CPD for teachers – What is character education and why is it more important than ever?
What is a ‘school of character’ and why has the pandemic made it more important than ever? Michael Fullard explains…
So, what were teachers doing during lockdown? Apart from planning, teaching online lessons, setting up online learning platforms, checking on the wellbeing of students and – of course – joining the nation in becoming artisan bakers of banana bread and becoming avid followers of enthusiastic body coaches…
Well, one thing the pandemic enabled teachers to do was engage in numerous forms of CPD which otherwise they may not have had the time to do.
If you visited Twitter during the height of the lockdown, you would inevitably have seen teachers from across the country sharing links to online CPD programmes and encouraging others to engage with further professional development opportunities.
Free CPD
I was delighted to see that one of the things being shared was Leading Character Education in Schools, a free online CPD programme which I had a hand in in my role as research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, part of the University of Birmingham.
The development of the Jubilee Centre’s character education CPD programme began in January 2019.
Through a process of rigorous research, consultation, piloting and evaluation, we launched the programme in April 2020, close to the beginning of the lockdown period.
The programme aims to answer the two key questions often asked of character education:
- How do you do it?
- What does a ‘school of character’ look like?
While previous research projects and the Jubilee Centre’s collaboration with schools had shown there was a real demand for a character education CPD programme, it’s fair to say the success of the programme has surpassed all our expectations.
By the start of the autumn term, 1,500 practitioners had registered for the programme from 380 UK schools and 50 different countries. Its success begs a question: why is there such a demand from schools for professional development in character education?
The Jubilee Centre has noticed an increased attention to character education since Ofsted acknowledged its importance and included character development in its most recent school inspection handbook.
However, it seems that the current pandemic has led schools to think more explicitly about how they develop the character of their pupils and what impact this can have on wellbeing.
Potential side-effects
Evan Hollows, headteacher at Eastbrook School in Dagenham, recently completed the CPD programme.
His view is that schools are turning to taught character in response to “recognising the potential side-effects of prolonged absence from school, whether it be academic, social, or emotional.”
He says that schools are beginning to see that “if character education is delivered thoughtfully, it can help pupils be equipped to overcome problems faced during and after lockdown.”
Similarly, as a result of completing the CPD, Kerry Macfarlane, character education lead at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary in Bournemouth, implemented a whole-school approach to character and has already witnessed the impact it has had, explaining that, “the development of an implicit culture and the implementation of an explicit curriculum for character education has supported the school in our reopening phase.”
Now we’re all back at school, in circumstances which can best be described as unusual, stressful and – for some – genuinely worrying, some schools have made the academic ‘catch up’ of their pupils their primary focus.
While there’s no denying that enabling pupils to learn what they may have missed should be of high importance, other schools have embraced challenges brought by the enforced break and used it to re-evaluate and reassess their aims and values of education, specifically looking at how they can support their pupils during this unprecedented time.
Ever-changing dynamics
Now we’re deep into the autumn term, it’s clear that much of school life looks very different from pre-Covid times, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
While we all agree that supporting pupils through the immediate coming months is important, many schools are trying to find the best approach to tackle the ever-changing classroom dynamics of living in a Covid world.
The success of the Jubilee Centre’s CPD programme highlights that, for many schools, the coronavirus crisis has encouraged them to think explicitly about how the character development of their pupils can help them navigate this difficult transition period.
If there’s one thing the last six months have shown us, it’s the unique position and responsibility a school holds in contributing to the flourishing of the young people in their care.
This position can be best summed up by Sophie Murfin, executive principal of the Wise Owl Trust in Manchester, when she describes the impact that a character education programme has had on pupils’ “ability to understand themselves and build upon character traits such as resilience and self-awareness, giving [them] a helping hand throughout lockdown and during the transition back into school.”
Has the coronavirus crisis prompted a re-awakening of interest not only in our baking skills in the kitchen, but, crucially, in the character development of our pupils? Early signs seem to indicate it has.
Michael Fullard (@mikefullard) is a research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham. He was a primary teacher for nine years. Access the free online Leading Character Education in Schools CPD programme here.
The resource was awarded four stars in the CPD category of the Teach Primary Awards 2020.
Why we chose character education
Sophie Murfin, executive principal of Wise Owl Trust, explains why she’s based her entire curriculum around character education
Supporting our pupils for life beyond the school gates is at the heart and soul of everything we do. For years now we’ve been pioneering character education because we believe in a holistic pupil approach to teaching.
In fact, we went one step further by making it the bedrock of our whole curriculum. We instigated a ‘RESPECT’ curriculum, which means we teach our core values of resilience, empathy, self-awareness, positivity, excellence, communication and teamwork across all subjects and year groups.
We co-wrote a series of mission-based lesson plans that aim to build character by taking the pupils out of the classroom to reconstruct challenges faced by real-life heroes and heroines (commandojoes.co.uk).
It’s proved to be very successful and is now used by over 500 schools across the UK. It provides pupils with the opportunity to put their character traits to the test in carefully planned scenarios.
Our main focus is encouraging pupils to understand for themselves their character strengths and areas for development. These are then collated in their very own passport.
From the age of three, our pupils take part in these missions. They are introduced to the different character behaviour traits using puppet mascots such as Charlie Communication and Tanisha Teamwork.
We teach the character traits both explicitly and implicitly, throughout all aspects of school life. This approach has created a common language for all. Over the past few years the impact has been demonstrable in terms of attitudes towards learning, attendance and academic achievement.
Through focusing on positive character traits we’ve given our pupils the foundations to be confident in themselves. The knock-on effect of that has rippled through all areas of school life.
