Personal Development

Our Approach to Personal Development

At SS Peter and Paul, we believe that personal development is a vital part of every child’s journey. We are committed to nurturing well-rounded young individuals who thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Our approach ensures that children are supported to grow into self-motivated, respectful, and valued global citizens.

Personal development at SS Peter and Paul is embedded across all aspects of school life, reflecting our vision and values. We aim to equip pupils with the knowledge, skills, and moral values needed to face the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Curriculum and Policies

Our curriculum is carefully designed to promote spiritual, moral, social, and cultural (SMSC) development, alongside the National Curriculum. We integrate lessons on fundamental British values, our School Gospel values and Mission Statement, respect for protected characteristics, and cultural diversity, ensuring pupils understand their rights and responsibilities within a diverse society.

Our school policies support this holistic development, with clear guidelines on behaviour, inclusion, and safeguarding that foster a positive and respectful school culture.

Clubs and Enrichment Activities

We offer a wide range of clubs and enrichment opportunities that encourage pupils to extend their learning and explore interests beyond the classroom.

Assemblies and Performance Opportunities

Regular assemblies provide a platform to celebrate achievements, promote our school Gospel values, and explore important social themes. Pupils also have opportunities to participate in performances and presentations and read at Mass which helps to build self-expression and public speaking skills.

Playing & Learning Outdoors

Our outdoor learning environments, including our forest school activities, encourage curiosity and physical development. Our approach to lunchtime – Playing and Learning Outdoors – fosters social skills, resilience, well-being and a connection with the natural world.

Volunteering and Community Engagement

We actively encourage pupils to engage in volunteer roles. These nurture a sense of responsibility and belonging.

PE & Sport

Physical education and sport are key elements of our personal development programme. We promote healthy lifestyles and teamwork through a range of sports activities and competitions, tailored to be inclusive for all pupils.

Music

We actively encourage participation in music lessons, provide opportunities for whole classes to learn an instrument and offer a weekly choir and orchestra. Children perform regularly for their peers and visitors to the school.

Parental Engagement and Support

We recognise the importance of partnership with parents and carers in supporting pupil development. Our school actively involves families through regular communications, workshops, and events, ensuring that parents are informed and engaged in their child’s personal growth.

External Links and Resources

To enhance learning and development, we provide access to trusted external resources and links that support pupils’ understanding of the curriculum, wider social issues, and wellbeing.

