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William Howard School


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A willing team of specialist teachers, an expectation that all subjects will contribute to personal development, and certification of students’ achievements together create an effective personal development programme.

The school

William Howard School is a mixed 11-18 comprehensive school with 1,300 students in a rural setting in Cumbria. A lower than average proportion of students is of an ethnic minority or eligible for free school meals.

The personal development programme

At key stage 4, the following elements of personal development are coordinated under the umbrella title of PSHE:

PSHE
careers (including work experience and work-related learning)
citizenship
sex and relationship education.

Students receive one hour a week of personal development teaching, called PSHE on the timetable. This is taught by specialist teachers on a modular basis and in a carousel system. Students have access via the school’s website to lesson plans and web links to additional information.

There are well-coordinated links between the PSHE lessons and almost all subjects, particularly RE and drama. For example, in sex and health issues, there is an attempt to teach identical topics at around the same time so that moral aspects can be dealt with in RE lessons and physical aspects in PHSE lessons.

Outside agencies such as the local Healthy Schools co-ordinator and Connexions contribute to the personal development curriculum.

A willing specialist team

A key feature of the coordinated approach to personal development has been the creation of a willing team of specialist teachers. A newly appointed coordinator for citizenship and PSHE carried out a review of the school’s approach to PSHE. As a result, responsibility for the personal development curriculum was removed from form tutors, some of whom were not enthusiastic about teaching PSHE, and placed in the hands of willing, specialist staff who appreciated the value of this part of the curriculum.

A cross-curriculum approach

Since the lesson time available for teaching personal development is necessarily limited, the school tries to maximise the opportunities for personal development in all subjects. Subject audits of the personal development curriculum have identified cross-curricular themes and analysed coverage in terms of strengths and omissions. Despite the initial reluctance of a few departments, the school is now well on the way to involving all subject areas in considering how to contribute to the personal development curriculum.

Student participation

Wherever appropriate, students are given choices in the curriculum so that they can decide for themselves what is most relevant to their needs and interests. Students also contribute written evaluations of the programme.

The school wishes to recognise all aspects of students’ personal development, both in and out of school. Therefore this year a log of students’ active participation in community and charity work and involvement in environmental and political concerns is being started.

Certification

The school feels it is important to provide formal recognition of students’ achievements in personal development wherever possible. Certification through the AQA Unit Award Scheme is provided for all PSHE modules. Awards are presented at termly year-group Celebration Assemblies. To recognise out-of-school achievements, the school is keeping a log of each pupil’s active participation in community or charity work, and their involvement in environmental or political activities.