PFA (Preparation for Adulthood) at Walton Hall Academy
Our PFA curriculum is split into 3 areas:
1. PFA Growth (PSHE and RSE)
2. PFA Independence (Community, travel training, managing a home and finances)
3. PFA Employment (careers and work skills)
Key Stage 3
In Key Stage 3, PFA Growth aims to develop the personal wellbeing of our students. It is this which helps young people embrace change, feel positive about who they are and enjoy healthy, safe, responsible and fulfilled lives.
Active learning opportunities include themes such as:
- Sexual Relationship Education
- Drug awareness education
- British values
- Financial education
- citizenship and democracy
- human rights
- staying safe
Students learn to recognise and manage risk, take increasing responsibility for themselves, their choices and behaviours and make positive contributions to their families, schools and communities.
As students learn to recognise, develop and communicate their qualities, skills and attitudes, they build knowledge, confidence and self-esteem and make the most of their abilities. As they explore similarities and differences between people and discuss social and moral dilemmas, they learn to deal with challenges and accommodate diversity in all its forms. The world is full of complex and sometimes conflicting values. Personal wellbeing helps students explore this complexity and reflect on and clarify their own values and attitudes. They identify and articulate feelings and emotions, learn to manage new or difficult situations positively and form and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of people.
In Year 9, students on our navigators pathways also have a PFA Employment lesson on their timetable, to encourage them to begin to think about what sort of career they might be interested in and to better prepare them for the move into KS4.
Key Stage 4
Our PFA curriculum in key stage 4 is highly tailored to meet the needs of all learners. Lessons are often discussion based and allow the learners the opportunity to develop their understanding of the topics, form opinions and challenge their preconceptions. Students also work towards completing a scenario based assignment each term that will evidence their understanding of identified assessment criteria.
For students with more complex learning needs, who follow our sensory pathway, PSHE is not taught through timetabled lessons, but through all the work that they do in school. Students develop personally and socially across the curriculum with the focus on improving independence and life skills with strategies to manage their own behaviour and develop positive emotional and mental well-being.
Key Stage 5
In Key Stage 5 the PFA curriculum makes an essential contribution to preparing our students for opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life. It is offered through discreet curriculum sessions, special events and enrichment opportunities, but its core values and practices are integral to our foundation learning programme.
We aim to offer imaginative ways of supporting young people in:
- becoming confident individuals who are physically, emotionally and socially healthy
- being responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society and embrace change
- managing risk together with their own wellbeing as well as introducing them to new activities and personal challenges.
At Walton Hall Academy we understand that PFA has a recognised impact on academic and personal achievement, effective in enabling students to explore attitudes and values, behaviour and relationships through themes that are current and relevant to our students. Our curriculum reflects this in our pastoral and weekly votes for schools sessions, which supplement PFA. Topics of study are carefully selected to reflect the needs of the students and current social issues, with an overall aim of supporting them to develop at a pace that is right for them and appropriate to their future destination.