SS Peter and Paul Personal Development Overview

Curriculum	Our curriculum is thoughtfully planned to support pupil’s personal development, with a strong emphasis on our School Gospel values through RE and RSHE. These subjects particularly focus on promoting spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development as well as health, personal safety and wellbeing as well as embedding fundamental British values. They also actively address protected characteristics, equality and diversity to nurture respectful, inclusive and well-rounded individuals.	Policies and Positive Behaviour Curriculum	Our school's policies and curriculum are designed to robustly support pupils’ personal development, ensuring a safe, inclusive and nurturing environment. Key policies that underpin this commitment include our positive behaviour curriculum, Safeguarding policy, anti-bullying policy, SEND and Inclusion policy and RE and RSHE policies. Together, these frameworks promote wellbeing, personal safety, respect for diversity and the development of social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding.
Clubs	Each term our school offers a range of extra-curricular clubs before school, at lunchtime and after school to support pupils' personal development. Some clubs are selected through pupil voice, ensuring they reflect pupils’ interests, while others are specifically targeted to identified groups to promote inclusion and provide tailored support for all pupils. Clubs include choir, orchestra, Maths club, Prayer and Rosary club and various sports clubs.	Performance Opportunities	At SS Peter and Paul, we give our pupils many opportunities to experience theatre and drama as audience members as well as performers. Planned performance opportunities play a key role in supporting pupils’ personal development. Pupils actively participate in an annual class assembly, Liturgical celebrations such as the KS1 and EYFS Nativity play, KS2 Carol Service at the Cathedral and Y5 Stations of the Cross at Easter, as well as the end of Year 6 production. Children are also encouraged to celebrate their achievements by performing in front of the school and wider school community. These performances include the choir, orchestra, piano, guitar and ukulele concerts. Children also take part in performances organised by external organisations such as Bristol Plays Music. All pupils have the opportunity to attend the theatre once a year in addition to watching a visiting theatre company in school. Various year groups also attend productions at different times during the year, including author talks. KS1and EYFS attend drama workshops on a termly basis.
Playing and Learning Outdoors	Our approach to play and learning at breaktimes, lunchtimes and lesson time actively supports children’s personal development by fostering decision-making, risk assessment, collaboration, problem-solving, leadership and responsibility. Year 5 playground leaders are trained to support the younger children at playtimes, and we have a specialist play and sports leader in the playground with KS2 at lunchtimes to engage children in meaningful sports and games. Forest school is something we have developed and are very proud of. Children have the opportunity to have a hands-on learning experience in our woodland area through den building, campfire cooking and experiencing nature. Through this, children develop resilience, independence and teamwork.	Assemblies	Assemblies at the whole school, key stage and class levels play a vital role in supporting pupils’ personal development. They provide opportunities for celebration, reflection and thoughtful consideration of wider social, moral and cultural issues, helping foster a positive school ethos and a deeper understanding of the world.
Enrichment Activities	We ensure there are a wide range of enrichment activities for the children throughout the year. These include the Year 6 residential in Wales, school trips to the Bristol Zoo project, the Downs with the Avon Wildlife Trust, Bristol Dockyards, Caerleon Roman Museum and Amphitheatre, Bristol Museum, Slimbridge Wetland centre, John Wesley’s new room, Temple Meads station and the Air Raid shelter in Bristol as well as different local places of worship and the local library. Visits to the Create Centre for Life skills, Bikeability training and a visit from the air ambulance, including training on CPR support children’s awareness of keeping safe outside school. We invite visitors to school to run curriculum-enhancing workshops such as Drama and Engineering workshops, History talks, Science and Climate assemblies, fundraising opportunities, sports taster sessions and talks from religious leaders of different faiths. These experiences all contribute significantly to children’s personal development, they broaden understanding, foster cultural awareness, promote social responsibility and build character.	Volunteering	Our school provides many opportunities for pupils to volunteer for positions of responsibility that contribute positively to school life, the wider community and beyond. These roles include School Council members, Chaplaincy group leaders, Play leaders, Eco Group members as well as Sports leaders. These roles help develop leadership, teamwork and a sense of civic duty.
PE and Sport	Personal development is a key thread in our delivery of the PE curriculum, though Real PE which focuses on the whole child beyond physical ability. Real PE creates a safe, inclusive environment that fosters confidence, resilience and independent thinking. The programme is structured around six multi-ability ‘’cogs’’ – Personal, Social, Cognitive, Creative, Physical and Health and Fitness – that support holistic growth. It builds confidence and self-esteem by celebrating individual progress and personal bests, while embedding core values such as empathy, determination, compassion and respect. Pupils develop life skills including problem-solving, decision-making and creativity alongside social skills through teamwork and communication. The reflective ‘’Review’’ stage promotes self-awareness, and regular physical activity supports mental health and wellbeing. Pupils learn to maintain healthy lifestyles, participate in competitive sports with sportsmanship and develop leadership skills by organising events such as the KS1 Sports day and acting as role models. Our commitment to PE and Sport is further enhanced through extracurricular clubs such as multi-sports, archery, golf, dance, dodgeball, angling, cricket and water sports. The children are also given the opportunity to enter interschool sports competitions to compete against other local schools.	Protected Characteristics	We are committed to developing pupils’ understanding and appreciation of diversity, celebrating shared values and promoting respect for the protected characteristics as defined in law. While these themes are explicitly taught through RSHE and RE our approach to personal development ensures that respect for diversity is a consistent thread running through the wider curriculum and is clearly evident in our school ethos.
British Values and School Gospel Values	We value the diversity of the backgrounds of all pupils, families and the wider school community and strongly believe in upholding British Values through all aspects of school provision. Our school reflects British Values in all that we do. We aim to nurture our children in their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and the wider world. Through our RE provision, RSHE and general school ethos, we continually refer to our school Gospel values and Mission statement. SS Peter and Paul actively promotes these values in a range of meaningful ways through lessons, assemblies, community events, trips and visitors to school.	External Links	Wider links with external agencies play a vital role in supporting pupils’ personal development by providing additional expertise, resources and experiences beyond the school setting. These partnerships enhance our provision by addressing specific needs such as mental health, safety, wellbeing and social skills, ensuring pupils receive comprehensive support to thrive both in and out of school.
Parental Engagement and Support	Our strong commitment to parental engagement and support significantly contributes to pupils’ personal development. Through an open-door policy, signposting to and hosting external support services, targeted workshops and providing emotional, practical and financial assistance, we foster a collaborative partnership with families. This holistic approach ensures pupils receive the care and stability needed to thrive emotionally, socially and academically.	Music	We support our children to experience and study music and provide many opportunities for music lessons and singing. We offer keyboard, piano, guitar and cello lessons and all Year 5 children have the opportunity to learn the ukulele, while KS2 children have the opportunity to attend the choir and join the orchestra.