"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."                                                                                                                                      Aristotle

Personal Development at Oakham Primary

Personal Development is embedded throughout every child's school learning journey at Oakham.  It encourages and promotes a range of skills that allow children to be effective, life-long learners that demonstrate our school motto of 'Succeeding Together'

By enabling our children and young people to develop these key own skills, knowledge and understanding of how to be who they are, we aim to encourage an age appropriate understanding of the world they are growing up in and have the confidence to tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.

The intent of our Personal Development curriculum is for it to be accessible to all and for it to maximise the outcomes for every child so that they 'know more, remember more and understand more'.

Our Personal Development curriculum reflects the school’s vision and values; at the core of this is to demonstrate and teach the skills, knowledge and understanding that pupils need to lead confident, healthy lives and to become informed, active and responsible citizens. Children will also learn about the emotional, social and physical aspects of growing up, relationships, puberty and reproduction.

PROMOTING THE NINE PROTECTED CHARACTERISITICS

The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics:

The 9 Protected Characteristics are actively promoted in school through:

• Our school ethos statements, SDP, and SEF
• Our school core values
• Our school behaviour policy
• Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
• Active engagement and communication with parents and carers
• Assemblies
• British Values themes 
• Discussion within curriculum subjects, taking a cross-curricular approach
• Promoting oracy by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
• Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) sessions
• Religious Education (RE) lessons, RSE lessons
• Sporting, Art and Cultural Events
• Pupil Voice
• Educational visits
• Real-life learning outside the classroom
• Guest speakers and visitors
• Developing links with local communities
• Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, inter school competitions, charity work within the local community

Visitors & Guest Speakers

Throughout their time at Oakham, children will have opportunities to engage with visitors from external partners and representatives of services and associations such as:

• Sandwell Highways
• West Midlands Police, Fire and Ambulance Services
• Barnados
• NSPCC
• DECCA
• Sandwell School Nursing Team                                                                                      

RSHE Curriculum & Wellbeing

Through our taught curriculum for Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE), we teach pupils to recognise and manage online and offline risks. We teach them about healthy relationships and that sexual harassment of any kind is not tolerated.

Oakham staff and children 'Wellbeing Champions' are always available to support peers with worries, anxieties and making the right choices. They promote positive mental health strategies and encourage sharing problems or directing concerns to appropriate adults in school. 'Worry Boxes' are available in classrooms and round our school toencourage to share concerns or anxieties.

SMSC & PSHE Curriculum & Assembly Programme

British Values and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development are carefully woven throughout the PSHE curriculum. This enables our children to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible British citizens and deepen their knowledge of the British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law, mutual respect and tolerance.

A programme of assemblies based on our values-based ethos helps to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and provide clear guidance for pupils on how to grow up to be the best person they can possible be. As well as the values assemblies, each term pupils also take part in:

• Safeguarding themed assemblies,
• Music performance assemblies (Y3 Ukulele & KS1 choir)
• KS2 children also participate in Easter, Harvest and Christmas assemblies, as well as the EYFS Nativity production and Y6 Summer Performance.

Focused 'Safety Weeks' enable time to be spent in key stage assemblies and follow-up class sessions learning about staying safe in a wide range of contexts and provided opportunities for discussion and learning tasks about:    

• 'Clever Never Goes'
• Road Safety
• Water Safety
• Staying Safe Online
• First Aid (St Johns)
• Firework Safety
• Health Week

School Life & Children as Leaders

Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.

All children in KS1 &2 are assigned a house - Romans, Vikings, Saxons or Britons - and participate in competitions and house point leagues through the school year. House Captains and School Council members regularly support and represent their peers across a wide range of elements of school life.

Our KS2 'Green Team' will be working closely with KS1 to create our Royal Coronation Garden later this year as well as co-ordinating the 'Little Rotters' Composting Group and overseeing Litter Picking patrols during lunchbreaks. 

Our school librarians support Miss Crumpton, to ensure books in both libraries are updated, organised and available for eager readers. Reading Buddies offer additional support to younger readers to encourage fluency and develop their confidence to apply the the key reading skills taught in lessons.

Children in Lower & Upper KS2 volunteer to staff our 'Snack~Shack' Tuck Shop to offer a healthy break time snack or drink. They are encouraged to apply their mathematical knowledge and money handling skills and deal with customers politely. A percentage of funds raised also sponsors 'Margo' - a trainee guide dog for the blind. 

Our 'Y6 Young Leaders' have completed their training and are deployed across all three playgrounds to provide activities and games during lunch-hours in support of our 'Active Playgrounds' initiative. 

Residentials & Offsite Visits

Oakham children have the opportunity to experience 2 & 4 night residentials at Sandwell centres:

• Y2 Edgmond Hall, Shropshire
• Y4 Frank Chapman, Worcestershire
• Y6 Plas Gwynant, Snowdonia

Here, children experience a range of outdoor learning experiences and challenges, working on personal and group development targets, in amazing settings. Residentials support the Growth Mindset approach, we encourage with our children and provide opportunities for developing resilience, collaboration, confidence and self-esteem. 

Offsite trips are organised in every year group, starting with EYFS. They are designed to support National Curriculum learning and to nurture a sense of 'cultural capital'. We support funding of all offsite visits to ensure that every child at Oakham is able to experience a wide range of places and experiences to inspire future success and ambition.

Fundraising & Charity Work

All children at Oakham develop their understanding of charity and the importance of helping make a difference to those not as fortunate as themselves.  As a school, we educate children about and fundraise for:

• BBC Sport & Comic Relief 
• Smethwick & Rowley Foodbanks
• Black Country Women's Aid
• Macmillan Cancer Support
• Downs Awareness 
• BBC Children in Need
• Guide Dogs for the Blind

We aim for children to understand the importance of charity and how we can support and empower others to improve their lives and futures.

Our curriculum has been designed with our children in mind and may vary in content to reflect the ever-changing world we live in.