Personal Development Day

The purpose of the personal development curriculum is to prepare all our students with the skills and knowledge needed over and above that contained within our academic curriculum, so that they can thrive as they journey through life; at school and beyond.

 We believe that the crucial elements of a young person’s education are the opportunities provided which help them to develop personally, these are essential if we are going to ensure that our students are happy and achieve success in a challenging, complex, and changing world. We hope that, through this process, students can obtain the cultural capital that will allow them to build a happy, fulfilled, and successful life for themselves beyond Bow School.

 Every term, we host a personal development day, in which the school and sixth form participate in themed activities, carefully planned and linked to the different strands of the curriculum. Check out below, for stories from our January Personal Development Day, which was highly anticipated by students and staff alike.

 Year 7

Year 7 kickstarted us in our mission to all become active citizens and ‘give back’ to our community. 60 students ventured Leaside Trust in Clapton to learn all about the role we all play in maintaining the quality of our environments, for example our responsibility as individuals to contribute to keeping a safe, pollution free community. Students learnt about recycling, energy use and water use and then challenged themselves with learning to kayak and contributing to cleaning up the canal with the team at Leaside Trust. Close to home, several students worked with local recycling organisation Bayswater, to help keep the canal and streets around our school clean and tidy on a group litter pick adventure.

Year 8 

Our fabulous Year 8’s had the opportunity to be tourists for the day, visiting some of London’s most famous and fascinating monuments, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge and the Tower of London. Students made links to work they have been doing in both humanities and art and design, and, in-between their visits were tasked with taking photographs of other famous aspects of the capital city’s iconic landscape. Students learnt a great deal about leadership, teamwork and were able to exercise one of our core values, curiosity.

Year 9

 Year 9 spent the day finding out all they need to know to make their GCSE Option choices. They experienced lessons such as Business, Economics and Media studies and then spoke to industry experts about how subjects choices can be used in different career paths. They were supported by their tutors, through sessions that encouraged them to consider their areas of strength, their passions and started the all-important conversation about what next year is going to look like for them. Students in Year 9 took on this rather serious challenge brilliantly and are feeling prepared and informed ahead of their options evening and decision making.

Year 10

At Bow School, we know that being an articulate, persuasive and confident speaker is key to success in most careers. In order to support all of our students with this, Year 10 spent their PD Day in workshops delivered by the Jack Petchey Foundation. They worked with professionals to discuss and debate things they felt passionate about, and shaped these in to coherent, convincing speeches that they delivered to each other. Students demonstrated both adaptability and determination throughout the day, and, by their own admission grown in confidence with their ideas and public speaking.

Year 11 

Year 11 put their team work skills to the test with the ‘Wise Up’ team. In groups they worked together to solve problems and take on challenges, demonstrating their leadership skills and improving their ability to communicate with each other successfully. In between challenges, back with their tutor groups, students explored apprenticeships, meeting with young apprentices and asking them question all about their post-16 choices. They also got the opportunity to create and hone their college applications and CVs as they get ready for the next big step in the educational career.

Sixth Form 

Bow Sixth Form students were out and about during the day; either in central London solving mysteries with AIM (outdoor) Escape Rooms or at Stubbers Adventure Centre in Upminster facing their fears and growing in confidence with activities such as obstacle courses, and the leap of faith. Our sixth form students showed their usual tenacity and hard-work ethic in every activity they were faced with and did the whole school proud.