At Kassia Academy, Personal Development is taught through two dedicated lessons each week. Our Personal Development curriculum brings together PSHE and RSE, Citizenship and Careers, helping learners develop the knowledge, understanding and practical skills they need to lead safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, participate positively in society and prepare for greater independence and adult life.
Within Personal Development, Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) support learners to understand themselves, build positive and respectful relationships, recognise and manage risk, make informed decisions and develop the confidence to seek help when needed. PSHE and RSE also make an important contribution to safeguarding and learners’ wider personal development.
Our PSHE and RSE curriculum is carefully sequenced from Years 7 to 11 and is organised around six core strands:
Life Beyond School
Health and Well-being
Relationships
Staying Safe On and Offline
Celebrating Diversity and Equality
Rights, Responsibilities and British Values
These themes are revisited as learners move through the school, allowing important knowledge to be strengthened and explored in greater depth as learners mature.
RSE is taught through the Relationships strand and is planned as part of the wider PSHE curriculum. Learners develop age-appropriate knowledge about healthy relationships, consent, boundaries, sexual health, safety and responsibility, with teaching becoming increasingly sophisticated as they progress through the school. The statutory elements of RSE are delivered in line with the school’s separate RSE Policy.
Citizenship education helps learners understand the society in which they live and the role they can play within it. Through the curriculum, learners develop knowledge of democracy, the rule of law, rights and responsibilities, equality, British Values and life in modern Britain. They are encouraged to consider different perspectives, discuss important issues respectfully and develop the knowledge needed to participate responsibly in their communities.
Careers education is also an important part of Personal Development. Learners explore their strengths, aspirations and future opportunities and develop an understanding of further education, training, employment and the wider world of work. As they move through the school, careers learning increasingly supports informed decision-making and preparation for the transition into adulthood.
For our learners, explicit teaching of safety, relationships, social understanding and independence is particularly important. Learning therefore uses clear explanations, real-life examples, discussion, scenarios and regular revisiting so that learners can apply what they know beyond the classroom.
Safeguarding is woven throughout the curriculum. Alongside planned teaching, we retain flexibility to respond to emerging risks affecting our learners or the local community, ensuring that learning remains relevant and responsive while key safeguarding knowledge is revisited over time.
British Values, SMSC and the protected characteristics are taught through meaningful curriculum content rather than as isolated topics. Teachers make these links explicit and revisit important concepts so that learners increasingly understand how equality, respect, rights, responsibility and participation apply in modern Britain.
