At the Dorset Studio School we place the importance of a student’s personal development alongside that of their academic development and employability. Clearly all three go hand in hand. We are proud that we have adopted an integrated approach to this important area of education such that our students’ development is planned and provided for rather than a reactive ad-hoc approach. We have carefully mapped our provision for Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development (SMSC) alongside Careers Independent Advice and Guidance (CIAG) as well as teaching and provision for the development of Fundamental British Values (FBV). These sessions are taught alongside some of the more traditional Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) themes. This provision is delivered both through discrete Personal Development lessons, as well as through weekly conferences and themed workshops from external providers. We have linked each them to academic subjects where possible so if there a theme related to personal safety, then alongside the teaching within the lesson it may well be the case that attention is also drawn to this topic area within a Physical Education lesson, within a Land Based practical lesson or within a Mathematics lesson when some of the statistics could be analysed for example.

We want to be sure that when a student completes their education with us that not only do they have the qualifications that they need, but also the necessary life skills, employability skills and social skills to be able to successfully progress on to the next stage of their lives.