Personal Development
Personal Development
At North Birmingham Academy, we recognise the importance of a robust Personal Development curriculum which supports the holistic experience and growth of our students. Each year group has Personal Development hour which incorporates aspects of RSE, PSHE and Citizenship which are supplemented by focussed assemblies and extracurricular experiences. Our careers programme is closely aligned to subject specialisms and pathways with opportunities for work experience and talks with employers through the year.
Careers
We recognise the importance of every subject, key stage and learning opportunity as a building block towards our students’ futures. To support our pupils in understanding the wealth of career options before them and how to develop along their chosen route, we have developed a career programmed closely aligned to academic studies. Each subject explicitly teaches the different pathways their qualification could lead to with an underlying emphasis that all knowledge and experience informs student choices.
Students in Key Stages 4 and 5 also receive individual guidance from a careers advisor with bespoke advice and work experience opportunities related to personal goals. This information is supplemented by or Sixth Form leads, who guide students through university research and applications for Further Education.
For further information, follow this link to our careers section
Citizenship
We aim to ensure our students leave North Birmingham Academy as responsible, well-rounded and empowered citizens. We introduce the importance of community by developing students as contributing members within the academy, preparing them for future social responsibilities when they leave school. Through a robust Personal Development curriculum, we teach citizenship through the British Values of Democracy, the Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance. All students receive two sessions a week that focus upon citizenship which is supplements by extra-curricular trips, assemblies and focussed drop down days.
RSE
At North Birmingham E-Act Academy, RSE forms an integrated part of our Personal Development provision.
The school RSE education will meet the statutory requirements and support the academy’s values of “Thinking Big”, “Doing the Right thing” and” Team Spirit”. The provision will account for students’ age and maturity levels, as well as their cultural and religious backgrounds. Our provision will also ensure students know how to be healthy and safe in school, in their personal relationships and in the wider world.
This RSE curriculum is sequenced to build on subject-specific curriculums including the science curriculum’s study of the human reproductive system, whilst ensuring that we have tailored our provision to consider age-appropriate delivery points. The building of knowledge and life skills over time is sequenced to prepare students for issues they will soon face.
This will include:
- Healthy bodies and lifestyles, including keeping safe, puberty, drugs and alcohol education.
- Different types of relationships, including friendships, family relationships, dealing with strangers and, intimate relationships.
- How to recognise, understand and build healthy relationships, including self-respect and respect for others, commitment, tolerance boundaries and consent, and how to manage conflict, and also how to recognise unhealthy relationships.
- How relationships may affect health and wellbeing, including mental health.
- Healthy relationships and safety online.
- Factual knowledge, around sex, sexual health and sexuality, set firmly within the context of a healthy relationship.
Our RSE curriculum is in line with current regulations from the Department of Education (DfE) and is aimed to meet the requirements set out in Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education (July 2019).
Relationships, Sex Education and Health Education are taught as a statutory subject through Personal Development lessons as well as wider subject curriculums. Through delivering RSE, we make a significant contribution to the academy’s legal duties to;
- prepare students for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life;
- promote the spiritual, moral, social cultural mental and physical development of students.
We will be utilising various outside agencies to work alongside us in meeting the needs of our pupils. The provision will constantly be monitored and updated to ensure that it is age and maturity appropriate and will also take into consideration any pastoral concerns or contemporary issues that may be relevant to the academy.
Parental consultation and right to withdraw.
This curriculum has been open for parental and community consultation since September 2019. This process is still open and ongoing. The Department for Education (DfE, 2019a) is clear that we “recognise the importance of strong, constructive and open conversation with parents in the education of their children.” This will empower you to continue the conversations started in class at home (DfE, 2020).
You cannot withdraw your child from Health Education or the Relationships Education element of Relationships and Sex Education because it is important that all children receive this content, covering topics such as friendships and how to stay safe. If you do not want your child to take part in some or all of the Sex Education lessons delivered at secondary school level, you can ask that they are withdrawn.
We wil consider this request and discuss it with you, and will grant this in all but exceptional circumstances, up until three school terms before your child turns 16. At this age, your child can choose to receive Sex Education if they would like to, and the academy should arrange for your child to receive this teaching unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The science curriculum in all maintained schools also includes content on human development, including reproduction, for which there is no right to withdraw.
If you would like to discuss the RSE curriculum in further detail, please email Sean.McGillan@nba.e-act.org.uk or Rhiannon.Brown@nba.e-act.org.uk
PSHE
Our Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) curriculum is continually assessed and adapted to support the needs of our students. Through communication across the different stakeholders within the academy, our lessons and curriculum plans respond proactively to meet the priorities raised by staff, students and our community.
PSHE in key stage 3 is built upon the knowledge and understanding acquired during the primary phase. We recognise that Year 7 students face new challenges in developing independence and navigating their way in a new school with new experiences. We therefore address ideas of friendships, safeguarding and emotional resilience to support this school transition. As our students continue to move through the key stages and develop as young adults, we teach the knowledge and skills to support the different challenges of adolescence within our changing society.
At Key Stage 4, students deepen the knowledge and understanding introduced in Key Stage 3. As students face greater challenges of exam pressures and financial independence, we focus on skills required for an independent role in adult life.
By Key Stage 5, our students are moving towards greater autonomy in their young adult lives. We therefore teach the knowledge required to understand and navigate wider society with the ability to take responsibility for themselves and others.
Each Key Stage works towards essential learning points where PSHE is supplemented by assemblies, extra-curricular opportunities and external agencies who contribute to the personal development of our students.