Personal Development

Our Personal Development Vision

Personal Development is about the knowledge, understanding and skills the pupils need to manage their lives, both now and in the future. Personal Development helps pupils to thrive as individuals and build their own personal character through their Primary Education.

Our vision, at Holy Trinity, is to provide our pupils with a wide range of experiences in school. These experiences provide skills and opportunities to support pupils both academically and emotionally, as well as helping them to build their own identity. We embed these skills through the lessons we teach and the opportunities we give pupils in school.

Each year at Holy Trinity, we see our pupil’s Personal Development flourish and witness their character and identity grow. The strong foundations pupils build at school better prepare them for their further journey. Our hope is that pupils leave school with fond school memories and use the skills they have learnt to propel them into their future journey.

Key Documents

Personal Development Policy September 2024

Simple Guide to Personal Development

Community Time - British Values Progression Grid

Community Time - Diversity Progression Grid

Personal Development is embedded through:

My Identity and Treasure Books

The identity of the pupils is something that we believe is important at Holy Trinity Church School. Their identity starts growing from the moment they are born but we can support this by providing as many opportunities for them to experience as possible.

It is so important that they know who they are and to start to have some idea of where they want to go to in the future. Our identity profiles are created by the children and use a concept called compass for life created by Floyd Woodrow.

Super North Star

Your Super North Star is an unambiguous visualisation of your dream and a commitment to achieve it. A purpose to aim towards in a personal and professional perspective that sits high on the horizon so you can always see it.

Ethos

Your ethos is a set of principles that guide your thinking and behaviour. We help you understand your authentic self and create a culture of high support and high challenge to guide you on your journey.

Strategist

Becoming a strategist is looking at the facts, figures and detail to plan your route to reach your Super North Star. Using a combination of wisdom and common sense, together we’ll challenge your own misconceptions to help you develop and refine a roadmap for life with realistic milestones.

Warrior Spirit

Your strength of character is what we call your Warrior Spirit. When you unleash your warrior spirit, you’ll ignite the strength, mental and physical resilience within yourself to fight for and achieve your Super North Star.

Each term, the children complete an Identity Profile of themselves; identifying the things that they enjoy and like, think about what they would like to do in the future and define who they are. These profiles can be used to support children by providing additional opportunities for them or to help them find things that they can enjoy if they struggle to identify these themselves.

Treasure Books

Each child is given a treasure book which the children fill with photos and memories throughout their years at Holy Trinity. The book follows them through to Year 6 where they take it home to keep their memories from primary school.

Identity Club

Identity club happens at least once a fortnight and it allows the pupils to enjoy things that are of interest to them. Different clubs will be set up and pupils choose which club they’d like to sign up to. This gives pupils time to develop their own identities. It is also gives them the chance to experience new hobbies and interests as pupils will be able to take part in activities they may not have done before.

Year R and Year 1

Year 5 and 6

Outdoor Learning

Our School Guinea Pigs

Carymoor visiting Holy Trinity

Holy Trinity's Forest School

Year 1 Outdoor Art

Year 6 Forest School at Preston

Community Time

Community Time takes place at least once a fortnight in all classes. During Community Time sessions, the pupils look at:

The Rainbow Values
The British Values
Diversity

Community Time can also be used to develop skills based on what the class needs at the time, for example: friendships, behaviour, identity etc. This varies depending on the pupils and needs in the class.

Each class creates their own rainbow value display during Community Time:

The community time work we complete is displayed in the class floor books:

Community Groups and Pupil Leadership

Children have many different Roles and Responsibilities across the whole school. Each class works together to agree their own class rules within the context of our whole school's Aims and Values. They then decide how best to keep their learning organised and orderly, appointing leaders within their class.

When the pupils get to Year 6, they have the opportunity to apply to be Head Girl, Head Boy or a Junior Governor. The pupils that are elected form Community Groups and help the Headteacher and teachers with different developments that take place during the school year. In the past, the Community Groups have focussed on different topics based on what the school is currently developing or working on.

Each class elects a pupil to represent their class and to be part of the Community Group. This means that the classes can discuss their ideas and all be part of the developments by using a representative. This allows different children to represent the class throughout the school year and each year new groups are chosen. This encourages all children to voice their opinions about their schooling. The Year 6 pupils also have the opportunity to lead different Community Groups with teachers in school.

There are also a number of other 'whole school' roles and responsibilities. They include:

Heads of School - We all have many opportunities to take on important roles and responsibilities here at Holy Trinity. Each Year the staff select four 'Heads of School' to lead and represent the school at key events. They wear a different colour school jumper so that they can be identified by children, staff and visitors to the school.
Junior Governors - We are keen that the children are actively involved with 'Leading their Learning'. Children from Year 6 are selected to be 'Junior Governors'. These children have the responsibility of evaluating Learning and Teaching across the school from the perspective of the children. They report back to the Senior Leadership Team as well as the Governors.
Sports Captains -Our Sports Captains help to organise the sporting equipment and set up and organise sporting events.
Buddies - Our Buddies play with our reception and year 1 children during lunch times.
Librarians - Our librarians work to keep our library tidy and organised.
House Captains - We use a House system across the whole school. All children and staff are allocated a House: Lynx (green), Gazelle (yellow), Merlin (red) or Sea King (blue), named after Westland Helicopters. Each class has a chart to display the class house points for the week. House points are awarded for good effort, attitude, behaviour or academic achievement that matches the abilities and expectations we have of each individual child. The House Points are collected each week and the Headteacher announces the winning House of the Week in the Work of the Week Worship. The winning House Captains are then invited to attach the ribbons representing their House on to the House Cup. At the end of each half term, the winning house earns the privilege of a non-school uniform day. All children are encouraged to support one another within their own house, but also to appreciate the success of others with appropriate praise and encouragement.
The House Captains are elected at the beginning of each year. They have to prepare a presentation for their house so that the other members can carefully consider who they would like to choose as their representatives for the year.

