December 2019
Price: £95 PLUS VAT
Format: DOWNLOADABLE PDF
This timely seminar focused on character education - including sport, creativity, volunteering, and work experience in the school curriculum.
The agenda also brought out latest thinking on how an effective extra-curricular offering can be developed outside the classroom to support the development of character.
Discussion drew on the advisory group’s Character education framework report, which outlined six character benchmarks designed to assist schools in the consideration of character education and which summarise its most important features as seen by government.
The benchmarks encourage schools to evaluate:
- what kind of school they are;
- current behaviour expectations and policies;
- whether the current curriculum develops resilience and confidence in students; and
- the promotion of volunteering and service to others within the school ethos.
The discussion took place in the context of:
- Implementation of Ofsted’s new inspection framework, with its increased focus on character through the introduction of a personal development and positive attitudes judgement, and with inspectors evaluating the extent to which schools support pupils to develop their character - including resilience, confidence and independence; and
- The DfE outlining its vision for character education - including calling on schools to support and learn from each other to build students’ character, along with support from business and community groups.
We also had discussion on:
- the link between character and well-being;
- the role of schools in equipping young people to tackle future challenges; and
- questions about how character education can be measured
Delegates considered challenges in the context of the new Ofsted inspection criteria - and how schools will need to be supported to focus on student character development as well as academic achievement.
Sessions looked at the practicalities of integrating character into primary and secondary teaching, including:
- resources and teaching methods;
- issues for teacher training, preparation, and support through CPD; and
- how to increase teacher engagement.
Further sessions looked at the development of character outside the classroom, in particular through extra-curricular activities.
Delegates also looked at how the extra-curricular offering to young people can be improved to ensure increased access to activities for disadvantaged students and high-quality outcomes.