I am sure you will be well aware of yesterday’s White Paper release. In particular, I was interested to read Chapter 6 “Building character and resilience in every child” P94. Though the paper persists of linking Character traits with British Values, both knowledge / academic curriculum and Character development is deemed sufficiently important and a focus for future education planning.
I am unsure of the definition of “Behavioural Insights Team” and “What Works Centres” with whom the DfE plans to work with, though I assure the Jubilee Centre will be one of the “expert organisations” they draw upon.
A brief review of the chapter would suggest that the opportunities to develop an understanding of values and virtues will centre on the action plan for improving the quality of PSHE and a toolkit for schools to help them plan, develop and deliver their own PSHE curriculum, and assess learning and impact. Here, I truly believe an endorsed Diploma would motivate pupils to self-reflect and record their own personal investment. It goes without saying, that I think this could be an excellent digital badging opportunity. Even better if schools could be supported by the provision of staff training, moderation and quality assurance, as opposed to the assessment of values and virtues.
Second, schools will also be expected to highlight opportunities within the school’s curriculum and extra-curricular activities on the school’s website.
Third, the Civic virtues appear to be heavily linked to, and included as part of, National Citizen Service (NCS). Moral values targeting issues of tolerance. Whilst there are clearly heavy links between character development and attainment / behaviour / employability, there does seem to be an unstated emphasis on the benefit of character development as a good in itself – a position endorsed by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues.
Finally, and rather interestingly there is a push to include approaches to character development in initial teacher training programmes. Again, an arena that has already received the support of Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues last year.
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