. The Year 9 programme includes:

  • Learning about drugs, alcohol and tobacco and the health risks caused by these
  • What intimate and loving relationships are and the role of consent in relationships
  • Our British legal systems and how our parliamentary government functions
  • Learning about the skills and qualities that are required for employability as well has how to access Further and Higher Education

Year 10 marks the “transition” year between lower and upper school as well as KS3 to KS4. This point in teenage transition can also bring new challenges and pressures such as understanding what healthy relationships look like and also, looking beyond year 11, what role a young people wishes to play in British society. By the end of year 10, we want our young people to:

  • Learn about mental health – how to safeguard their own as well as spotting signs of anxiety and depression in others, and how to find help
  • Learn about sexual health, managing sexual pressure and the Catholic Church’s teaching around sex and intimacy.
  • Learn how to spot abuse in relationships as well as signs of FGM, coercive control and radicalisation
  • Learn about the workplace, including going on a work placement during work experience week

As a school we feel that during this highly pressurised time for our students, it is importance that they are taught how to balance the pressures of examinations, changing relationships and pursuing their post-16 aspirations. It is important that they learn how to end their statutory education at Trinity as dignified young people with a fuller knowledge of their rights, knowledge of how to be an active citizen who is ready to move to their next phase of education. By the end of year 11 our students will:

  • Learn about the harmful effects of pornography and the law around sharing indecent images
  • Learn about the risks of alcohol and how addiction can lead to poor mental health
  • Learn what being an active citizen means in the UK and the importance of taking part in democratic processes
  • Explore different post-16 options, qualifications and the various post-18 and Career pathways these lead to