Staff training day 2nd January 2018 Welcome back!

Agenda Character Education-what is it?? Moderation in year groups Lunch Safeguarding refresher training

Why Character Education? The sudden popularity of character education is borne out of many things: frustration at the increasingly narrow success criteria in schools, concern about the quality of the workforce, and fears from parents and pupils alike about the pressures on young people.

Characteristics such as resilience, self regulation and moral reasoning start to form at a young age so we can’t ignore the role of some parents and families, especially in the early years. And enrichment activities that help to cultivate well-rounded young people need more status than they currently enjoy.

1) Cheerleading involves multicolored posters, banners, and bulletin boards featuring a value or virtue of the month; lively morning public-address announcements; occasional motivational assemblies; and possibly a high- profile event such as a fund-raiser for a good cause. 2) Praise-and-reward approach seeks to make virtue into habit using "positive reinforcement". Elements include "catching students being good" and praising them or giving them chits that can be exchanged for privileges or prizes. In this approach, all too often, the real significance of the students' actions is lost, as the reward or award becomes the primary focus. 3) Define-and-drill calls on students to memorize a list of values and the definition of each. Students' simple memorization of definitions seems to be equated with their development of the far more complex capacity for making moral decisions. 4) Forced-formality focuses on strict, uniform compliance with specific rules of conduct, (i.e., walking in lines, arms at one's sides), or formal forms of address ("yes sir," "no ma'am"), or other procedures deemed to promote order or respect of adults.

"These four approaches aim for quick behavioural results, rather than helping students better understand and commit to the values that are core to our society, or helping them develop the skills for putting those values into action in life's complex situations." 

Character education requires us to dig deeper and look at moral principles, ethos and virtues that underpin human behaviours. Dr Marvin Berkowitz (1997) claims that: “Effective character education is not adding a program or set of programs to a school. Rather it is a transformation of the culture and life of the school.”

Why Character Education? Have you ever seen a child (or an adult!) who is ‘stuck on the escalator’?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrSUe_m19FY

Shut up, move on! @thesumoguy Paul McGee Do you SUMO?? Shut up, move on! @thesumoguy Paul McGee

How does this translate to what we are doing at BCET? How do we reward children? Is our culture embedded? Is every single person in our organisation committed to giving and teaching the same messages? How do we achieve this? How are we preparing children for the next phase of their lives/education? Are we achieving a synergy between character curriculum and the knowledge based curriculum? Are we always teaching/leading by example? (Do you regularly reflect?) What about Growth Mindset?

A word about OFSTED…. Autumn, 2018 for both schools Our summer results will be key to the outcomes…. But…..if we get our culture right, the rest will follow….

What do we want our organisation to be about…? Well trained Research based Reflective Honest Consistent Realistic Pragmatic…doing what is right for our unique communities.

Updates on some roles…. NN: Executive Headteacher at RPS/Executive Director of Education for BCET BMk: Head of School at RPS Lesley Taylor: Business Manager for BCET Clare Tooth: Finance Manager for BCET (part time working for the College) EE: supporting teaching and learning across BCET