Stockham Primary School

Personal Development - PD

What is personal development at our school?

Personal Development (PD) focusses on “preparing pupils for their adult lives, teaching them to understand how to engage with society and providing them with plentiful opportunities to do so.” (Ofsted Inspection Handbook July 2022 paragraph 292)

Personal Development at Stockham Primary School  is focussed on developing the whole child in order that they reach their full potential academically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. We aim for all pupils to grow into well- educated, respectful, responsible adults who are:

  • Comfortable with who they are and have a deep sense of belonging
  • Respectful of others and see difference as positive and not a threat
  • Able to make a positive contribution to school life, the wider community and society in general
  • Happy, safe, confident and resilient
  • Financially secure
  • Model citizens prepared for life in modern Britain

Wellbeing

At Stockham Primary School, we consider the mental health of our pupils, staff and parents to be just as important as physical health.  Mental health includes our emotional, psychological  and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act. It also determines how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.  Mental health is important at every stage of life from childhood through to adulthood and many factors can contribute such as biological factors, life experiences and family history.

ELSA

At Stockham, we have an ELSA TA who is in tehprocess of training. 

ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. ELSA support in schools is a project designed to help schools support the emotional needs of their pupils. ELSA acknowledges that children and young people learn best when they feel happier and their emotional needs are being addressed.

PD underpins all areas of the curriculum and is therefore taught daily through a variety of lessons and Circle Time sessions. Some aspects are taught in personal, social, health, citizenship and economic education (PSHE), a comprehensive programme of Relationship and Sex Education (RSE), science, computing (online safety) and PE.

As well as academic development, it is essential that children are given opportunities, through the curriculum and beyond, for personal development. We understand the crucial role we can play in helping children to prepare for their adult lives so they can go on to engage positively in society. The personal development opportunities we offer at Stockham will help the children to develop their own identity and their aspirations for the future.

Harvest Festival

This year, we hosted our very own Harvest Festival in school. We had an assembly where some of the Year 6 children led the assembly. All the classes in school performed a poem. The classes in KS2 wrote their own poems to perform. We invite our parents to celebrate with us. We also donated food to the local Food Bank.

The Harvest Festival enabled us to explore traditions of harvest from around the world, the importance of it and the history associated.

Anti - Bully Week – We Choose Respect

During our assembly we spoke about what respect means to us.  We talked about bullying being a repeated unkindness e.g words or physical actions. We explored differences and similarities when looking at the odd socks worn to school today. They realised that although they were all different, we are still a class family together. 

We discussed different scenarios around respect and how we could change them to be kinder. For example, 'a new classmate is sitting alone at lunch time and a group of children walked past and giggled and made comments about them being alone.'

We had discussion about why we wearing odd socks and how we are all different.

We made anti-bullying posters

Children in Need

Children in Need supports children in the community across the UK. They fund amazing people in family centres, community spaces, youth clubs and refuges, homeless shelters, hospices and helplines.

This year, we fundraised for Children in Need by asking children to wear something spotty or yellow in exchange for a suggested donation.

Forest School 

Forest School takes place in our wonderful woodland environment and supports the development of relationships between our learners and the natural world. Forest School is a play based, child initiated approach to learning suitable for all ages. Learning is achieved through playing and exploring as well as teaching skills and knowledge. Forest School is delivered by the amazing Sylvia who brings passion and engagement to every session.

Regular Forest School offers children opportunities to achieve and develop confidence, self-esteem and promotes positive mental well-being. Sessions are planned loosely based on the interests of the children and development needs; we support free-play opportunities and encourage natural curiosity and scaffold this learning through deeper questioning and experiences.

The Forest School approach is that of a holistic one and aims to develop the whole child. Many Forest School activities provide opportunities to problem solve and develop resilience, this approach helps children celebrate their journey rather than just the outcome. 

Some activities in Forest School have a certain element of risk, children are taught how to manage these risks, and this helps children to become confident independent learners. As Forest School continues throughout the year, children learn about the different challenges this can bring and how to overcome these barriers. 

We need to wear  waterproof clothing and wellington boots and recommend children wear old, comfortable clothes as it can be muddy!

Ukulele Lessons

We are very fortunate to have ukulele lessons from the Wiltshire Music Service Music. Sarah taught the whole class lessons to Falcon class, focusing on playing in time, playing basic chords and notes, as well as learning the names for the different parts of the ukulele. We even perpormed to our parensts during our Showcasing Stockham in term 2.

Junior Good Citizens 

Our Year 6 children attended a Junior Citizen's workshop at Oxford Fire Station. The children experienced a range of safety scenarios where they were taught a variety of skills and suggested ways to safely deal with a situation which could arise during daily life.

Each safety scenario gave the children the opportunity of recognising and dealing with danger in a realistic way and one which they will remember, should they need to cope with a similar situation in real life.

World Book Day 

We celebrated World Book on Thursday 6th March. We were really lucky in all our classes as we all recieved a brand new box of books with 50 new 'Reading for Pleasure' books. the books are amazing. We also either dressed up as characters from books or came to school in our pyjamas to enjoy a bedtime story.The adults in the school all dressd up as charcters from Roald Dahl books and we had to guess who they were. We could ask questions, some of them even acted like their character. Some children in the school entered the design and create a book character from a potato. It was a great day. 

Other aspects are delivered through a comprehensive enrichment programme including:

  • Trips (day and residential),
  • Visiting speakers
  • Assemblies
  • Sports clubs
  • Sports Competitions
  • Music performance and events
  • Forest school
  • After school clubs
  • Subject learning clubs
  • Leadership programmes e.g. School Council, Play Leaders
  • Join Your Child@School sessions
  • Showcasing Stockham sessions 
  • Organising charity events 
  • Special Events: religious and cultural
  • Attending Junior Good Citizens

Websites to support:

  • MIND
    MIND provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

  • Nip in the bud
    Information and advice on children's mental health conditions

  • Manup
    Mental health support for men.

  • Barnados
    Supporting children with mental health and emotional wellbeing

 Where to find support and information for bereavement

  • At a loss
    Providing the UK's signposting website for anyone bereaved and those supporting them

  • Winston's Wish
    Winston’s Wish supports bereaved children, young people, their families and the professionals who support them.

Where to find support and information for cyberbullying

  • The Cybersmile Foundation
    The Cybersmile Foundation is a multi-award-winning nonprofit organization committed to digital wellbeing and tackling all forms of bullying and abuse online. We work to promote kindness, diversity and inclusion by building a safer, more positive digital community.

Where to find support and information for domestic abuse

  • Refuge
    For women and children against domestic violence

  • Gov.uk
    Domestic abuse: how to get help

Where to find support and information for drug and alcohol problems