Character Education
St. Wulstan's Personal Development Overview - click here to read more
Character Education Statement
Why do we value Character Education?
At St. Wulstan’s, we acknowledge that the experiences provided for children in their primary years has a major impact on their future wellbeing and success. It is for this reason, we have made a whole school commitment to the teaching and development of character traits, attributes and behaviours which underpin achievement and success; endeavouring to ensure that developing ‘character’ goes hand in hand with high educational aspirations and achievement. Our St. Wulstan’s Values and Learning Behaviours underpin our approach.
Character through the Curriculum
Through our rich and exciting creative curriculum, we focus on teaching pupils to be their best selves, to take pride in their work and to be positive members of the school and greater global communities.
We want to create children who thrive on challenge, love learning, respect each other and have attributes that will ensure that they will be valued members of our society.
We also create a culture where staff are empowered to take risks and be inventive with the curriculum and learning, where mistakes are seen as a valuable part of the learning process, where all staff and governors support each other and the ethos of the school and most importantly where the relationships in the school between all stakeholders provides a secure foundation for skill development.
Our Values
Believe to Achieve: Love God, Love Learning Love One Another
St. Wulstan’s Values: respect, forgiveness, honesty, friendship, love
Our Learning Behaviours: listening, teamwork, organisation, creativity, resilience
At St. Wulstan’s, we have the highest aspirations for our children.
Deeply committed to providing the best possible education for all pupils, we place a child’s happiness and excellent standards of teaching, learning and leadership at the heart of all we do.
We believe that time in school should be rewarding and fulfilling. We, therefore, pride ourselves on creating an exciting and inspirational learning environment, through the implementation of a wide-ranging and challenging curriculum that meets the needs of the whole child and enables each individual to develop high self-esteem and experience success in both education and in their personal growth.
Through our caring and inclusive learning environment, we aim to nurture and develop mutual respect, tolerance and teamwork - encouraging pupils to embrace diversity and value one another equally.
We are dedicated to promoting in pupils: resilience, a positive learning attitude and independence. We place a huge emphasis on the importance of kindness, consideration and good manners.
Determined that our pupils leave St. Wulstan’s, as confident, responsible, life-long learners able to make a positive contribution to society, we strive to create a learning community, rich in opportunity, where everyone is valued, empowered and challenged to achieve their potential and excel in their achievements.
Socially
High Achieving
Independent
Nurturing
Empowered to face life’s challenges
Areas of Responsibility
Pupils throughout the school are offered opportunities to take responsibility, to show initiative and to extend their social and cultural experiences.
These roles include: Classroom Monitors, School Council Representatives, House Captains, Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, Prefects, Seeds and Gardeners, GIFT Team, Caritas Ambassadors, Reading Ambassadors, Junior Leadership Team
Values Assemblies
Values Assemblies teach pupils about the personal qualities valued in society e.g. respect, forgiveness, honesty, friendship, love. Assemblies also enable pupils to explore issues relating directly to rules, behaviour and bullying.
Achievement Celebration Assembly
We hold a weekly Achievement Celebration Assembly where we celebrate children’s classroom achievements. Each week teachers choose pupils to receive certificates for a range of attributes, both personal and academic e.g. ‘Star of the Week’, ‘Writer of the Week’, general ‘Well Done’ certificates, best class attendance etc.
The ‘Values Certificate’ is awarded once a week in an achievement assembly to a child chosen by their class teacher who has demonstrated one of the school’s five values.
The Always Children
Each class teacher will keep a record of the ‘always children.’ These are children who consistently work hard and are outstanding role models in terms of both behaviour and their learning attitude. At the end of each month, an always child is chosen for an extra special treat!
Assertive Mentoring
Assertive Mentoring establishes what a child can do and what they need to do to move to the next stage of learning. The process allows teachers to set appropriate, achievable targets in the core subjects as well as attitude and behaviour (if required) every half term.
Children know exactly what stage they are working at and what they need to do to improve further.
What makes Assertive Mentoring so different is that it involves, empowers and motivates the children themselves. Assessments, targets and progress are shared in a format that the children can understand.
The teacher becomes a ‘mentor’ and has a regular, one to one dialogue with pupils using a positive ‘can do’ approach, motivating, supporting, and removing potential barriers to learning hence the name ‘assertive mentoring’.
DFE Character Education Benchmarks
A new set of “benchmarks” for schools to rate their character education against has been published by the Department for Education
As a school, we have evaluated our provision.