Sir John Hunt

The term Personal Development at Sir John Hunt encompasses:

• Personal Development (PD) and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC)

(as defined by the Ofsted inspectors handbook 2019)
• Modern British Values and Citizenship (as outlined in the National Curriculum);
• Relationships and Sex Education (RSE)
• Collective worship and spirituality
• Sir John Hunt’s College attributes and Character education
• Careers Advice and Guidance (as defined by the Gatsby benchmarks)

Nationally there has been much debate about the importance of Personal Development and the delivery of RSE and it features significantly in the School Inspection Handbook. The College adopts an embedded approach for its delivery and the strands feature in curriculum time, assemblies, extracurricular experiences, and the College’s leadership and volunteering programme.

All students in Years 7-9 have a 50-minute timetabled lesson each week for Personal Development, which is delivered by a subject specialist. This learning is enhanced through a series of six structured Drop Down Days (DDD) across all three Key Stages and a weekly session during AM Reg for Key Stages 3 and 4.

Curriculum Audits have enabled topics to be highlighted that are not sufficiently covered in depth across the Curriculum and these, along with parent and staff feedback and student surveys have shaped the themes and planning for each Drop Down Day and the College’s weekly AM reg and assembly programme.

Students in Key Stages 3 have a total of 72.5 hours of Personal Development a year (32.5 hours lessons, 10 hours AM Reg and 30 hours Drop Down Days) and Key Stage 4 have a total of 40 hours Personal Development across a typical academic year (10 hours during AM Reg and 30 hours Drop Down Days).

The work our students do for Personal Development encourages them to engage with views, beliefs and opinions that are different from their own, and diversity is reflected across all Personal Development themes, not just in focussed Diversity lessons. The College further promotes diversity by a dedicated ‘Faith and Diversity’ Drop Down Day in Term 5 and by working towards kitemarks such as the Rainbow Flag Award. Students are taught about protected characteristics and discrimination, and these characteristics can be seen represented across all Personal Development lessons.

The College promotes pupils’ SMSC development and their physical and mental well-being across the entire curriculum, with physical and mental well-being also being a focus point in Term 6.

Term 1 for all year groups focusses on promoting British Values to prepare pupils for life in Modern Britain, developing their understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberties and respect and tolerance. This also encompasses the Prevent programme, which is delivered in Year 7 and revisited regularly.

Throughout Personal Development, pupils are provided with opportunities to understand how to be responsible, respectful and active citizens, and are taught how to make positive contributions to society. We further enhance this by giving Year 11 students the opportunity to become Prefects and by giving KS5 students the opportunity to become a MTA.

External providers are often used to deliver more sensitive topics, including our RSE programme (more information can be found in our Relationships and Sex Education Policy).

We work alongside the Zone to deliver RSE, Sharp for Drugs and Alcohol, and MHST for mental health awareness and resilience workshops.

All students receive careers sessions as part of the KS3 Personal Development Curriculum, and KS4 have careers sessions built into their Drop Down Days. All students receive unbiased information about careers and next steps, and are given the opportunity to receive careers talks and information from employers, local businesses and from an independent external careers advisor. We are consistently hitting the Gatsby Benchmarks in our Careers Provision, which includes a week of work experience in Year 10.

Our Personal Development programme is mapped over a 5 year programme, but remains flexible if necessary to cover current affairs and relevant news stories that may affect our students.

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