Warfield CE Primary School

Personal Development - What is in our backpacks? How do we belong?

At Warfield Church of England Primary School, we recognise that a child's primary school experience is a crucial time for children to develop their identity, aspirations, and understanding of the world. Our vision and values is at the heart of everything we collectively work towards for our pupils. Within our vision, we believe everyone is on a journey and we expect every child at Warfield to fill their 'backpacks' with the spritual, moral, social and cultural understanding to achieve. We believe that this personal development is crucial for every child, not just during their time at Warfield but for their future. Therefore, our values and the enrichment we offer as part of our personal development offer and which contribute to a child's backpack for the future are not just taught, they are a lived experience that every member pupil and member of staff experiences and demonstrates in their every day life. This ethos, high standards and lived experience for our pupils is recognised in our recent SIAMS inspection.

 SIAMS report

Alongside academic achievement, we place a strong emphasis on Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural (SMSC) development, ensuring that every child has rich and varied experiences both within and beyond the curriculum.

By nurturing personal development skills, we equip our pupils with the essential knowledge they need to become educated citizens, preparing them for life beyond Warfield and teaching them how to engage meaningfully with society.

Throughout their time at Warfield, children are encouraged to:

• Engage in self-reflection and personal growth, developing confidence and resilience.
• Explore and shape their own values, beliefs, and spiritual awareness within our Christian ethos.
• Foster knowledge and respect for diverse cultures, traditions, and perspectives.
• Develop curiosity and enthusiasm for learning about themselves and the world around them.
• Understand the consequences of their actions, taking responsibility for their behaviour.
• Engage in ethical discussions, appreciating different viewpoints and moral dilemmas.
• Demonstrate high standards of personal behaviour and show kindness and respect towards others.
• Work cooperatively, resolve conflicts, and develop strong social skills.
• Recognise and appreciate the diversity and richness of other cultures while understanding their own social and cultural heritage.
• Build their ‘cultural capital’ by learning more, remembering more, and developing a broad understanding of the world.
• Understand the role of democracy in shaping Britain, past and present, and the shared values that unite communities.
• Develop the skills and attitudes needed to fully participate in modern British society.
• See themselves as global citizens, understanding their responsibilities in an interconnected world and promoting sustainability, equality, and social justice.
• Prioritise both physical and mental well-being, recognising their importance alongside academic success.
• Benefit from strong family involvement, ensuring a collaborative approach to personal development.

By embedding these principles in all aspects of school life, we aim to nurture confident, compassionate, and well-rounded individuals who are fully prepared for the opportunities and challenges of the future.

PSHE Curriculum

Our PSHE curriculum enables us to provide children with the additional elements they need to fill their 'backpacks'. We explore the wider world with our children at the heart of everything we do. Our comprehensive curriculum explores ideas which will affect our children as they grow and develop, including challenging stereotypes including gender, age and disability as well as supporting our children to be curious and respectful. We support our children in understanding the importance of our British Values, we encourage them to be curious about the world we live in as well as understand how these values enable them to be successful in the future. Please clink the link on the right of the page to explore this in more detail. 

Enrichment Activities

We recognise that the learning within our curriculum is a small part of our wider school offer. We ensure every child is given extra curricular learning opportunities throughout their time with us at Warfield. This provides them with the experiences they need to add to their 'backpacks' and gives them skills they can use throughout their lives. 

On top of our external offer, all of our teachers run after school clubs these have included Lego, Stop Motion, Computing, Cooking, Construction, Netball, Football, Basketball, Choir and Gymnastics. This allows every child the opportunity to experience something new. 

We also support the learning in the classroom with enrichment activities, listed below, which include local walks, residential trips as well as visits to our school from people within our community. We also provide children with the opportunity to learn from people who have different careers within STEM such as vets as well as careers within the emergency services.

Oasis

We work in conjunction with Warfield Church to provide our children with opportunities to develop their ability to create space in their busy lives for peace, reflection and consider their mental well-being. Our children all participated in a workshop, run by volunteers from Warfield Church, which focussed on opportunities for reflection. Due to the overwhelming success of this event, we have now included this in our weekly offer to our children. The children continue to benefit from this enrichment experience. 

Work with our community

We are constantly developing links with our community. We are very lucky to be surrounded by a supportive and nurturing environment. Our links with the community play a huge part of our enrichment opportunities however more explicit examples include within our Harvest celebrations we work with Warfield Church to reflect and give thanks for the food we have. We also collaborate with Bracknell Foodbank to collect food and give back to those living within our community. 

Our choir have participated in the Reading Music Festival for several years, performing at the Hexagon. They have also visited Brownlow Hall, to perform at Christmas for the local residents. Most recently, this was supported by the children in our Dance club too. 

Leadership Opportunities

As part of our belief that children should play a part in shaping their school they are a part of as well as the world they live in. We have a school council which provides the children the opportunity to participate in and understand the idea of democracy. The school council have completed significant work around the idea of looking after our environment. They arranged for each class to be a part of a wider school promise to plant more trees on our school site. As a direct result of their work, we have attended several climate conferences as well as arranged for a local car company to deliver a clean air workshop. We are proud of our children's understanding that they are a part of the world they live in and play a huge role in shaping the future of our planet. 

We also have House Team captains which represent the four houses. These are children who epitomize our school values and act as aspirational role models for younger children. This is also the case for our Sports Leaders who are chosen for their ongoing dedication to team work, athleticism and overall sporting attitude.

Our Year 5 children also take on the role of buddies, helping our children in Reception to settle in and support them throughout their first year at Warfield. Through this system, the Year 5 children support the Reception children in understanding how to play together, complete reading activities and share good learning practice.