Heads of School	Junior Governors	Sports Captains

Community Links

Planting at Leonardos

Children from Holy Trinity were asking to take part in planting for Leonardos.

Music Roadshow performed by Westfield Academy
Westfield Academy performed their ‘Music Roadshow’ to the whole school. They performed with a range of instruments and singing.

Choir singing at Beechwood Care Home

The Lord's Larder

Shoebox Appeal

Fundraising for Burundi

On Spirituality Day, we looked at Burundi and what life is like in their country. We looked at this through the Great Lakes Outreach project. Each class decided how to fundraise money for Burundi.
Year 2 raised money by taking part in a triathlon at school.

Class 10 raised money by coming to school in their pyjamas.

Class 12 voted to run a cake sale to raise money for Burundi. The children brought in cakes from home as well as making some in school too. Class 12 raised £119.35 for Burundi!

The British Values

Our British Values vision

Holy Trinity Church School is committed to serving its community and surrounding areas. We recognise the multicultural and multifaith nature of the United Kingdom and understand the crucial role our school plays in promoting these values.

We are an inclusive school for all.

Implementation

This statement outlines the key British Values we actively promote.

Democracy

Children are involved in democratic processes e.g. voting for House Captains and representatives at Community Time.
Junior Governors and other groups work alongside school staff who also adhere to the democratic process.
We welcome PCSOs and other bodies who come into school to educate the children about upholding British law and the prosecution service.

Individual Liberty

Children have key roles and responsibilities in school including Sports Captains, Digital Leaders, Eco Monitors, Librarians, Buddies, Junior Governors and Heads of School.
Within our school, children are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment.
As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for children to make choices safely.
Through our extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, children are given the freedom to make choices.
The aims, ethos and values of our school are embodied in all that we do.

Mutual Respect

Our whole curriculum, including PSHE, embodies values of mutual respect through units of learning such as relationships and being a responsible citizen.
Respect is embedded within our rainbow values.

The Rule of Law

We have links with the local police through the PCSO.
We have a clearly structured behaviour policy which all stake holders understand and follow.
We regularly review behaviour incidents in school and support all children with the next steps and the choices they make.
A programme of worship is carefully structured to encompass our values and their impact on the law.
Presentations are made to children covering E-safety awareness, safeguarding (including radicalisation) and other relevant themes.

Tolerance of Those of Different Faith and Beliefs

Our RE curriculum provides a broad and balanced education on a range of faiths, religions and cultures.
There is a strong focus on the Christian values.
We have a growing number of EAL children and actively use school resources to promote their learning and integration into our school society.
We welcome visitors from other countries and other faiths who share their language and their culture with our pupils.
We regularly celebrate festivals of a range of faiths practised in modern Britain and encourage parents and families to share their experiences.

Each class has their own British Values display.

British Values in Action

Whole School Vote

The general election was on Thursday 4th July. On this day, we organised a whole school vote to take place. We had four representatives, who campaigned to the rest of the school about what colour theme they should vote for non-uniform day.

The winning colour was blue!

Community Time

British Value Posters

Holy Trinity's vote for a new pet

After School Clubs

Sports Clubs

We are members of the Yeovil area Netball, Football and Cross Country leagues. We also organise many different sporting festivals for all the schools in the local area. These sports clubs include: Cross Country, Football, Tag Rugby, Athletics, Rounders, Cricket and Netball.

Music and The Arts

We offer Choir, Country Dancing, Maypole Dancing and Cookery club led by members of staff at Holy Trinity.

We offer an external Dance club as well as Clarinet and Brass lessons, led by Somerset Music, from Year 4 upwards.

Other Clubs

The children have the chance to attend academic clubs such as Maths, Reading and Writing booster clubs. We offer science clubs and FizzPop external clubs too. In the past, we have offered Rubix's Cube Club, Film Club and Calm Club

Other School Activties

We believe that there is tremendous value in class visits; children learn a great deal whilst on the visit and are able to apply their new skills to other areas of the curriculum when they return to school. We also welcome a number of visitors to the school and value the contribution they make to the learning of all the children.

Every year, the children in Year 5 enjoy a five-day residential visit to Mill on the Brue. They take part in many 'Outdoor and Adventurous activities' in line with the National Curriculum. This year, our Year 6 group will visit Cornwall for 3 days, experiencing the wide range of culture that the county has to offer. These visits are a wonderful learning opportunity for the children; they gain tremendously both in confidence and self-esteem. Safety is our first priority, with extensive pre-visits and full risk assessments undertaken. All outdoor activities are run by fully trained and experienced staff with a high adult to pupil ratio.