At Dussindale we recognise that the primary years are a key time for children to develop their own identity and aspirations for the future. 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 opportunities we can offer them while at Dussindale will impact upon their future, helping them to develop the core values we hold at the school. This is why Personal Development is at the heart of our curriculum offer.
Curriculum Drivers and Values
Our whole curriculum is underpinned by 6 curriculum drivers. These drive and shape our school and underpin the learning and experiences we undertake in all aspects of school life. These key drivers are personal to our school and are tailored towards developing the whole child. Our personal development curriculum goes beyond the national curriculum.
Our curriculum drivers are to:
- become society ready
- have high aspirations
- develop strong emotional resilience
- have good communication and oracy skills
- be curious and develop a love of learning
- have memorable opportunities and experiences
The Dussindale Values
We have made a whole school commitment to the teaching and development of character traits, attributes and behaviours which underpin achievement and success; endeavouring to ensure that developing ‘character’ goes hand in hand with high educational aspirations and achievement.
At Dussindale Primary School we have developed a set of specific values that we teach the children on an annual cycle. The six values were decided upon in collaboration with the staff and pupils of the school, with a value allocated to every half term the children are at school. The planned programme supports our children in making good choices both in their learning and around the school. They incorporate the ‘nine protected characteristics’ to ensure that our pupils develop the skills to be good citizens in the future.
The values are used as a focus in our assemblies and are celebrated in the whole school assembly each week, as well as being woven into teaching and learning within classrooms. Our Values Assemblies teach pupils about the personal qualities valued in society. Assemblies, both whole and key stages, enable pupils to explore issues relating directly to rules, behaviour and bullying.
Our personal development curriculum provides significant opportunities for pupils to engage in the following key areas:
PSHE/RSE
At Dussindale we understand the importance of the PSHE curriculum and its power to equip our children with the knowledge, understanding and emotions they need to be able to play an active, positive and successful role in today’s society. We want our children to have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.
As a school, we have recognised that our children need support developing their emotional resilience and personal perspective. To fully support them in this and to make our children society ready, able to keep themselves safe and able to succeed in all areas of life we have chosen to teach PSHE through the scheme Jigsaw.
With a strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health, Jigsaw 3-11 helps us deliver engaging and relevant PSHE/RSE curriculum with a whole-school approach. Jigsaw lessons also include mindfulness allowing our children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus.
The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of the protected characteristics that we all have.
Under the Equality Act, there are nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Race – including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- Religion or belief
- Marriage or civil partnership
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy and maternity
No form of discrimination is tolerated at Dussindale Primary School and our pupils show respect for those who share the protected characteristics. We do not teach about all the protected characteristics in every year group. The curriculum is planned and delivered so that our pupils develop age appropriate knowledge and understanding during their time at Dussindale Primary School.
We have carefully planned our enrichment program from EYFS to Year 6, to ensure that our children have a range of opportunities and experiences before they move onto high school. We also welcome a wide variety of educational visitors to school, including sports specialists, authors and a number of others who are specialists in their fields. These activities form a valuable part of the children’s learning and development. We do depend on the financial support of parents to be able offer these visits, however, no child will be excluded where there is a case of genuine financial need. In addition to this we are always seeking ways how Dussindale children can make a positive contribution to their local community, from litter picking at the local park, promoting safer parking around school and performing at the local care home.
Experience Days
To enhance our curriculum and provide meaningful learning opportunities, we aim to provide the children with a variety of experience days. We love seeing our children and staff dressed up as Ancient Egyptians or Superheroes, for example, participating in activities for a range of themed days such as World Book Day.
Residential Trips
During the year, our older children are fortunate enough to attend various residential trips. These include overnight stays at venues at Eaton Vale and Gilwell Park Scouts Centre. To prepare our children to stay away, our younger children all look forward to the Year 2 sleepover at school where they get to camp in school with their friends, participate in evening activities and enjoy breakfast in the morning.
Clubs and Curriculum Environment
We have an exciting range of after-school and lunchtime clubs including drama, athletics, girls football, choir, cooking, nature, reading, art and many more. The clubs are run by our staff and are free to our pupils.
https://www.dussindaleprimary.co.uk/learning/clubs/: Personal DevelopmentWe believe that the views, experiences and influence of our pupils are a crucial part of our drive to continuously improve our provision. We therefore seek ways to listen to the views of our pupils and involve them in decision-making so that they are engaged as partners in the life of the school. We create meaningful roles for pupils to allow them to develop leadership skills. Our Pupil Voice and Peer Leadership Roles are:
- School Council
- Lunchtime Helpers
- Mental Health Ambassadors
- Library Leaders
- Digital Leaders
- House Captains
- Play Leaders
At Dussindale Primary School we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff to ensure that our school is a community where everyone feels able to thrive. Positive mental wellbeing is essential if our children are to flourish and lead fulfilling lives. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.
Our school values of resilience, friendly and hopeful are promoted through our school’s day to day curriculum. When our children experience challenging times that affect them emotionally, we are here to support them. At Dussindale through our PSHE, RSE curriculum and Safeguarding and behaviour routines all children learn about what they can do to manage and maintain their own positive mental health. They are taught when to when to seek help, what help is available and what can affect their mental health.
