Personal Development and Mutual Understanding
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Personal Development and Mutual Understanding (PDMU) is an Area of Learning in the primary curriculum. It focuses on encouraging children’s emotional and social development, confidence, independence, and health and safety awareness, and on developing their moral thinking, values and actions.
Teachers should enable children to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in two connected strands:
- Personal Understanding and Health
- Mutual Understanding in the Local and Wider Community.
Teachers should connect children’s learning across the strands and embed the key elements that underpin the curriculum objectives. This brings meaning and relevance to their experiences in school and in the world around them.
PDMU encourages children to become personally, emotionally and socially effective. It also prepares them for contributing to their communities in ways that make a positive and lasting impact.
For further details, see the Statutory Requirements for Personal Development and Mutual Understanding at Foundation Stage.
This Area of Learning enables children to develop respect for others and explore community similarities and differences. It is therefore a key vehicle for embedding Shared Education in school partnerships. See the Department of Education’s Sharing Works: A Policy for Shared Education for more information.
Whole Curriculum Skills and Capabilities
Children should have opportunities to develop their Cross-Curricular Skills of Communication, Using Mathematics and Using ICT, and their Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities through PDMU.
Resources
Contact
For more information on PDMU, contact: