CHARACTER
"Intelligence plus Character....that is the goal of true education" - Martin Luther King
Character Education can be defined as the active development of character strengths in young people. It is about helping students grasp what is ethically important in situations and how to act for the right reasons. At The Forest School, we believe that development of Character enables our students to flourish in all areas of their lives.
We take Character education seriously here. Working with the Association for Character Education, Character is taught explicitly through our registration programme with links to PSHE as well as implicitly across our curriculum subjects. Students also benefit from resources adapted from The Jubilee Centre at the University of Birmingham - world leading specialists in Character Education.
Following significant consultation with key stakeholders of our school community, we have created six Character strengths that form the main focus of our Character development. These are:
Resilience
Respect
Ambition
Self-Discipline
Curiosity
Integrity
In Year 7, students are supported with The Forest Edge programme in registration once per week which introduces them to these Character strengths and they then also have an additional Character session each week. Years 8 - 10 receive two Character sessions each week exploring a range of topics. Our weekly school assemblies also have a designated Character theme to sharpen our focus on our Character strengths.
It is our ambition to become recognised as a 'School for Character' by securing the quality mark for Character education. As a school, we believe that Character is fundamental for the development of our students but it is important that staff model good Character behaviours with students and this forms part of our CPD programme. 