

	Personal development curriculum
	What is the personal development (PD) curriculum?
	Why coordinate the PD curriculum?
	Learning outcomes
	Principles to support schools
	Components of the PD curriculum
	Links to national guidelines
	Additional guidance relevant to PD curriculum

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Personal development curriculum


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

		Colleges

About this guidance

This guidance outlines how schools can better coordinate areas of the curriculum at key stage 4 that contribute to students’ personal development. This is one of the initiatives set out in 14-19: Opportunity and Excellence.

While there is a wealth of guidance for schools on how to implement aspects of the personal development curriculum, there is much less on coordination. This guidance aims to fill the gap.

What does personal development cover?

The personal development curriculum encompasses any area of learning at key stage 4 that promotes students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and helps prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. Extra-curricular and enhancement activities also make a major contribution to the personal development curriculum.

Some aspects of the personal development curriculum are statutory. These are: sex and relationship education (SRE); careers education; alcohol and drugs education (which is included in the programme of study for science); and work-related learning (from 2004).

The personal development curriculum is clearly evident in the compulsory subjects of citizenship, and religious education.

In most schools, the personal development curriculum is underpinned by a programme of personal, social and health education (PSHE) for which there is a non-statutory framework.

Physical education (PE) also makes a significant contribution to the personal development curriculum. This features less here because specific guidance has already been developed on health and wellbeing in PE.

This guidance acknowledges that the key components of the personal development curriculum vary in nature and legal status. More than any other part of the curriculum, the personal development curriculum can reflect a school’s ethos and each school will work out the most appropriate approaches for its students. This guidance is an audit tool to help head teachers and teachers look constructively at what is happening in their own school.

In this section

The guidance is divided into six parts;

There are also nine case studies to illustrate how some schools have planned their provision in a coherent way.

See also: