Year 7 Personal Development : Building strong foundations

Welcome to the Year 7 Personal Development platform. Here, you'll discover a wealth of resources designed to engage and inspire your pupils, fostering crucial life skills and character attributes from the very beginning of their secondary school journey with us at Lift Unity City.

On this page, you'll find essential resources focusing on:

  • Personal Development journals: Encouraging self-reflection and goal setting
  • Ultimate Team challenges: Building collaboration and problem-solving skills
  • Adulting for Beginners - Life Skills level 1: Introducing practical life competencies
  • Character Education: Fostering positive values and attributes

 

The role of the Personal Development Coach

A Personal Development Coach is a dedicated mentor who empowers students to overcome barriers to learning, build emotional resilience, and develop crucial life skills. Unlike traditional subject teachers, they focus entirely on holistic growth, supporting students in goal-setting, mental wellbeing, and personal responsibility. 

As a PD Coach at Lift Unity City, your role is to:

  • Set the standard - raise the bar - a consistent start to each day
  • Be a proactive presence - the first port of call for pastoral support for the students in your PD Group
  • Know your students - understand their needs and advocate for their support needs both academically and pastorally
  • Be your PD Group's biggest cheerleader - inspire, motivate and empower your students to try new things, fully experience school life and achieve their potential

Upcoming events and opportunities for Year 7 

Announcements sharing opportunities for students in Year 7 to get involved in - from Enrichment Extras to competitions, experiences, trips, visits and more...

Announcements

Careers Interests - action required!

Miss Ashenden would like EVERY student here at Lift Unity City to let the Careers Team know what kinds of jobs you might be interested in in the future. Please click the link below to add at least one job/career interest against everyone in your PD Group. This information will help shape future opportunities, so make sure you don't miss out!

Our first set of ENRICHMENT EXTRA OPPORTUNITIES ARE NOW BOOKED!

If you have signed up, you will shortly receive a consent form* - places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

If you don't get a place this time, you will automatically be on the list for Group 2 / Group 3, so don't worry!

BOOKING DETAILS 

Horse riding for Beginners - GROUP 1 - STARTING THIS WEEK :  

  • Lesson 1 : Wednesday 30th September - 12.00- 2.00pm (including travel time and lunch break)
  • Lesson 2 : Wednesday 7th October - 12.00- 2.00pm (including travel time and lunch break)
  • Lesson 3 : Wednesday 14th October - 12.00- 2.00pm (including travel time and lunch break)

NEXT WEEK/ WEEK AFTER

RockAntics indoor bouldering and rock climbing experience -

  • Thursday 8th October - 12.00- 3.00pm (including travel time and lunch break)

Llama / alpaca experience and walking adventures - 

  • Monday 12th October - 9.00- 3.00pm (including travel time and lunch break)

*If your name is highlighted 'amber' on the ClassCharts section of the sign up sheet, you will be placed on the reserve list until your % positives improves.

MORE EXPERIENCES TO SIGN UP FOR COMING SOON!

Access Year 7 resources

COMING SOON

youHQ is a digital wellbeing and personal development platform designed for schools and colleges. NEXT WEEK we will start staff training and begin to introduce the system to our Year 7 students. There will be time built into the Personal Development programme for students to access youHQ regularly and you, as a Year 7 Coach, will have access to your PD Group's data through your own personal platform. 

Core Features:

  • Mood & Wellbeing Tracking: Students complete regular emoji check-ins and surveys.
  • Actionable Insights: Flags students who need extra pastoral support or intervention.
  • Safeguarding Integration: Connects with safeguarding systems like CPOMS to log and report concerns.
  • Personal Development: Features values-based goal-setting, mindfulness guides, and self-care resources.
  • Staff Support: Offers training, workshops, and wellbeing tools for educators. 

 

Lesson Delivery Tracker

Our lesson delivery tracker is an educational management tool used by our Personal Development Coaches to log, monitor, and assess how the PD curriculum is being taught. It ensures that planned lessons are actually completed, progress is maintained, and our students achieve the best possible outcomes.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) in Personal Development lessons is the continuous process of evaluating, reviewing, and improving teaching, learning, and assessment methods. It ensures that lessons are fair, consistently meet specific educational standards, and genuinely help learners develop the personal, social, and functional life skills they need.

How QA Works in Personal Development

Quality assurance operates as a proactive, supportive cycle rather than just an end-of-course test. It relies on a few key actions: 

  • Lesson Observations: Leaders or peers observe lessons to evaluate if the content is engaging, accurate, and properly adapted to the students' needs.
  • Learner Feedback: Gathering input from students to understand the impact the lesson had on their confidence, wellbeing, and personal perspectives. 
  • Standardisation: Ensuring that coaches / leadership are applying the same criteria and delivering a consistent experience across the school.
  • Review and Evaluate: Looking at curriculum plans and student progress over time to identify gaps and update the lesson framework.

Why It Is Important?

Personal Development lessons deal with highly subjective, personal topics rather than just academic testing. QA is vital to drive continuous improvement by identifying what methods work best so we can enhance future lessons.

Engaging year 7 pupils with dynamic content

Our Year 7 content is crafted to be visually exciting, interactive, practical, and challenging, ensuring pupils remain engaged and enthusiastic about their personal growth. We believe learning should be an adventure, and our resources reflect this philosophy. Engaging resources are critical because they transform learning from passive listening into active participation. This shift improves information retention, caters to diverse learning styles, and fosters a lifelong love for learning. 

The impact of successful year 7 Personal Development 

When Year 7 Personal Development thrives, pupils fully engage in the programme, taking significant steps to develop their character, skills, and attributes. They gain a deeper understanding of how these lessons positively impact their learning across the curriculum and in life beyond school. Let's work together to nurture well-rounded, confident individuals.

Year 7 Personal Development (PD) lessons profoundly impact students by equipping them with the practical and emotional tools needed to navigate the transition to secondary school. They build resilience, foster healthy friendships, and prepare adolescents for the physical and emotional changes of puberty.

Measuring impact

Your feedback is a catalyst for change

External partnerships and specialist providers

"I recently attended Lift Unity City to deliver Cleveland Fire Brigade’s Spring Campaign to Year 7 pupils over two separate mornings. The sessions were organised and I was made to feel very welcome from the moment I arrived.

Both mornings ran very smoothly, with each group of pupils fully engaged throughout the sessions. The pupils and staff were excellent. There were no behavioural issues, and the students gained valuable knowledge about fire safety, as well as the risks and consequences of deliberate fire setting.

Overall, the event was a great success."

- David Bell - Cleveland Fire Brigade 2026

 

Provider feedback

Provider feedback