Personal Development At West Jesmond
At West Jesmond, the personal development of our children is at the heart of all that we do and interwoven with our curriculum goals. We strive to create a school environment that develops our children's resilience, confidence, respect and understanding of others and ability to be active members of their local and global communities.
Our Personal Development Curriculum is made up of different strands across our school and is planned and reviewed to ensure it weaves together to support the development of every one of our children taking into account their different starting points, experiences, opportunities and needs.
Children’s Personal development is enhanced through a wide range of rich and carefully planned experiences within the curriculum and through extra-curricular opportunities.
Our Values: Developing Behaviours, Relationships and Character
Our West Jesmond Way is a golden thread that guides us in the way we treat each other and the characteristics we want our children to develop as they grow in our school.The West Jesmond Way was created by our staff and children and sets out those key characteristics and behaviours we expect from all of our West Jesmond community. It describes the school we all want to be a part of and the vision we have for how we want our children to be. It recognises that we are a school that welcomes and embraces children and families with the greatest diversity of backgrounds, beliefs and ideas and ensures we come together in our happy and inclusive West Jesmond Family. The Way is displayed in every classroom, in our halls and communal areas and on the playground. We talk with our children about our expectations and support them in the development of these five key features.
The Fantastic Five Qualities of West Jesmond Learners describe the characteristics of successful lifelong learners. We talk with our children about what makes a great learner. We want them to understand that on many occasions it is the mistakes we make and the resilience and effort we show that help us to progress. Through our curriculum, we look to carefully build in opportunities when children can feel safe to take risks with their learning and to have the chance to apply their creativity to solving problems. We know that we have to have self-initiative, independence and perseverance to push ourselves, when learning is new or challenging, but we also recognise that much of the best learning happens in collaboration with others. We want children to understand that we all find things difficult at times, but it is when we work through these challenges that some of the most exciting learning happens. We look for these qualities in class and in the children’s learning and will look for every opportunity to praise and give out Dojo points to encourage and develop these characteristics.