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Module 5: Character Education

Week 1: Introducing Character Education

This week the ECT considered what character education is and why it is important.  They expored the government and The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues' frameworks linked to character education.

Evidence and Research:

Invite the ECT to share with you what they have learnt this week, specifically focusing what they understand character and character education to be.

The following questions will help frame your discussion:

  • What do you understand character to be?

  • What is character education?

  • What are the key frameworks that support the development of character education in schools?  How are these different?  

Reflection and Discussion

The ECT reflected upon their learning using Greenway's (1992) 4Fs framework:

Invite them to share their reflections with you.  The following questions may help frame this discussion:

Facts:  What are the key points you have learned?

Feelings: What do you feel about character education?  How do you feel this will support you, as a teacher and your students?

Findings: Why is character education important?  How might this impact your practice? What are the key elements of character education?

Future: How might you imagine using what you have learned? What choices do you have?  What ideas do you have for embedding character education in your teaching?

You may find the following documents useful yourself:

Week 2: Embedding Character Education in the Classroom

This week the ECT focused on learning how they can embed character education within their own classroom and teaching as well as across the school.

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The ECT was signposted to further resources available on Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues website as well as a chapter 'The Character of the Teacher' and the book Understanding Character Education (Watts, P., Fullard, M. and Peterson, A.  2021) which is available in the staffroom book shelves.

Evidence and Research:

Invite the ECT to share with you what they have learnt this week, specifically focusing how character education can be embedded within the curriculum and wider school.

The following questions will help frame your discussion:

  • What have you learnt about embedding character education within the curriculum?

  • What ideas have you explored around character education being embedded within the school?

  • What do you understand to be the difference between values and virtues?

  • What stood out from your learning this week?

  • What connections did you make between this week's learning and the learning you engaged with last week?

Reflection and Discussion

Continue this discussion to reflect upon further development - using the following to support the discussion:

How might you begin to consolidate this knowledge to apply this to practice?

What further knowledge do you need?

What are the actions you want or need to take next?

What further support do you need?  Who might offer this?

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How can you, as the mentor, support your ECT to access the support and resources they feel they need?

Week 3: Reflecting on your personal values and virtues

This week the ECT reflected upon their values and virtues producing their own professional values document.

Reflection and Discussion

Invite the ECT to discuss their core professional values with you.  They should have identified between 5 and 7 core professional values through undertaking a values activity.

They will have also developed their own professional values document, that explores these values in greater depth and outlines what these look like and how they are lived in practice.  Invite them to share this document with you.

You may choose to use the following questions to help frame this reflective discussion:

  • What are your core professional values?

  • Explain the process you went through to identify these.

  • Are any more important to you than others?  Or are any inter-related or dependent upon one another?

  • How does each value become a virtue in your teaching practice, relationships with colleagues and parents etc?

  • How do you plan to evaluate and assess your values in terms of how these are lived as virtues?

  • What have you learned from this?

As a mentor, you may find this document useful to read:

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Week 4: Developing and applying character education in the classroom

This week the ECT began to apply their learning related to character education to their teaching practice with a focus on character that is caught and by employing the improvement cycle approach as they have done previously.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

Ask the ECT which two of their core professional values they were focusing on this week and how they found focusing on how they lived their chosen values.  The following questions will help frame this part of the discussion:

  • What two values were you focused on?  For what reason did you choose these?

  • How did you find focusing in on two specific values?

  • Did you notice these values being acted out by colleagues and students? How were these lived out (through language, behaviours actions etc)?

Reflection and Discussion

The ECT will be expecting specific feedback from you on how they live their chosen focus values.  Be prepared to offer this feedback- you may want to ask which values your ECT is focusing on at the outset of the week.

You will want to consider how these values are lived through their language, behaviours, interactions, practice and approaches.

You may want to think of times when they fall short of these virtues and share this with them.

Then invite the ECT to share their reflections on how they have lived these values this week.  These questions will support this discussion:

  • How have you been virtuous in relation to your two chosen values this week?

  • How do you know and what evidence do you have?

  • What did you find challenging?  For what reason?

  • Did you have any virtue conflict or tension?  What compromise did you make?

  • What impact has focusing on these virtues had upon you?  Your students? Your colleagues?

  • What are your next steps?  What will you start doing?  Stop doing? Continue doing?

Week 5: Developing and applying character education in the classroom

This week the ECT began to apply their learning related to character education to their teaching practice with a focus on character that is taught and through employing the improvement cycle approach as they have done previously.

This week an observation is required focusing on how they are embedding character into their teaching.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

The ECT will have identified between 5 and 7 virtues they wish to focus on developing with their class and chose one of these to focus on teaching throughout the curriculum this week.  Explore these with the ECT.  The following questions may help:

  • What are the 5-7 virtues you have chosen to focus on teaching your class?

  • For what reasons have you chosen these?

  • What was the reason for choosing the virtue you focused on this week in your teaching?

  • How did you find planning and embedding this virtue within your teaching?  How did you model this?

  • How do you think embedding virtues across the curriculum will support your students?

Reflection and Discussion

You will have observed the ECT this week.  Hold a professional learning conversation related to this observation.

Invite the ECT to reflect upon their practice in relation to character education.

These questions may scaffold this discussion:

  • How can you further develop the teaching of this virtue across the curriculum?

  • How might you begin to embed the teaching of the other virtues you decided upon for your class?

  • What worked well?

  • What did no work so well?  For what reasons?

  • What else might you try?

Week 6: Developing and applying character education in the classroom

This week the ECT began to apply their learning related to character education to their teaching practice with a focus on character that is sought and through employing the improvement cycle approach as they have done previously.

Application and Exploration of Practice and Setting:

Explore what the ECT has undertaken this week with regards to considering character education that is 'sought'.  You might find the following questions frame this discussion:

  • What do you understand character education that is 'sought' to be?

  • How might this support character education that is caught and taught?

  • What activities and enrichment do your pupils engage in that supports the virtues that you class is focused on?  How do these activities do this?

  • Are there any pupils that are not accessing character education being sought?  How might you rectify this?  What options exist?

  • What enrichment activities do pupils engage with beyond school - and how do these support the virtues you are focused on? How might you bring these into the classroom to make connections?

Reflection and Discussion

You ECT will have looked at the monitor and review stages of the improvement cycle to reflect this week.  The following questions will support a discussion around this reflection:

  • How important are these enrichment activities in supporting character education?

  • How might decisions around types of enrichment align with the development of identified virtues?

  • Can enrichment and other such activities support the bringing to life of the school values?

  • How can character education link to the development of emotional honesty, 21st Century skills and the use of coaching approaches?  Is there synergy?

  • How would you recommend that the school takes character education forward?

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