Curriculum

Personal Development

At Sheep Dip Lane Academy, we are proud to support all children to develop motivation towards learning, resilience, teamwork, creativity, the ability to investigate and their ability to evaluate their own learning. British Values are at the heart of our curriculum and we support pupils in becoming well-rounded citizens throughout their time at our academy. Personal Development is not an added extra - it is woven through all we do. Through every interaction; every lesson; every event; every assembly. Our primary aim is to prepare children for the wider world so that they can have a strong sense of purpose and belonging enabling them to have the confidence to make their voices heard.

At Sheep Dip Lane Academy, we are committed to providing a purposeful and empowering curriculum that fully prepares learners for the next steps in their school career and the wider world. We want our children to believe, achieve and thrive together and believe that it is essential that they understand the world in which they live. Broadening our children’s horizons and giving them the belief that they are capable of achieving great things drives our curriculum. Our Personal Development Curriculum offer gives the children the knowledge and understanding they need to make informed choices and to be a positive influence in the communities that they belong to.

Today’s children are growing up in an increasingly complex world and living their lives seamlessly on and offline. This presents many positive and exciting opportunities, but also includes challenges and risks. In this environment, children and young people need to know how to be safe and healthy, as well as how to manage their academic, personal and social lives in a positive way. At Sheep Dip Lane we have developed a curriculum designed to help pupils understand how to stay safe and revisit this throughout each year.

At Sheep Dip Lane we are a ‘Thrive School of Excellence’.

Thrive has been working in partnership with educators and organisations to help children and young people fulfil their potential since 1994.

Click here to learn more about our Thrive journey.

Personal Development is woven into all aspects of school life at Sheep Dip and we pride ourselves on providing an environment for all pupils to thrive and mature into well-informed young adults. Our PSHE curriculum, through the core programmes, ensures children learn the language, vocabulary and techniques that enable them to build their confidence and ‘emotional repertoire’. We underpin this aim with 6 core themes: Being me in my world, Celebrating differences, Dreams and goals, Healthy me, Relationships and changing me.

We aim to embrace the many talents and interests of our pupils and offer a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities, which are selected based on pupil voice and regular pupil parliament meetings.

We want our learners to feel empowered with the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to manage life’s challenges and make the most of life’s opportunities. We aim to give our learners the knowledge and tools they need to understand how to take care of themselves, physically and mentally, and how they can stay safe and thrive in an ever changing world.

At Sheep Dip Lane, we have used the Jigsaw PHSE scheme to develop our own curriculum intent, addressing the individual and contextual needs of our pupils. We explore e-safety, knife crime, anti-bullying, anti-racism and keeping safe beyond school (dark nights, railway safety etc).