Welcome to Personal Development!

The Personal Development Curriculum offer is broad and balanced.  We have ensured that students at John Henry Newman Catholic College are exposed to a rigorous and research led model for Personal Development which is guided by the:

  • Catholic Education Service
  • the PHSE Association (whole school membership)
  • University of Birmingham Jubilee Centre of Research – Character Education 
  • The purpose of Personal Development is to:
  1. Develop character virtues  – spiritual growth, good sense, practical wisdom; the capacity to choose intelligently between alternatives.
  2. Supports pupils to access diverse aspects of life
  3. Provides skills and opportunities to support them in adult life.

Building character is a cornerstone to our Personal Development purpose of helping our pupils develop into happy, confident, successful individuals who will contribute positively to the world around them, inspired by our Catholic values and our Heart values and mission.   At John Henry Newman we firmly believe that parents are the chief educators of their children in relation to their personal development. We therefore see our role as serving parents in order to complement their infinitely valuable work. Our curriculum intent is therefore to increase the cultural and personal capital of our students through to adding to the experiences, knowledge and inspiration that parents have imparted. This happens progressively within 6 strands; Personal Development lessons where the PSHE curriculum is delivered; Careers Education during Formation for all year groups including Careers, Apprenticeship and training and Financial Education; the Heart Curriculum, where core themes such as British Values, Citizenship and Anti bullying are covered; Extracurricular activities; giving students the opportunity to widen and develop their skills including Sports Leadership; RSE and RSHE, completed during KS3 discrete PD lessons and KS4 Formation time; and Subject curriculum links. An ‘at a glance’ overview of the curriculum can be seen below along with overviews of the discrete KS3 lessons taught and KS4 PD Formation sessions, RSE policy and Subject Curriculum links.

At John Henry Newman Catholic College, we teach ‘Relationship and Sex Education’ through the online resources provided through the organisation ‘TenTen’. This is the resource recommended by the CES and Birmingham Diocese. Whilst the central lesson aims of each lesson are shown in the attached document we do however adapt the resources to meet the needs of our own students.

For further information see:https://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/