Personal Development
At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, the aim of our Personal Development Curriculum is to enable our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of our society. It supports children with their personal and social development, and develops their understanding of the moral, social and cultural aspects of society and life. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about rights and responsibilities and appreciate what it means to be a member of a diverse community. Our children are encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community. Our Personal Development Curriculum is integral to the development of children’s values in order for them to become positive citizens in an ever-changing community.
Our Personal Development Curriculum encompasses many elements:
PSHE/RSE Curriculum
Catholic Life
Modern British Values
Pupil Voice
Sporting Opportunities
School Clubs
Wider Curriculum & trips
Wider Opportunities
Careers
Praise Culture
Our Character Virtues
PSHE/RSE Curriculum
Our PSHE/RSE curriculum covers the following areas: protected characteristics, safeguarding (including road safety), sexual harassment, child on child abuse, online safety, anti-bullying and financial education. Click here to see where safeguarding is taught across the curriculum Safeguarding Curriculum Map.
Catholic Life
Christ is at the centre of all that we do at St. Joseph’s. As a member of the Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, we strive to offer our children as many opportunities to respond to the call to 'live and serve' in the Catholic community and work closely with internal and external organisations to provide them with the chance to be who 'God has made them to be' - St. Catherine of Siena. Catholic Social Teaching underpins our policies and practices with the most vulnerable always at the centre.
In Year 6, the children work towards earning their Faith in Action pin. This award is something they can continue to work towards as they move into secondary education.
Our Mini Vinnies, led by Mrs A Dybell, turn concern into action by organising and running several events across the liturgical calendar. During Harvest, they organise the Macmillan Coffee Morning, donations to the food bank and work alongside our community at Christmas to raise money for local charities and deliver Christmas Angels to our parishioners. They meet regularly and work together during our CAFOD Lenten Appeal to lead our school through this liturgical season.
We are a Eucharistic community and have strong parish links. We join our parish family weekly for the celebration of mass. Our school actively supports the sacramental preparation programme for First Holy Communion.
Fundamental British Values
The teaching of British Values is woven throughout the curriculum. Each week we have Fundamental British Values assembly based on recent news and events from the Picture News resource. We are proud to be a Picture News Ambassador school.
Pupil Voice Groups
At St. Joseph's, our Pupil Voice groups are a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all our pupils by providing them with meaningful opportunities to share their experiences and hopes about school. Pupils at St. Joseph's know that it is important for them to express their views, that their opinions are valued and that their contributions will be listened to and considered.
Our Pupil Voice groups include: School Council, Reading Crew, Community Crew, Mini Vinnies, Sports Leaders and Search Lights.
Sporting Opportunities
As a member of the Stockton Schools Partnership, children are given the opportunity to participate in activities such as Sports Leadership Academy, Cross Country, Tag Rugby, Football, Athletics, Netball and Cricket across the year. Our school Sports Leaders hold sports activities during lunchtime for children throughout the school. By participating in competitions and festivals, our pupils receive the opportunity to develop their confidence and resilience whilst working as a team.
School Clubs
Our extra-curricular clubs run within 4 strands: Academic, Social, Community and Character. Clubs include arts & crafts, film club, netball, multi-sports, football, choir, board games, animation, cooking club, science and STEM, story club, mindfulness, and gardening. We are also fortunate enough to go to our local secondary school for trampolining, ukulele and keyboard club.
Wider Curriculum
Local class trips are linked to the curriculum and include visits to such as Tees Barrage Visit , Captain Cook Museum, Saltburn Seaside, local theatres and much more.
Wider Opportunities
Throughout the year we participate in many national wider opportunities including: Science Week, STEM Day, Black History Month, World Mental Health Day, Remembrance Day, Road Safety Week, Bikeability, Anti-Bullying Week, Holocaust Memorial Day, National Storytelling Week, Fairtrade Fortnight, World Book Day, National Careers Week, World Maths Day, World Poetry Day, Walk to School Week and Child Safety Week.
Careers
In March, we participate in National Careers' Week, a one-week celebration of careers' guidance and inspiration to help support our young people aspire to achieve and develop awareness and excitement about their future pathways. We invite professionals from a variety of careers to speak to our children about their journeys through education and beyond. In addition to our face-to-face visitors, we also participate in webinars. Speaking to a range of people with vast expertise in their chosen careers allows our children to have aspirations for themselves and the possibilities that lie ahead of them.
Praise Culture
In addition to our virtue certificates, we also have virtue stickers which children receive when they demonstrate our virtues in their actions and in their learning, we celebrate a ‘Star of the Week’, and send postcards home each week. Dojo Points are given to children for following our school rules ‘Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe’. These points are collected each week and the winning Dojo winner from each class and each house is announced. We also reward the class in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 who have read the most at home that week.
Our Character Virtues
Our character virtues of respect and responsibility, justice and compassion, confidence and resilience, honesty and self-belief, run through our curriculum and are designed to help children develop their sense of self and be ready to move with confidence onto their next chapter.
