Character Education

Introduction:

At Thomas Alleyne, we ensure our students have the qualifications that they need for their futures but also the character traits to be successful. We need students to be lifelong learners, responsible citizens and make positive contributions to society. We want all of our students to flourish. To flourish means to fulfil one’s potential. Character education is a planned approach to help our students to develop the courage they need to cope with life's challenges, the determination to achieve their goals and the empathy to support others and be responsible citizens.  

Aims:

Character education should prepare students for the next stage in their lives. Schools play an important role in ensuring students are responsible for themselves, each other and the world they live in. At Thomas Alleyne, we want our students to:

• make reasoned, informed and ethical choices 

• have a sound understanding of right and wrong 

• have high self-esteem 

• be excellent communicators 

• be creative and enquiring

• be open to trying new things

• to have a voice and to influence society 

• have the ability to be independent and use their initiative 

• be good role models 

• be cooperative, adaptable and able to work as a team 

• contribute to a multi-skilled workforce 

• value diversity

• fight to look after their environment

Underpinning our work on Character are our three core values. Everything that we do links to our core values and the virtues that students need to fulfil each value:

Delivering Character Education

Character education at Thomas Alleyne is all-encompassing and is threaded through all areas of the curriculum and personal development opportunities that the students receive. We take character education seriously as we believe it is fundamental to the development of our students, and this was demonstrated by our receiving the Character Quality Mark.

Character education is taught through our form time programme and assembly programme. The character curriculum is linked carefully to our PSHE programme. Subject areas take responsibility for further developing opportunities to discuss virtues and virtue-based dilemmas. Opportunities for students to put their “character” into practice are wide-ranging and include:

• an extensive clubs list of extra-curricular clubs

• STEM activities such as the Faraday challenge

• music and drama productions

• trips and events such as the trip to the Stevenage parliament and Young Enterprise activities

• student leadership including the school council, prefect positions

• volunteering and charity work

• Duke of Edinburgh at both bronze and silver

Despite all the opportunities that are planned to teach character, both explicitly and implicitly, we believe that the modelling of character is a crucial aspect and to this end, we work with staff and parents/carers on character and character virtues. It is important that staff model good character behaviours and engage in positive character language with students, and therefore this is an aspect of our CPD programme.