Personal Development at YFPS

At YFPS we recognise the importance of developing the whole child, both academically and through their personal development. We have many examples of how we do this whilst your child is at our school.

• Assembly: our weekly assemblies focus on one of our values and a role model from a wide diverse group with the intent to inspire our young people to follow their behaviours.
• Debating sessions are built into our curriculum in order to discuss global goals
• A wide range of clubs enable us to develop our pupils' character and resilience. Since COVID we have been running clubs in year groups to avoid cross contamination where possible.
• Our Erasmus trips across Europe with KS2 children have been ongoing for the last fifteen years. This is a free trip for children and networking through online video conferencing so they develop an understanding of the international community that we live in. Our teachers regularly meet up with teachers from schools across Europe to plan events and experiences through themes that we all feel connected to. For example, currently we have projects focusing on 'Healthy Schools', 'STEAM' and 'Fairy Tales'.
• Our involvement in the 'Connecting Communities' Plymouth-Ghana Link Project, funded by the British Council, has broadened our children's understanding of life in Ghana, helping them to make comparisons with their own experiences and broadening their world-view.
• In our school we have several residential trips in Y3-4, 5-6, Grenville House, Brixham - which is an arts' based residential and Heatree House, Dartmoor - which is an outdoor pursuits week. 
• Our Y6 children take part in Junior Ten Tors annually and we build up the skills to complete this challenge throughout the year. We are lucky enough to have enough staff qualified so that we can take out two teams of eight children. For the last few years we have been able to take the whole of Y6 on a shorter hike on Dartmoor before we complete the twelve mile walk over two days. Due to COVID. last year we took all children who wanted to take part on a day's hike covering most of the tors on the route.
• We are proud to offer leadership opportunities for KS2 to lead the rest of the school and KS1 and Foundation to be leaders in their own classrooms. We do  this through prefect roles, house captains, children's learning detectives and librarians.
• Our curriculum  celebrates diversity and has been designed to develop an understanding and respect for all groups within our society. We have three 'Big Ideas' that our school aims to achieve by the time children leave Y6. We believe these will help our pupils will develop their character, determination and understanding of how they can contribute to society.
• Throughout the year we have weeks which focus and celebrate the diversity in our society. 
• At each stage of education, our school prepares learners for future success in their next steps: we invite a range of stakeholders into school
• the school prepares learners for life in modern Britain by:
  • equipping them to be responsible, respectful, active citizens who contribute positively to society through our school’s council meetings, debating society and house captains
  • developing their understanding of fundamental British values and appreciation of diversity through our rich curriculum
• celebrating what we have in common and promoting respect for the different protected characteristics as defined in law