Personal Development

Personal Development at St Cecilia’s

At St. Cecilia’s, our vision is to provide an excellent, well-rounded education and formation which celebrates our pupils’ academic, emotional, and spiritual achievement, whilst preparing everyone to fulfil their full potential as human beings in God’s World. Personal Development at St. Cecilia’s is both plentiful and accessible to all, maximising the outcomes for every child so that they can flourish in life. We believe that developing as a human being is a key building block for ‘success’ in life. This ‘success’ has many strands including being able to relate to and contribute better to the world around you, developing safe and fulfilling relationships with others, growing a character that values equality and inclusivity whilst supporting what is right and just, having high levels of belief and fulfilling potential. We nurture happy, healthy young people who have the knowledge, academic achievement, and strength of character to lead safe and successful lives in modern Britain, preparing them for their next steps in education or employment with a thirst for lifelong learning. We ensure that every member of our school community knows that we are committed to supporting their physical health, safety, and emotional wellbeing throughout their journey with us.

Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is something that flows through our Personal Development offer. At St. Cecilia’s, we define it as the much-needed assets that will give our students the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility, whatever their starting point. It is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that each student can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge, and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. At St. Cecilia’s we recognise that for our children to aspire and be successful academically and in the wider areas of their lives, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop their cultural capital.

Culture of Personal Development

Our fundamental aim is to keep our pupils safe, both during their time with us and as adults, so naturally there are themes within Personal Development that overlap with our safeguarding culture (please visit these pages on the website). In the document below you will find an overview of our Personal Development programme, including examples of its implementation. At St Cecilia’s we promote Personal Development in many ways including through the taught curriculum, the example and high expectations we set, through whole school events and opportunities, our PSHE and RSHE programme and more individualised experiences for those from whom we have identified additional need or intervention. Together with our safeguarding culture, we immerse our pupils in a culture that promotes personal growth and readiness.

For ease of your interpretation of the document below, we are able to group some components of our Personal Development programme into areas such as:

Safe Relationships
Physical Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing
Relationships and Sex Education
Equality, Inclusion and Opportunity
Fundamental British Values
Citizenship
Spiritual Development
Moral Development
Social development
Cultural Development
Character Development
Futures, Finance and Careers

Our Personal Development programme is fluid and adapted in accordance to need and incident on the school, community and/or national awareness/incidents. We update this each term that so that you are able to gather a sense of currency.