Intent

Our intent at Stanley High School is to ensure all pupils are equipped with the knowledge and skills so that they become successful citizens, upholding the British Values, so they can positively contribute to wider school life and to the community once they have left us at the end of Year 11.

We will ensure that every member of our school community knows that we are committed to supporting their physical health, safety and emotional wellbeing. This is essential to ensure students can safeguard themselves and are aware of where to seek help if they need further support. Through the study of Personal Development, students will encounter health and wellbeing, drug and financial education topics and cover the statutory RSE guidance so that our students are fully equipped to be resilient adults in modern Britain. This will prepare them for their next steps in education or employment with a thirst for lifelong learning.

At Stanley High School, we understand the importance of educating students about sex, relationships, and their health, for them to make responsible and well-informed decisions in their lives. The teaching of RSHE can help to prepare students for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of adult life. It allows us to promote the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental, and physical development of students at school and in the wider society.

Implementation

All students receive timetabled Personal Development lessons. Students in KS3 will have two lessons per fortnight. Students in KS4 have one lesson per fortnight. These cover the statutory content expected within the PSHE/RSE guidelines. The Personal Development Curriculum can be seen below, which shows what topics the students follow within their timetabled lessons.

Curriculum Maps

Personal Development at Stanley High School covers:

• Statutory RSHE: relationships, sex and health education, online safety, drugs education, emotional wellbeing, healthy lifestyles and personal safety, including risk awareness/reduction.
• Citizenship
• Financial Education
• Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Education

RSHE

Education RSE and Health Education

RSHE at Stanley High covers the following topics:

• Families
• Respectful relationships, including friendships
• Online and the media
• Being safe
• Intimate and sexual relationships, including sexual health
• Mental wellbeing
• Changing bodies, including menstruation
• Internet safety and harms
• Physical health and fitness
• Healthy eating
• Drugs, alcohol and tobacco
• Health and prevention
• Basic first aid

Schools are also required to teach the law around the following topics:

• Marriage
• consent, including the age of consent
• violence against women and girls
• online behaviours including image and information sharing (including ‘sexting’, youth-produced sexual imagery, nudes, etc.)
• pornography
• abortion
• sexuality
• gender identity
• substance misuse
• violence and exploitation by gangs
• extremism/radicalisation
• criminal exploitation (for example, through gang involvement or ‘county lines’ drugs operations)
• hate crime
• female genital mutilation (FGM),

Citizenship

Citizenship – National Curriculum

“A high-quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society. Citizenship education should foster pupils’ keen awareness and understanding of democracy, government and how laws are made and upheld. Teaching should equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to explore political and social issues critically, to weigh evidence, debate and make reasoned arguments. It should also prepare pupils to take their place in society as responsible citizens, manage their money well and make sound financial decisions.”

Citizenship National Curriculum in England

• the development of the political system of democratic government in the United Kingdom, including the roles of citizens, Parliament and the monarch.
• the operation of Parliament, including voting and elections, and the role of political parties the precious liberties enjoyed by the citizens of the United Kingdom.
• the nature of rules and laws and the justice system, including the role of the police and the operation of courts and tribunals.
• the roles played by public institutions and voluntary groups in society, and the ways in which citizens work together to improve their communities, including opportunities to participate in school-based activities.
• the functions and uses of money, the importance and practice of budgeting, and managing risk.
• parliamentary democracy and the key elements of the constitution of the United Kingdom, including the power of government, the role of citizens and Parliament in holding those in power to account, and the different roles of the executive, legislature and judiciary and a free press.
• the different electoral systems used in and beyond the United Kingdom and actions citizens can take in democratic and electoral processes to influence decisions locally, nationally, and beyond.
• other systems and forms of government, both democratic and non-democratic, beyond the United Kingdom.
• local, regional, and international governance and the United Kingdom’s relations with the rest of Europe, the Commonwealth, the United Nations, and the wider world.
• human rights and international law.
• the legal system in the UK, different sources of law and how the law helps society deal with complex problems.
• diverse national, regional, religious, and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom and the need for mutual respect and understanding.
• the different ways in which a citizen can contribute to the improvement of his or her community, to include the opportunity to participate actively in community volunteering, as well as other forms of responsible activity.
• income and expenditure, credit and debt, insurance, savings and pensions, financial products and services, and how public money is raised and spent.

Financial Education

Students at Stanley High School have themed units of work to ensure they receive a financial education that prepares them for the rest of their lives.

Units include:

• Financial basics: debit cards, savings accounts, spending ethically, getting good value for money and the impact of money on mental health.
• Debt: credit cards, mortgages, loans, interest rates, and overdrafts.
• Financial risk: investments, insurance, gambling, targeted advertising, identity theft.
• Finance for the future: wages, pay slips, minimum vs living wage, pensions, tax, gross vs net earnings.

Drug Education

Drug, alcohol and tobacco are topics that are part of health and mental wellbeing curriculum. It gives pupils factual knowledge about the risks posed by alcohol, drugs, and tobacco use, so they are well equipped to make informed and safe choices. Lessons about the risks of smoking, vaping and tobacco are provided by the ‘Intent’ smoking prevention programme, created by the University of Leeds.  Please follow the link

Impact

We believe Personal Development plays a vital part of secondary education and as well as discrete focused lessons, it is also embedded throughout the curriculum and school ethos. Personal Development is integral to the development of our students’ values for them to become a well-rounded citizen in a forever changing community.

By the end of our students journey they will have developed the following skills:

• Students will demonstrate and apply the British Values of Democracy, Tolerance, Mutual respect, Rule of law and Individual Liberty.
• Students will have an understanding about healthy, respectful relationships and friendships and where to go to for help.
• Students will build emotional resilience and become responsible members of society.
• Students will be on their journey preparing them for life and work in modern Britain.
• Students will be able to use their learning throughout the other subjects and general life experiences.
• Students will be financially literate, in preparation for the world of work.

Personal Development is assessed through:

• Knowledge recall quizzes
• Ability to apply knowledge to case studies
• Ability to assess risk and apply risk reducing skills/knowledge
• End of unit reflection and self-evaluation

Formative assessment is used in each lesson. Retrieval practice is embedded throughout all lessons..

Additional information

Extra-Curricular

Young Leaders in Service Award

The Personal Development department runs an extra-curricular opportunity for students to complete the Young Leaders in Service Award through the Southport Lions club.  Students log their hours of service and work towards the Bronze (25-49 hours), Silver (50-99 hours) and Gold (100 or more hours of service). Students may wish to log hours they already do in the community, or volunteer within the school community, if they are part of the award.  This award benefits our students by developing their life skills and provides an award from an international association that can be used for college and job applications.

Trips

 General Election Hustings

In July 2024, 15 Year 9 students had the opportunity to attend a hustings event ahead of the General Election. Students heard from all the Southport candidates and asked questions about their ideas for improving Southport.

All students across Stanley High then got to take part in a ‘mock’ General Election on election day, casting their votes in support of the Southport candidates. Stanley High’s winner was Labour, the same as the result in Southport!

Learning Journey