Personal Development Curriculum

The key aims of our PDC are to support pupils to become responsible, confident, healthy, and tolerant young adults who are prepared for life and work in an ever changing world.

We promote our ethos, that at The Newbridge School we believe in:

• Being Kind and helping others
• Respecting each other
• Being organised and disciplined
• Working hard
• Being proud of who you are

PDC education is a school subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepare for life and work in modern Britain. Evidence shows that student engagement in PDC lessons has an impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for pupils, particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

We believe that PDC education equips students to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of our PDC education is providing opportunities for children and young people to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future. PDC education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.

Many pupils at The Newbridge School lead restricted lives with a limited understanding around some important issues, for example relationships and diversity. There can also often be limited opportunities for them to gain cultural capital and exposure to the wider world. They face specific local threats such as online safety, Child Criminal Exploitation and Child Sexual Exploitation (including County Lines) and there is a definite need to promote Fundamental Values. Our PDC curriculum is a response to the needs of our cohort and part of our intent to produce responsible, confident and tolerant young people equipped to succeed and compete in the communities of the future.

Students have a one hour PDC lesson every week, with their form tutors. For PDC, students are provided with a bespoke booklet for each year (which can be viewed by clicking on the relevant links below). The PDC curriculum encompasses areas of learning around key topics such as citizenship education, health education and relationships and sex education. Following the new government statutory guidelines on Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSE) that come into force from September 2020 we have ensured that the PDC curriculum at The Newbridge School fits the needs of the new statutory guidelines.

 The PDC curriculum is a five-year ambitious and sequential curriculum. It is an age appropriate curriculum based around three core themes – Living in the wider world, health and wellbeing and relationships. The PDC curriculum focuses on both knowledge and virtues, with these being:

• Resilience
• Respect for self and others
• Self-worth
• Honesty
• Courage

Teaching and learning in PDC lessons replicates that in the rest of the The Newbridge School curriculum, with a focus on retrieval practice, interleaving and use of concrete examples in lessons in order for students to used the knowledge gained to be able to relate this to situations they may come across outside of school. Teachers across the school support the school behaviour for learning practices in lessons to help maintain a positive learning environment. As a result, students remain on task and are actively involved during lesson time.

• Interleaving – used across the year groups with a focus on 4 key areas which feature within the curriculum for years 7-11 – Mental and Physical Health and Wellbeing, Living in the wider World, Relationships and Careers
• Dual coding – use of graphical organisers and keywords to help understand learning.
• Retrieval Practice – used as starter and plenaries throughout the schemes of work.
• Elaboration – scaffolded questioning to encourage detail and development of extended writing.
• Concrete Examples – used the frequently to model good practice and lead to increased understanding and application of key themes in the wider world

PDC IMPLEMENTATION

At The Newbridge School PDC is delivered thematically on a weekly basis. These lessons are rolling to ensure that enough time is given for PDC to be delivered effectively. Each lesson falls under one of the three key themes (health and well-being, living in the wider world and relationships) which are spiralled throughout the five year PDC curriculum. Units are designed with schema development in mind, to ensure that all students can commit knowledge to long-term memory. These units are bespoke for the community of The Newbridge School, and serve to improve physical, social, sexual and health education of our students. Units meet all the statutory guidance set out by the DfE and are sequenced to build on knowledge developed in previous Key Stages.

PDC is delivered with whole-school pedagogical techniques at the forefront. These include:

• Interleaving – used across the year groups with a focus on 4 key areas which feature within the curriculum for years 7-11 – Mental and Physical Health and Wellbeing, Living in the wider World, Relationships and Careers
• Dual coding – use of graphical organisers and keywords to help understand learning.
• Retrieval Practice – used as starter and plenaries throughout the schemes of work.
• Elaboration – scaffolded questioning to encourage detail and development of extended writing.
• Concrete Examples – used the frequently to model good practice and lead to increased understanding and application of key themes in the wider world

PDC is delivered at The Newbridge School by form tutors. This enables teachers who know students extremely well to broach difficult and sensitive topics, as well as maintaining positive relationships with students. Each unit within the curriculum is well resourced, to ensure that PDC is consistently delivered across the school. Students are provided with specialist booklets that are created with our students and context in mind. Students are expected to write key information and complete tasks in their booklets. They are also expected to spend a large part of the lesson discussing key issues and feeding back the results of this. Staff and students are expected to use the whole-school feedback policy to ensure they know how to improve their work.

To supplement the delivery of PDC in classrooms, external agencies are hired. This includes various plays and workshops by companies such as Alter Ego. This aims to tackle safeguarding issues that are closely linked to PDC.

PDC IMPACT

PDC is a subject that does not include summative assessment. Therefore, other tools are required to measure the impact of PDC. One such tool is 360 reviews that take place at various points throughout the year. Learning walks are conducted regularly with booklet scrutiny taking place. This allows both the pedagogy and level of student work to be assessed. Feedback is then provided to ensure that the students receive the best learning environment for PDC.

Student opinion is also important to evaluate the impact of PDC. Student questionnaires are conducted at regular intervals throughout the year, and then analysed. This is then combined with student voice to provide an insight into how PDC impacts on student’s learning.

Analysis of staff teaching, book scrutiny and student opinion is conducted to ensure the following is taking place:

• The PDC curriculum meets the statutory guidance set out by the DfE
• PDC is consistently delivered across the school
• Student receive the same diet of education with all the key metacognitive strategies embedded
• Students know how to improve their learning in PDC
• Students feel safe to discuss sensitive issues

PDC CURRICULUM DOWNLOADS

Full PDC curriculum for 2023-24 academic year