Our Personal Development (PD) curriculum is designed so that every pupil, whatever their starting point, has the knowledge and skills to keep themselves and others safe and healthy, to build respectful relationships, and to make informed choices about their future. We want pupils to know their rights and the law, to use correct vocabulary with confidence, and to know who to talk to and where to get help.
PD is taught in one 60-minute lesson each fortnight in Years 7 to 11, through three themes: Living in the wider world (careers and economic wellbeing), Health and Wellbeing, and Relationships. Year 11 has two units (Living in the wider world and Relationships). Each year has a focus: Year 7 Foundations, Year 8 Development and influence, Year 9 Application and risk, Year 10 Real life and responsibility, and Year 11 Independence and transition.
Content is mapped to the statutory guidance Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (July 2025, for teaching from September 2026). Our audit records where each statement is taught. Most are taught in PD lessons; a small number are taught in other subjects or in Moral Moments, a 10-minute session in tutor time each week. The Living in the wider world units contribute to the school’s careers programme alongside other careers activity.
Topics are revisited in greater depth as pupils get older. For example, first aid moves from basic first aid and hands-only CPR in Year 7 (7.10) to full CPR and defibrillators in Year 9 (9.11) and emergency response, including head injuries, in Year 10 (10.10). Consent is revisited every year (7.18, 8.18, 9.18, 10.15, 11.13). Online safety moves from privacy in Year 7 to image sharing, sextortion, AI and deepfakes in Years 8 to 10.
Lessons follow the NLLT Teaching and Learning Framework: retrieval, a Big Question, explicit teaching of key vocabulary, modelling (I do), guided practice (We do, You do), one independent task in books, and a review. Key vocabulary is taught from the unit glossaries, and a word keeps the same definition in every year group.
Sensitive topics are taught safely: agreed ground rules, fictional scenarios so pupils never have to share personal experiences, an anonymous question box, and signposting to support in every lesson. The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is briefed before the lessons identified in each MTP.
About this plan. Units, core knowledge and foundational knowledge are summarised here to make progression explicit. Lesson detail, statutory links, misconceptions and adaptive teaching sit in the Medium Term Plans (MTPs). Lesson numbers (for example 7.6 = Year 7, lesson 6) match the PSHE Curriculum Timeline and the statutory audit. Lessons are placed in half-terms in timeline order, one lesson per fortnight, so exact dates move with the school calendar.
