Personal Development 2023 – 2024 Click Here
Welcome to the Pupil Personal Development page of our website. We hope this area provides you with all the information you need to see what else we offer at Huntingdon Academy to allow the children here to learn key skills which they will use everyday. We work relentlessly to nurture our pupils to unlock and achieve their full potential and raise their aspirations. We are determined that during the children’s time spent at Huntingdon Academy, children will develop characteristics which enable them to leave Huntingdon Academy as confident members of society, who are ready to enter secondary school with a strong moral compass, a real sense of resilience and to be armed with the key transferable skills and knowledge that will allow them to succeed in an ever changing world.
Our behaviour system links closely to personal development and our academy values are central to the system. In each classroom you can find a Vision, Values and Behaviour board which explicitly explains the behaviours expected to be seen in line with our school values. The expectations of the behaviours is age related so that the children have a clear progression in the development of their behaviours and our expectations as a school as they transition from 3 to 11. Below you can see an example of a Key Stage 1 Values board.
Restorative Practices
Implementing the principles of Restorative Practice helps us to focus on building better relationships with each other, taking the time to ensure that every member of our school community feels listened to, valued and respected. We support pupils in developing the skills to maintain positive relationships and to resolve disagreements and problems themselves. It is our role to educate our pupils to understand how their behaviour affects and impacts on others. Pupils are respectfully supported to identify ways they can put right the harm they have caused. This approach ensures we are not teaching pupils that by harming others they will be punished and should therefore avoid being discovered. Instead, we are helping them to become empathic, considerate members of society who have the skills to avoid and resolve problems independently.
Being ‘Restorative’ focuses on building positive relationships based on responsibility, respect and fairness. In turn this creates a community that is supportive, accountable and respectful. We believe that every individual is responsible for their own behaviour.
The Restorative framework is based upon ‘knowing the effect that I have on others’. Making changes to the way we approach incidences and issues provides children, and others, the opportunity to think about how they relate to each other and how they can find positive ways of repairing harm caused, rather than focusing solely on punishing poor behaviour or individuals avoiding taking responsibility for their actions.
Children and adults are encouraged to put things right together. All members of staff are trained in the key principles of RP and we understand the importance of modelling positive language, behaviour and take time to develop positive and meaningful relationships with colleagues and pupils. When positive relationships are developed and connections are made individuals are less likely to cause harm to others or choose to damage relationships.
Personal Development Assemblies
Our assemblies are central to personal development at Huntingdon Academy. Our children are encouraged to apply our school values in assemblies and think, listen, communicate and collaborate with one another. During oracy assemblies our pupils sit in circles and discuss current issues. We believe it crucial to develop young people who are interested in the world around them, know how to form opinions and express their thinking.
School Council
School Council play and important role in the day to day running of Huntingdon Academy. We are currently making sure that our pupil voice is heard with regards to ideas about our playgrounds. We are preparing a pitch to our Executive Headteacher about what our children want to see in the new designs. Watch this space…
Head Boy – Bamba
Head Girl – Georgia
Year 6- Layton
Year 5 Treasurer: Naz
Year 5 Secretary: Lainda
Year 4- Muhammed and Kolby
Year 3- Joseph and Shania
Year 2- Saif and Violet
Year 1- Fiona and Shana
Citizenship
We are the Citizenship Team and we make a difference by voting on the issues that are important to us in the YPManifesto23. We discuss important topics such as the cost of living, safety and mental health.
Our citizenship curriculum has a focus on building power within the community and we are following the 5 Steps to Social Change which are
- Organise
- Listen
- Plan
- Act
- Negotiate
To find out more about this work follow this link https://www.citizensuk.org/chapters/nottingham/
Subject Ambassadors
Each subject in school has subject ambassadors. To be a subject ambassador you must be from Year 5 or 6 and have an enthusiasm for this part of the curriculum. Potential ambassadors apply for the position and have an interview. Subject ambassadors help us to evaluate the curriculum offer and promote their subject in school. During our Parent Consulation evenings, our ambassadors use this as an opportunity to champion their subject with our community. Below are some photographs showcasing our ambassadors in action.
Computing Ambassadors
Hello, we are the Digital Leaders at Huntingdon Academy.
We love to help with all things technical, including help teachers organise the iPad trolleys, as well as helping in some of the Computing lessons. We also promote Online Safety and help Miss Andrews to create and present a range of assemblies on this matter, throughout the year.
RE Ambassadors – Multi-Faith Team
Hello, we are the Multi-Faith team. We celebrate different religions or faiths and our aim is to promote and celebrate our diversity within our school.
We are ambassadors of our faiths and diversity and our aim is to work with Mrs Cousins in continuing to promote and raise the profile of our different faiths and religions at our school.
Reading Ambassadors
Hello, we are the Reading Champions team, made up of children from across the whole school.
We help develop a sense of responsibility, achievement and self-esteem in children. We constantly promote a love of reading across our school, and beyond. We make sure that across the school, children are encouraged to read and are encouraging others to read. We love being able to support younger readers. We also enjoy welcoming parents and carers into school. We give the children their tokens if they have achieved a 100 reads so they can choose a special book from our vending machine.
Prefects
We are Huntingdon prefects and we play a crucial role in maintaining the outstanding behaviour and attitudes at Huntingdon Academy. We have an important role in the day to day running of the classroom such as maintaining the token towers and tracking the values reward system. We meet with the Head of School to review the learning behaviours at Huntingdon Academy and ensure that all systems have consistency. We play an important role in the achievement assembly when acknowledging and rewarding fantastic efforts made by our pupils.
Year 1- Lina, Shana, Alexander and Remay
Year 2- Ivan, Leah, Ashley and Silate
Year 3- Alexia, Feyzi, Lezina and Isaac
Year 4- Alan, Neveah, Elsa and Kobi
Year 5- Ann, Rayan, Srijon and Radiyah
Year 6- Joanna, Amelia and Theodare
Maths Ambassadors
We love Maths and we want everyone at Huntingdon to love maths. We support Miss Forrest in promoting maths at Huntingdon. We lead assemblies that celebrate our pupils efforts in maths. We want everyone to understand that maths is a process and that critical thinking and problem solving isn’t just about getting the right answer straight away. Here is Ryan, one of our ambassadors celebrating Mohammed’s work.
Handwriting Ambassadors
We are ambassadors of handwriting and presentation at Huntingdon Academy and we work with children in Year 5 and 6 who are aiming to achieve their pen licence and write with a Parker pen. In the picture below you can see Joanne who is our leader of the handwriting ambassadors supporting one of our pupils who is very close to achieving their pen licence. Joanne has set up a lunchtime handwriting club where her and her fellow ambassadors are teaching children handwriting.