Personal Development at Hardwick Primary School

At Hardwick Primary School, we are proud of the exceptional opportunities on offer to support pupils personal development, enriching their lives and supporting them to develop their character, resilience, confidence and independence; whilst nurturing talents and interests. Our aim is to work in collaboration with families to help nurture and develop children to become responsible, respectful, well rounded and active citizens.

Our Curriculum

​Through our ambitious curriculum offer, children at Hardwick accumulate knowledge, behaviour and skills which leads to a developed cultural awareness. We are conscious of our role in developing children’s objective cultural capital and have planned for children to study a wide range of great artists, musicians and writers in our curriculum from age 2 to 11; introducing them to ‘the best that has been thought and said’. Our spine texts feature a variety of high quality stories and poems and are further enriched by stories that explore issues of race, gender and ethnicity.

British Values

We promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs through:

● our own school values

● our whole school literature bank of quality texts

● our curriculum

● assemblies.

We are proud that our pupils represent a diverse background. We are dedicated in supporting our children to develop their knowledge and skills to become confident, responsible and respectful members of the school and the wider community

Assemblies

Our assemblies are a time when the whole school comes together to celebrate and share in relevant, meaningful experiences, provide opportunities for the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and create a sense of awe and wonder. We have traditional assemblies three times a week where the whole school comes together;

• Our Votes for Schools Assemblies support children's growing understanding of democracy and help promote pupil voice across the school.
• Our Values and Community Assemblies help unite the whole school community around our shared and british values. We also like to welcome in speakers from across our community at this time to widen pupils experience of the world
• Our Celebration Assemblies bring the whole school together weekly to celebrate acheivements both academically and personally. Excellence in school attendance is also celebrated.

Childhood Charter

At Hardwick, we believe that the time children spend with us throughout their Primary Education is precious. Whilst achieving their very best academic outcomes, we also want children to build lifelong memories, lasting friendships and engage in a rich set of experiences from which they can draw upon throughout their lives. Our childhood charter is our commitment to ensuring that children engage in one trip or visit each year, outside of the curriculum that achieves just that. 

Forest Schools

Forest schools is offered as a wellbeing intervention. It offers children regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in our woodland area. Forest schools is a specialised learning approach that sits within and compliments the wider context of outdoor and woodland education. At Hardwick, we have a Level 3 Forest Schools Instructor who delivers this intervention.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

The school provides a range of after school clubs for children across all year groups. We offer clubs such as: Football, Choir, Performing Arts, Dodgeball, Yoga, Dance, Multi-skills and Maths. The sporting clubs develop pupils' understanding of maintaining an active lifestyle and keeping physically healthy. Other clubs promote opportunities for the children to thrive beyond the academic. All clubs are inclusive.

Trips and Visitors

Within the curriculum, there are planned opportunities for trips and visitors to support children’s learning and their personal development. Children are given opportunities to engage with experiences first hand that they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to. Children can draw on these experiences to build their background knowledge.

Special Events

We value opportunities to celebrate and take part in special events linked to subjects, religious festivals, important social matters and to celebrate successes through assemblies, performances and themed days. We believe our special events give our children opportunities for SMSC through awe and wonder, imagination, cultural awareness and creativity

RSE & PSHE

Through our RSE & PSHE curriculum, children are taught about positive relationships and respect for others and how these link to promoting good mental health and well-being. They learn to understand and respect our common humanity; diversity and differences so that they can go on to form the effective, fulfilling relationships that are an essential part of life and learning.

The school uses Kapow RSE/PSHE as a high quality planning support and pathway, which we enrich through different charities and organisations

● NSPCC,

● Oxford Against Cutting - Honour based violence and FGM 

Cultural Capital

What does cultural capital mean at Hardwick Primary School?

Every child and family who joins our setting will have their own knowledge and experiences that will link to their culture and wider family. This might include: languages, beliefs, traditions, cultural and family heritage, interests, travel and work.

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

Cultural capital gives power. It helps children achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.

At Hardwick Primary School, children benefit from a curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. This means our children have a deep and connected knowledge and understanding of where they came from, who they are and what they might become.  We believe that exposure, not only to culture but also to situations in which the children might not have previous experiences of, is of paramount importance to their ongoing successes.

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” (Plutarch) 

We believe that school trips and educational visits and visitors should be viewed as powerful, positive teaching tools that help enhance the social, personal and emotional development of all learners. Extra stimulation in new environments can be particularly beneficial to pupils and can help teach life skills, build on social skills and improve independence and self- confidence. 

We recognise that a rich, varied and appropriate curriculum will facilitate meaningful learning. The purpose of the planned experience is to provide pupils with experiences outside their everyday activities. Learning outside the classroom therefore adds value to each individual’s academic and personal development and is a key component in the implementation of our curriculum intent.  The experiences are deliberately planned as part of a learning journey, therefore reducing pupils cognitive load.  They are encouraged to make links which then enhance the work back in the classroom setting. 

A range of learning opportunities are in place to support the teaching of our creative curriculum, including: educational visits and visitors in addition to residential trips, personalised provision to ensure inclusion for all, stimulating learning environments, innovative use of resources and a varied timetable of after-school activities. A wide range of enrichment and enjoyment activities, including residential opportunities, are embedded in the curriculum and these are used effectively to engage pupils, develop social skills and provide much needed life experiences.  

       

 

All children are entitled to have the best educational start in life.  Regardless of a child’s background, they should all be afforded opportunities that allow them to be ambitious and well educated. We believe that deliberately planning experiences to support the acquisition of knowledge is an integral part of the delivery of our curriculum. It will ensure that learning is brought to life as children are exposed to the best that life has to offer through linking with the local community in a meaningful way as much as possible. 

Children should be given opportunities to dream big and extend themselves beyond that which they thought was possible. Through community collaboration, children are given experiences that enrich both their learning and their understanding of the wider world.

A wide range of enrichment and enjoyment activities, including residential opportunities, are embedded in the curriculum and these are used effectively to engage pupils, develop social skills and provide much needed life experiences.