Personal Development

All students follow an aspirational curriculum that gives them the opportunity to study a wide range of high-quality subjects, including EBacc subjects. There are also opportunities to pursue a wide range of creative and practical subjects and all students develop the digital literacy skills needed to thrive in the 21^st century.

As part of our commitment to providing a wide range of enrichment opportunities for all pupils, we have introduced our Super Curriculum which all pupils participate in every Wednesday between 3:05pm and 4:05pm 

For more information on our Super Curriculum click here

As part of our Inevitable Progress teaching and learning model, all students are taught how to use a series of ‘thinking tools’. Across all subjects and year groups, students become experts in the use of approaches such as de Bono’s Thinking Hats and Hyerle’s Thinking Maps. Students are given practical skills to allow them to think deeply and independently.

Across the school, students are given the chance to employ the Reciprocal Reading approach. This allows them to learn the skills they need to extract the meaning of challenging texts. As well as the skills necessary to read well, we also foster a love for reading and appreciation of the power of books. Building vocabulary is also integral to our day-to-day practice and all staff recognise their responsibility to support students with this.

Through assemblies and thoughts for the week, we support students to think deeply and develop fundamental British values that include mutual respect and tolerance. Exploring a consistent thematic thread across a series of assemblies allows students to develop a deeper understanding of important issues that affect the world around them.

Our investment in Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance has led to the school successfully achieving the Quality in Careers Mark. Our ‘Careers Journey’ also meets the eight Gatsby Benchmarks that are the nationally accepted standard for high-quality careers provision. Partnerships have also been forged with local education/training providers, employers and higher education institutions.

We offer a wide range of educational visits and enrichment activities.  The impact of these visits and activities is maximised by being carefully integrated into our subject curriculum plans. Visits overseas and within the UK are all designed to enrich the core curriculum and provide opportunities for students to go beyond this. When planning visits and enrichment, we have a focus on raising aspiration and providing opportunities for all.

There are numerous opportunities for students to represent the school in sporting or other activities. Our approach to charitable giving is driven by our student body and this is just one of the ways in which they are able to engage positively with the local and wider community.  We also have a close partnership with National Citizen Service (more details below) and large numbers of our Year 11 students volunteer to take part in their community engagement programme each year.

National Citizen Service is a national organisation that is promoted by the government and which aims to support the development of young people as active and reflective citizens who are well-rounded and equipped to make a positive contribution to society.

After leaving Year 11, students have the opportunity to take part in a programme of activities that include residential experiences. Through these activities, young people can develop their own initiative and make a positive contribution to their local community.

The aims of NCS are very well matched to our school ethos and values and we, therefore, work closely with NCS to make sure that our Year 11 students are aware of the opportunities that are available to them through NCS. During Year 11, staff from NCS speak to all students as part of our assembly programme and visit school regularly to make sure all of our students are supported to sign up and take part.

We have been extremely successful in recent years in encouraging large numbers of students to take part in NCS. We take great pride in the fact that so many of our students have chosen to join the programme and were delighted to be recognised as a ‘Champion School’ by NCS in 2016, due to the large numbers of our students taking part and also the school’s ‘proactive and positive engagement with the programme’.

For anyone interested in finding out more about what NCS has to offer, visit their website at http://www.ncsyes.co.uk

We take time to encourage all of our students to engage with and reflect upon the wider world.  We recognise important events such as Black History Month, Inter-Faith Week and Diversity Week and do so in a systematic manner that is embedded into our curriculum and allows students to develop a deeper understanding of the wider world.

From September 2024, we are introducing the ‘Skills Builder’ approach to support our students in developing vital cross-curricular skills.  ‘Skills Builder’ identifies 8 essential skills that we all need to develop if we are to achieve success.  Each skill is broken down into 15 steps that move from ‘Getting Started’ in the skill to being able to demonstrate ‘Mastery’.  At times, it is easy to allow the develop of skills to be left to chance, but we know that these skills are so important to allowing our students to reach their full potential, that we need a clear structure to make sure that the skills are a key focus at all times.

Whilst each of the 8 ‘Skills Builder’ skills are extremely important, we have identified 3 skills that will be a particular focus for us at Sedgefield in the coming academic year.  The key skills we will be shining a particular spotlight on are:

• Staying Positive – We know that positive mental health and student wellbeing are incredibly important.  We want our students to
   be happy and to enjoy coming into school each day.  Equally, we know that there will be times when they face big challenges and it is at these times that the ability to remain positive is so vital if they will have the determination to be able to succeed and overcome obstacles in their path.
• Speaking and Listening – Our other focus skills for the coming academic year are the linked skills of Speaking and Listening.  These skills underpin the ability of our young people to be able to interact effectively with others.  If they are to be curious learners and be ambitious to achieve success, accomplished speaking and listening skills are of enormous importance

Our approach to developing these skills will involve a close partnership between home and school, making sure we are able to work together to support our students effectively.

Skills Builder Family Booklet

Our SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) curriculum incorporates lessons relating to PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education, including Relationships and Sex Education, Citizenship and Careers Education. Our carefully-sequenced five-year curriculum is supplemented by a series of events that create additional learning time and give students the opportunity to extend their learning in different contexts and through the input of a wide range of external experts, where this is appropriate. For examples of RSHE teaching materials, please visit the SMSC Frog site

Relationship and Sex Education Policy

Using our identified cross-curricular themes and skills, students are supported to make links between their learning across academic years and subject areas. As students are encouraged to consider vital topical issues, the use of debating lessons helps to provide them with the skills and confidence necessary to articulate their views and respond to the views of others.

Every student’s experience during their time at Sedgefield Community College will be individual to them. However, there are certain activities that will be accessed by all students in a year group, and others that will be potentially accessible to everyone.  Each of these activities can contribute meaningfully to the personal development of our young people.

Based upon this wide programme of activities, we would challenge all of our students to access a wide range of the different opportunities that are available to them.  We have identified six different types of activity and by aiming to take part in all of these during their time at SCC, our young people are able to build the skills, personal qualities and wider cultural capital that they will need to thrive in school and in the future.