Personal Development Curriculum

At Mercia Academy we deliver a holistic curriculum for life. The key aims of our PDC are to support pupils to become responsible, confident, healthy, and tolerant young adults who are prepared for life and work in an ever-changing world.  We promote our ethos, that at Mercia Academy we believe in being the best you can be by:  

• Being Kind and respectful  
• Working hard  
• Taking personal responsibility  
• Persevering   

CONTEXT  

PDC education is a school subject through which pupils develop the knowledge, skills and attributes they need to keep themselves healthy and safe, and prepare for life and work in modern Britain. Evidence shows that student engagement in PDC lessons has an impact on both academic and non-academic outcomes for pupils, particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.  

We believe that PDC education equips students to live healthy, safe, productive, capable, responsible and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, positive learning and career choices and in achieving economic wellbeing. A critical component of our PDC education is providing opportunities for children and young people to reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes and explore the complex and sometimes conflicting range of values and attitudes they encounter now and in the future. PDC education contributes to personal development by helping pupils to build their confidence, resilience and self-esteem, and to identify and manage risk, make informed choices and understand what influences their decisions. It enables them to recognise, accept and shape their identities, to understand and accommodate difference and change, to manage emotions and to communicate constructively in a variety of settings. Developing an understanding of themselves, empathy and the ability to work with others will help pupils to form and maintain good relationships, develop the essential skills for future employability and better enjoy and manage their lives.  

Young people can lead restricted lives with a limited understanding around some important issues, for example relationships and diversity. There can also often be limited opportunities for them to gain cultural capital and exposure to the wider world. They can face specific threats such as radicalisation and there is a definite need to promote Fundamental Values. Our PDC curriculum is a response to the needs of our cohort and part of our intent to produce responsible, confident and tolerant young people equipped to succeed and compete in the communities of the future.  

Students have one PDC lesson every week, with their form tutors. For PDC, students are provided with a bespoke booklet for each year (which can be viewed by clicking on the relevant links below). The PDC curriculum encompasses areas of learning around key topics such as careers education, health education and relationships and sex education. Following the new government statutory guidelines on Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSE) that come into force from September 2020 we have ensured that the PDC curriculum at Mercia Academy fits the needs of the new statutory guidelines.  

The PDC curriculum is a five-year ambitious and sequential curriculum. It is an age appropriate curriculum based around three core themes – Living in the wider world, health and wellbeing and relationships. The PDC curriculum focuses on both knowledge and virtues, with these being:  

• Resilience  
• Respect for self and others  
• Self-worth  
• Honesty  
• Courage