Meet the team

Through my experience as a school leader, I was always striving to understand more about the students in my care. I believed that personal development and enhancing softer skills was fundamental to their success. With a sharp focus on their character development, I believed we were equipping them to be able to access opportunities that life would present them in a more productive manner.

Ascertaining that in depth and accurate knowledge of a young person's character has always been a challenging process. It is vital in being able to provide targeted provision so that learning activities are designed to meet students at their current level and crucially, through focused work, make progress. It is also imperative that students understand fully what they are trying to achieve and be given opportunities to achieve them.

Taking into account the above, we have developed the Personal Development Assessment Model (PDAM). We collaborated with a range of professionals including Educational Psychologists, Ofsted inspectors, SENCOs and Head teachers from various settings to create and evolve a holistic model to ensure character and personal development could be measured effectively.

PDAM covers 18 (and counting) skills and values competencies. Within each competency there are a range of grade descriptors and child friendly targets throughout a four bands of learning, tiered system. Each band encompasses a progressing level of learning and knowledge of the competency.

Within the framework we place extra emphasis on certain skills or values that we believe are in line with a high percentage of EHCP outcomes from SEMH and Communication and Interaction strands of SEN. These include Resilience, Social Skills, Communication, Emotional Intelligence and Adaptability/Flexibility as well as many more.

This model works on supporting the notion that every interaction is an intervention and an opportunity to support growth. Following a PDAM baseline being conducted from a key worker and a review of MSP/EHCP targets, key competencies will be identified and ‘I can’ statements will be selected. A pathway is then devised through the assessment model and create learning opportunities to ensure personal development in this area.

The team will need to see the skill performed/demonstrated in different contexts, consistently and over a sustained period of time. All students will have a learning log to capture their journey and achievements with us.

I hope PDAM is a useful tool for you and your students.