Self Curriculum

At St Charles Academy, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and well-being of our pupils and staff.

We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.

At St Charles we:

• promote self esteem and ensure children know that they are valued individuals
• encourage children to be confident and ‘push their limits’
• help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks
• help children to understand their emotions and feelings better
• help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
• promote the importance of being kind and working together
• help children socially to form and maintain relationships and focus on teamwork to build community links.

Our PSHE and RSE curriculum is supported by the Jigsaw and Life to the Full resources. These lessons take place weekly and support the children through a variety of whole class, small group and individual activities to explore a wealth of topics to support their holistic development and wellbeing. We teach pupils to recognise and manage online and offline risks as well as teach them about healthy relationships and that sexual harassment of any kind is not tolerated.

We also understand the importance that physical health has on quality of life as well as the benefits that it can have on mental and emotional well-being. Some of the strategies and activities we use to support and develop this are:

• By providing weekly curriculum physical education each week
• By offering a range of sporting clubs both after school and during lunchtimes
• By providing pupils with the opportunities to compete against other schools
• By signposting pupils towards local clubs and physical activities which take place after school, at weekends and during holidays
• By providing healthy and well-balanced school meals at lunchtime and within breakfast club
• By educating pupils around being healthy through our science curriculum
• By providing pupils with the opportunities to plan, prepare and cook healthy meals through our DT curriculum

By the time our students ‘graduate’ from school, we want to ensure that they have been provided with a wealth of opportunities that will support their personal development and open their eyes to what they could achieve in their lives.

Some of the opportunities we will provide pupils with include:

• Embark upon an exciting journey which takes them far from home, staying in another part of the country or even another part of the world for at least a night.
• Step forward and take the lead to organise something which is important to them and make a positive difference to others.
• Develop their confidence through public speaking, performing or competing against others.
• Have meaningful experiences linked to workplaces, universities, colleges, employers. Interact with professionals to help them shape future dreams and aspirations that have no limits.
• Open their inquisitive minds by visiting galleries, museums, theatres, live sporting events, ballets, operas, the seaside, historic sights, local wonders and our capital city, London.
• Build their own personal libraries and love of reading, this will be started by buying, reading, reviewing and sharing books which have been purchased with a World Book Day voucher.
• Use devices to safely access the virtual world and learn how to code, communicate and learn with students from across the country and the world
• Develop many skills and talents and take advantage of support to excel in swimming, sport, riding a bike, learning a musical instrument or communicating in another language.
• Building toolkits for life by learning first aid, map reading, gardening and cooking skills.
• Help change the world by getting involved in an environmental project which makes our planet greener.
• See the world from other people’s points of view by experiencing different cultures, tasting different foods, listening to and debating difficult ideas, visiting religious buildings and exploring different faiths and beliefs.
• Showing kindness and compassion and making a difference to others by participating in a charity, social action or community project which supports people in my local community.

At St Charles’ we really value the performing arts. Through providing pupils with a variety of opportunities we aim to develop performing, presentation and production skills. By providing pupils with a wide range of experiences within the performing arts of music, drama and dance we develop many vital characteristics underpinned by our cores school values of Resilience, Empathy, Aspiration, Contribution and Happiness.

Performing arts opportunities at St Charles’:

• Curriculum music lessons delivered by class teachers and specialist music staff from St Mary’s College
• Curriculum PE lessons with a dance
• Drama workshops followed by the rehearsal and performance of a play in conjunctions with Hull Truck Theatres and The Royal Shakespeare Company
• Instrumental music lessons including woodwind, brass,
• Musical concerts performed in front of the school and parents
• Christmas productions
• Leaver’s productions

At St Charles’ we understand the importance of giving our children opportunities to learn about our world. We strive to raise pupil awareness and understanding about key people, places and events within their city, country, and the wider world. We believe in giving children a voice and encourage them to impact upon things they are inspired by or feel passionately about.
One aspect of this is Picture News.
Picture News is a fantastic weekly resource which enables our children to explore current events, participate in debates and share their views and opinions.

Each week, pupils will engage with current news, both national and global and respond to discussion questions, Pupil responses are collated and showcased within our Picture News Floor Book.

Why do we have Pupil leaders?

Nurturing good pupil leaders is an important element of our academies success. Pupils are encouraged to develop the necessary skills to enable them to take responsibility for their school and to contribute positively and to then contribute positively both to the academy and the wider community.

What do Pupil leaders do?

Our leaders are responsible for helping supervise younger students at lunch and break times, they also support our staff with various duties around the academy. All our leaders receive special training and through their duties develop their own assertiveness, punctuality and become responsible members of the academy community. All Year 6 pupils have the opportunity to apply for a leadership position, provided that they demonstrate excellent behaviour in the academy and act as role models for younger children.

The Pupil Leadership Role

• To act as a role model for pupils and promote the ethos and values of St Charles’ Academy
• To continue to maintain the high standards expected of a St Charles’ Academy student
• To perform one break time or other duty a week
• To attend school events when required
• To attend all meetings as required
• To assist staff and support children to follow the academy rules at all times during the day
• To support the other pupil leaders with the school