Personal Development and Pastoral Support

The Personal Development curriculum endeavours to help pupils to lead confident, healthy and responsible lives as individuals and members of the St Matthew Academy and local community.

Through work in lessons and a range of activities across and beyond the curriculum, pupils gain practical knowledge and skills to help them live healthily and deal with the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues they may face as they approach adulthood.

Engaging with the Personal Development curriculum gives pupils opportunities to reflect on their own experiences and to reflect on their personal development as well as their character. It helps pupils to understand and manage a variety of relationships and responsibilities as they mature and to show respect for the diversity of, and differences between people. (‘Protected characteristics’ in line with the Equality Act).

Personal Development also provided opportunities for pupils to develop well-being strategies and self-esteem, encouraging belief in their abilities to succeed as well as to enable pupils to take responsibility for their learning and future choice of courses and careers.

Personal Development curriculum at Key Stage 3 and 4 builds on the pupils’ own experiences and work done in Key Stage 1 and 2. The Personal Development curriculum also compliments the school curriculum, covering areas such as politics; the law; family; the environment; relationships; British Values; e-safety; self-awareness and the media as well as SMSC. Our curriculum is flexible and reacts to current issues that may be affecting young people in our community.

Pastoral Support

St Matthew Academy strives to be a Catholic community in which principles of care and respect are valued, with emphasis on the development of the child or young person through academic achievement and personal development. We aim to give every pupil the best and most appropriate opportunities to learn and develop. We take our ethos from Gospel principles and work to draw out the potential in every child and young person.

The most important influences on a child’s values, attitudes and standards are those of family, home and community. We aim, therefore, to work in close partnership with parents to encourage all our pupils to have good manners, be kind and develop a sense of responsibility, self-discipline, respect for themselves, for others and for their environment.

We recognise that education is a collaborative and cooperative enterprise and that although we emphasise our role in meeting individual needs, those needs must be met within the shared community life of the Academy and within an atmosphere that is positive, supportive and conducive to learning.

The pastoral team in Key Stage 3 is overseen by an Assistant Headteacher and in Key Stage 4 a Deputy Headteacher who also has overall responsibility for the wellbeing and progress of all pupils in the secondary phase.

In the secondary phase, the team of form tutors is led by the Director of Learning who is responsible for the well-being and the monitoring of the progress of all pupils in a year group.

The form tutor is the key point of contact and support for pupils, parents, and carers. Form tutors see the pupils in their care every day and stay with their group throughout years 7 to 11 developing a strong and supportive relationship with them.