Personal Development and CEIAG

At Bloxham Grove Academy we believe that personal development, behaviour and welfare is one of the most important aspects of our students’ growth. It is recognised that emotional health and wellbeing influences students’ cognitive development and this is supported throughout the whole school and championed by the Pastoral Team. 

Promoting our students’ emotional health and wellbeing is paramount and we do have good working relationships with a range of external services who work with us to support individual students and their families within a multi-professional team.  Such external professionals include CAMHS, SAFE, The Centre for Emotional Health, See Saw, etc. 

Our Personal, Social,  Emotional and Health (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum provides the foundation to promoting personal development throughout each student’s school career. 

However, that is only the starting point for our vision and values in the personal development offer for our students.  We also focus on the following aspects:

Developing: 

  • Responsible, respectful and active citizens who are able to play their part and become actively involved in public life as adults 
  • Students’ understanding of the fundamental British Values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance 
  • Students’ character, which Ofsted defines as a set of positive personal traits, dispositions and virtues that informs their motivation and guides their conduct so that they reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well with others 
  • Students’ confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy 
  • Students’ understanding of how to keep physically healthy, eat healthily and maintain an active lifestyle, including giving ample opportunities for students to be active during the school day and through extra-curricular activities 
  • Students’ age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships through appropriate relationships and sex education 

Promoting: 

  • Equality of opportunity so that all students can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique 
  • An inclusive environment that meets the needs of all students, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation 

Enabling: 

  • Students to recognise online and offline risks to their wellbeing – for example, risks from criminal and sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, substance misuse, gang activity, radicalisation and extremism – and making them aware of the support available to them 
  • Students to recognise the dangers of inappropriate use of mobile technology and social media 

Supporting:

  • Readiness for the next phase of education, training or employment so that students are equipped to make the transition successfully 

Our curriculum extends beyond the academic, providing for students’ broader development and our wider work supports students to be confident, resilient and independent. Helping our students to become increasingly independent starts as soon as they join our school. This occurs both inside and outside the classroom in the following ways:

  • Offering independent or small group interventions run by our Pastoral Team
  • Encouraging autonomy in decision making
  • Accessing own classroom resources 
  • Agreeing personal and independence targets alongside the student through the TOPs process
  • Recognising each student’s individual skills, strengths and areas of challenge
  • Celebrating success and encouraging intrinsic motivation
  • Recognising student aspirations during the Annual Review meeting and working with parents/carers to ensure these goals are achieved
  • Ensuring appropriate work experience opportunities 
  • Supporting independent travel

We provide our secondary aged students with an effective careers programme in line with the government’s statutory guidance on careers advice that offers students the following

  • Unbiased careers advice
  • Experience of work, and
  • Contact with employers to encourage students to aspire, make good choices and understand what they need to do to reach and succeed in the careers to which they aspire