Why do we study Personal Development?

At St Winefride’s, our curriculum has a clear purpose and we have embedded our school values: Common Good, Honesty, Courage, Love, Compassion; and our Mission Statement: Together as one family, together in friendship, together in learning, together in Christ.

As a school, it is our belief that pupils’ personal and social development underpins all other learning as it helps pupils to build their character, confidence, self-esteem and their development in their relationship with God. 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.

How do we deliver our Personal Development Aims?

Trips and Experiences

Our intention is to provide all of our children with a wide range of rich activities, trips and visits which provide meaningful context to their learning, and which enhance and enrich their school experience.

Each year, Year 6 have the opportunity to take part in a residential trip.
In September 2024 they stayed in a castle and were able to take part in team building activities as well as opportunity for prayer and reflection.


NSPCC Visit: Speak Out, Stay Safe (KS1)


Cultural Diversity and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

As part of whole school ethos, we teach and encourage our pupils to show respect for different faiths and cultures and to show respect for the different protected characteristics. We help our pupils to recognise the difference between right and wrong and we help children to investigate and offer reasoned views about moral and ethical issues.

Through our whole school and class acts of worship, we actively promote equality of opportunity and diversity allowing all children to thrive together. At St Winefride’s, we ensure that children understand that difference is a positive and that our individual characteristics make everyone unique.

Promoting Protected Characteristics at St Winefride’s

We work to ensure that our children understand that:

  1. We are ALL children of God
  2. We are all different and unique
  3. We are made in the image and likeness of God
  4. We celebrate our differences
  5. We are fair to everyone
  6. Everyone, at all times, should be treated with love and respect

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:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Marriage or civil partnership
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation
  • Pregnancy and maternity

At St Winefride’s, we actively promote these in our curriculum and work to embed them into our Catholic ethos.  We believe that it is vital that our pupils can discuss inappropriate and discriminative language and understand how to address boundaries in order to prepare them for a future in modern Britain.

We use the ‘Everyone’s Welcome, No Outsiders’ resources which uses a range of picture books to share the key themes of caring friendships, respectful relationships and to know about families and people who care for me.

At St Winefride’s, there are no outsiders – Everyone is welcome!

For an overview of No Outsiders, watch this short video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYkzWyfwJA&t=1s

British Values 

Through our acts of worship, our Personal Development themes and our RHSE lessons we teach our pupils about the British Values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

Every week, we share the ‘Picture News’ with children in key stage liturgies, using the excellent online resources and images.

We also share Picture News with families via our school Facebook page and ClassDojo, which allows families to further discuss the weekly topics at home.

Picture News is instrumental in delivering much of the work we do in school on British Values. It supports our children in encountering and considering the key issues of the day in a planned and age-appropriate way. It also supports their developing understanding of Protected Characteristics and the UN Rights of the Child.

Rule of Law

Here are some of our class rules