Personal Development

At Budehaven, we are not only driven to ensure our students achieve academic success, but also in how they develop their character, personal values, skills and attributes. Our curriculum extends beyond the academic classrooms and provides students broader life experiences to assist in discovering their own interests, talents and opinions.
In the ever changing wider world, students not only need academic success but also fundamental skills such as: resilience, confidence and independence but also teaching the importance of both physical and mental wellbeing.

We also have a vested interest in the future of our students and therefore, provide high quality and bespoke careers advice and guidance, personal to each individual, on how to transition to the next stage of their future. We prepare our students for life in modern Britain by:

Equipping them to be responsible, respectful, active citizens who contribute positively to society
Developing their understanding of fundamental British values
Developing their understanding and appreciation of diversity
Celebrating what we have in common and promoting respect for the different protected characteristics as define in law.

Assemblies

Assemblies are a fundamental aspect of our school life

At Budehaven we hold weekly assemblies for all, which often alternate between year group or House assemblies.
Assemblies are usually presented by Heads of Year, Heads of House or members of the senior leadership team, but we do welcome and encourage student lead assemblies.
We feel it is important to focus our assemblies on a variety of topics that range from current affairs, key events and dates in the calendar, school events and celebrations.

Tutor Time

Tutor time is a corner stone of our school day at Budehaven. Each year group has a bespoke schedule that allows students to build strong relationships with their peers and form tutor, whilst discussing and improving their own personal wellbeing and attributes.

Form time is currently divided into different form time themes; these themes are fundamental to student personal development and they include: assemblies, current affairs, careers and literacy/reading.

Students learning about the importance of employability skills, and possible career pathways, is again something we feel passionate about. Students who develop transferable employability skills in school can then use these when transitioning to their next step of their future, either into further education, or the world of work. We are firm advocates of empowering our students from the moment they arrive by instilling the importance of employability skills no matter what career or pathway they wish to take.

We feel it is important that our students are recognising the world in which they live and are keeping up to date with current affairs. The current affairs theme allows students to learn about events happening around them in the local and national news and also offers an opportunity to discuss some relevant engaging topics. Weekly assembly provide the platform to issue important updates and news, and also allows staff to deliver themed assemblies on various important topics, such as: remembrance, anti-bullying and internet safety.

Charity and celebration events

At Budehaven, we feel very strongly about participating in and hosting our own charity and awareness events, to help those in need and gain and deeper understanding of our local, national and global community.

Throughout each year, our school community takes part in numerous national initiatives such as Children in Need, Red Nose Day, Black History Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, Children’s Mental Health Week and Refugee Week, to but name a few.

Charity work and helping those less fortunate is something we try to instil into all our students, and each of our School Houses are affiliated to charitable organisations, including Centrepoint, Invictus Trust, Pets as Therapy, Prince’s Trust, Royal British Legion, RNLI and Young Lives vs Cancer. Alongside this, we respond to current events, such, as the crisis in the Ukraine, fundraising through events such as book sales during World Book Day, and also strive to help other local charities as much as possible.

We actively encourage our students to act upon initiatives they feel passionate about. We have students ranging from all year groups asking to plan and run events in school, such as our annual Budehaven Pride event. Students and staff give up their own time to volunteer is assisting in planning and hosting these events.

One of our favourite school charitable events, is our summer term sponsored walk, which sees students and staff walking together on from Bude, through to Widemouth and back. Not only is this a fabulous day of community spirit and comradery but can also raise up to £11,000, which is shared between charitable causes.