Knowledge

A rounded Personal Development programme equips students with not just skills, but also knowledge about the world around them and their place in it. The ‘My World’ quiz in Aspire covers a range of PHSE-type topics, asking students which they understand, which they want to learn more about, and if there are any specific things they’d like to know. Some of these topics have proved particularly important to young people—with 56% of students choosing at least one ‘knowledge’ focus area as a top priority for the term. In this newsletter, we’ll highlight some of the ‘My World’ topics your students said they wanted to learn most about, along with some of our favourite related resources. This blog was born from the Aspirations Newsletter, which you can subscribe to here ! Managing Your Finances It’s no surprise that Managing your Finances tops our ranking of most-requested knowledge topics, with 63% of students saying they want to learn more about it. Good Financial Advice Barclays Life Skills offers free articles, videos and interactive quizzes to help young people learn to save, stay out of debt, and avoid becoming a victim of fraud. Your Money Matters This free digital textbook gives students all the information they need to educate themselves about Saving, Budgeting, Borrowing, Investing, and the World of Work. Staying Healthy: Lifestyle, Diet, and Assessing Risks Staying Healthy is the second most prioritised knowledge focus area, with 56% of students wanting to learn more about how to better look after themselves. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Because this area is quite broad, we’re offering a suite of resources to help students eat healthily , improve their fitness and get a better night’s sleep . Resources for Health & Relationships Initiated by Croydon Primary Care Trust and since developed in partnership with local authorities and young people, Getting It On is a website dedicated to providing guidance to young people on sexual and mental health issues, drugs & alcohol and relationship problems. Wellbeing Although Mental and Emotional Wellbeing ranked highly among Aspirations Students’ chosen focus areas, we’ve decided not to focus on that here – because we already covered it in a dedicated Wellbeing blog post ! The Environment, and Global Issues The Environment is also, unsurprisingly, a hot topic among Aspirations students, with 51% of students saying they want to learn more about it. Environmental Awareness Fortunately for students (and teachers) interested in learning more about our world, 9 award-winning David Attenborough documentaries are currently available for free on  BBC iPlayer . Global Issues, Explained “Almost nobody knows the basic global facts!” claims  Gapminder , an independent Swedish foundation dedicated to increasing awareness of global statistics and trends. Their website offers educational resources on topics such as inequality, climate change, and rational optimism. All of the above resources are available as online resources to Aspirations students, through the Aspire platform. Interested in personal development? Sign up to the Aspirations Newsletter for regular(ish) updates including recommended resources, great practice from our schools, and trends on student needs and interests across the country Sign Up!