Personal Development Curriculum

At South Norwood, we provide an exceptional Personal Development Curriculum (PDC) to support the personal and character development of our students throughout their journey at our school. 

In our school, Personal Development (PD) refers to “the development of knowledge, skills, dispositions and habits which will promote and support our students in leading healthy, happy and fulfilling adult lives.”

We believe that a great school curriculum needs to develop the whole child, which is why at South Norwood our Personal Development provision is a core part of every student's experience, from the day they join us in Year 7 all the way through to Year 13. 

In this section of our website, you can read about what we teach, and how we teach it.

Our Curriculum

Our curriculum encompasses a wide range of themes including:

• Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE)
• Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE)
• Social, Moral, Spiritual & Cultural Education (SMSC)
• Careers Education
• Citizenship Education & Britishg Values

You can read more about these themes and more throughout this section.

Woven throughout our curriculum, but especially through SPHERE, is our Safer South Norwood curriculum. This strand of the PDC is focussed on helping students recognise, understand and manage the risks that our changing world presents to them. Sometimes SSN content is explicit, with entire sessions or assemblies dedicated to it. At other times, SSN content is embedded within other elements of the PDC.

How is Personal Development taught here?

At HASN, students experience PD through a wide variety of channels:

• Daily tutor time sessions including two weekly "SPHERE" sessions
• Weekly assemblies
• Personal Development themed days and events like our annual "Culture Day"
• Enrichment activities
• Trips and visits
• Participation in our incredible performance and artistic opportunities throughout the year
• The subject curriculum

Some examples of the kinds of sessions we deliver can be found by clicking the images below:

How does Tutor Time work at HASN?

Our tutor time programme strengthens students' personal and character development through:

• Two weekly SPHERE sessions, focussed on carefully selected age and stage approproiate PD themes
• Weekly Current Affairs sessions with guided discussion and exploration of Citizenship, SMSC and PSHE themes
• Literacy, vocabulary and language development
• First Chapter Thursday, promoting a love of reading
• Weekly Assemblies

These sessions support both academic success and personal growth.

How does our curriculum respond to students' needs?

We ensure our curriculum remains relevant by responding to:

• Current events
• Issues affecting our students and their community
• Local and global developments

This keeps learning meaningful and engaging.