Personal Development

Marriotts Personal Development

“Leaders promote pupils’ personal development well. Important themes such as healthy relationships and online safety are revisited and developed as pupils get older. In the sixth form, students explore more mature aspects of sexual health and the law. Pupils learn about other religions and their place in British society. The school has been innovative in valuing and supporting pupils with protected characteristics.”

Our most recent Ofsted report, in 2021

At Marriotts, we strive to prepare students 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 and our co-curriculum to develop talents, interests, and an individual’s cultural capital. We ensure that our careers and employability provision is worthy of acclaim, and our Leadership programme enables our students to engage, inspire, and achieve.

We recognise that it is important that our students know how to keep themselves safe and how to care for both their mental and physical well-being 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. As part of this, we emphasise the importance of developing financial literacy, equipping our students with the knowledge and skills to make informed financial decisions for their future. We also educate our students on the value of healthy relationships, helping them to build positive, respectful, and supportive connections with others.

We believe that Personal Development plays a vital part of secondary education and, as well as discrete focused lessons, it is also embedded throughout the curriculum and central to the school’s ethos of ‘Aim High! Work Hard! Be Kind!’. Personal Development is integral to the development of our students’ values preparing them to become well-rounded citizens in a forever changing community. It gives them the currency – in knowledge and skills, examination results and enriched experiences – necessary to take their next exciting, informed, and ambitious steps.

The personal development curriculum at Marriotts is more than the lessons that our students enjoy. It is the whole school experience: from assemblies to educational

visits, from guest speakers to Votes for Schools sessions, from cultural capital discussions to student-voice sessions, from life skills to extra-curricular clubs and intervention sessions. It covers the following areas:

• Fundamental British Values and Citizenship education 
• Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education
• Personal, Social, Health and Economic and Sex and Relationship Education 
• Careers (Gatsby Benchmarking) and Living in the Wider World education
• Financial Literacy

Click on each of the tabs below to find out more about each of the strands of our approach to Marriotts Personal Development

Character and Community

Our vision is to cultivate a generation of students who embody the values that underpin our student mission and school rules: Aim High (Ambition and communication), Work hard (Resilience and responsibility). Be Kind (Kindness and respect).

We strive to nurture responsible, compassionate individuals who lead with kindness, respect, and a strong moral compass. We envision students who are not only academically proficient but also socially responsible, ethical decision-makers, and lifelong learners committed to making a positive impact in their communities and beyond.

Click here to view the Character and Community MPD Lesson overview.

This lesson content is supplemented by our wider co-curricular programme of theme days/events, trips and clubs, assemblies and guest speakers and work with external organisations such as Votes for Schools and First Give.