‘If the teacher makes the weather, the schools create the climate. School improvement is how schools create an ever-better climate for the individual and groups of teachers to do their job in the most favourable circumstances’ Sir Tim Brighouse
Positive school values, ethos and climate are all essential for behaviour and for providing young people with the framework they need for life. Here’s how your school can ensure your values permeate the fabric of the school.
Strategic Commitment
Whole school change and development needs to be driven from the top in order to permeate the whole organisation. The senior lead and all middle managers have a responsibility to lead on how the school values will be integrated into their areas of work. The only way to provide long-term planning and school time for projects is by them being included and interwoven into the School Development Plan.
Pastoral Curriculum
The pastoral system wraps around the whole curriculum and ensures the wellbeing of the pupil so that they can achieve their potential. There are multiple ways to consider explicitly bringing values into the pastoral curriculum.
Assemblies and Form Time
Assemblies and form time provide a vital space to explore and understand the language around values, strengths and ethos. Using role models is a great way to exemplify the areas you want to demonstrate. These can be people from history, or in the public eye or everyday amazing examples from around the school.
Behaviour Management
A strength-based approach to behaviour management focuses on reflection and goal setting, rather than just punishing poor behaviour. Attention also needs to be paid to rewards and recognition and whether equal status is given to personal growth as to academic or sporting achievements?
Pupil Reports
Finally, are your reports communicating the pupils’ personal development and demonstration of school values?
How to embed values into every classroom
School curriculums are overcrowded places but there are two simple ways to embed values into every class.
- Spotting values: Are character strengths woven into all your curriculums? Do staff understand how to explicitly teach character and recognise it when they see it in action?
- Role models: All subjects can look for opportunities to integrate stories of amazing people in their particular subject areas, focusing on the character strengths that led to their particular achievements and how this relates to the school values.
Additional Curriculum Commitments
There is a recognition that strength-based education (and in particular the use of stories of amazing people) can and should permeate all areas and that it can make a valuable contribution to and through areas such as: Personal Development time, careers, English as an Additional Language and Leadership opportunities. All of these provide excellent occasions to embed the strengths and values sought by the school.
Training and Support for Staff
A commitment to a whole school vision for embedding values and character comes the need to upskill all at staff so ongoing training and support/coaching to put the training into action is needed.
Awareness & Understanding
Through the sustained and systematic use of stories and character-led approach over time, pupils ‘awareness and understanding’ grows. They recognise the part character played in the lives of amazing people, how struggle was part of the journey and how they too can realise their ambitions by cultivating and drawing on their character strengths. Expectations of the need for effort, drive and determination are set so they too expect to strive to achieve.
When you combine the use of role models with the building of other student leadership and social action opportunities in your school, and if they are underpinned with reflective practice focused on character development you will unlock the learning, skills, attitudes and behaviour……character.
Impact
Over time, impact is measured in how the pupil feels about themselves, about others and about the possibilities for the future. Through building their relationship skills, their own self confidence grows as they feel more equipped to deal with what the world offers them…or even throws at them. For young people, understanding their purpose, their passions, and their strengths allows them to build real life skills, as well as a resilient mindset. All of these are foundational aspects of our wellbeing.
Young people, well-grounded in a positive school ethos can flourish.
To find out more about how Amazing People Schools can help your school truly embed values into its SIP, SDP or curriculum, book a free call with Selena to discuss your objectives here.
Written by Selena Whitehead Education Manager at Amazing People Schools.