Personal Development

At Stapleford Abbotts, we believe that personal development education is as important as academic education. We strive to prepare our children for their future as responsible citizens, willing to make a positive contribution to society with an appreciation of diversity and a respect for British Values and equality.

We provide a wide number of rich and varied experiences and opportunities through our curriculum to develop talents, interests and an individual's cultural capital.

We recognise that it is important that our children know how to keep themselves safe and how to care for both their mental and physical wellbeing whilst they also develop personal traits, and virtues that will motivate and guide them to flourish in their community and in society, with confidence and resilience.

Through the explicit teaching of mental and emotional health, we promote pupils’ wellbeing through an understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies. It also contributes to safeguarding, providing pupils with knowledge, understanding and strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe, as well as equipping them to support others who are facing challenges. 

We use Zones of Regulation throughout the school to teach children how to recognise, understand and regulate their emotions. The Zones of Regulation organises feelings, states of alertness, and energy levels into four colored Zones – Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red. The simple, common language and visual structure of The Zones of Regulation helps make the complex skill of regulation more concrete for learners and those who support them.   As part of our Behaviour Curriculum, we explicitly teach a range of techniques to support regulation.

We work in partnership with Mind in West Essex, a mental health charity, to support children’s wellbeing and mental health. They deliver a variety of workshops to whole classes and small groups of children, including Brain Buddies in Key Stage 2 and Emotional Explorers in Key Stage 1, both of which focus on emotional regulation teaching children to recognise emotions and develop skills to tackle big feelings in their lives.  They also run a Friendship Group, for children in Year 2 upwards, that looks at how to start and maintain healthy, respectful relationships.