Our Christian vision at St Michael’s is central to all we do including Character for Life education. We believe that it is vital for our young people to experience an excellent distinctive Christian education which focuses on the academic but most importantly their character, and the person they aspire to become; the person God wants them to be. Every member of staff has a responsibility to both model and teach excellent character development and we believe here at St Michael’s there are many opportunities each day for pupils and staff to develop their character. Character may be caught, sought or taught.
Our aims for character for life here at St Michael’s are that our pupils not only have a distinctive Christian education but that they develop and reflect on their own character. Through our vision and character for life focus our pupils will grow in body, mind and spirit. This is part and parcel of all we do here at St Michael’s and each member of staff is integral to this. We believe that character is caught, sought and taught. Therefore every interaction whether it be within worship, the curriculum, wider-curricular activities, an educational visit or simply a conversation, character formation is continual and occurs each minute of every day.
Character for life Education
At St Michael’s we can visibly see examples of Character for life around school on displays, in pupil organisers and in lessons, however, we will also experience Character development in ways we cannot see; for example through relationships, pupil leadership and worship. Through the culture and the ethos of the community we hope that something special, something that can be felt by all those who walk through our doors, is experienced.
The Character for life tree is something we have used for many years as a symbol to draw attention to the fact we are learning something which gives the opportunity to develop our character. The roots of the tree symbolise Christian values and attributes, the leaves of the tree represent the influences we may have and what the Bible might teach about the issue. Finally, the fruit is reflection time, the time for character development to take place.
There are many generic character resources in the shared area including a character wall with music. Each learning scheme may refer also refer to character for life.
Year 7 Character for Life lessons
Our Year 7 Character for Life curriculum is designed to enable pupils to develop a concrete understanding of their own character, and be able to articulate that meaningfully, as well as reflect it in their ways of living.
The lessons are built upon the foundations of our Christian distinctiveness and how through serving God and celebrating the uniqueness of each and every person we can see the kingdom of God in action in our school.
Pupils are encouraged to develop a range of character attributes through studying issues like social justice, looking at philosophy and the ‘big questions’ of life and what it means to be an effective learner.
Character for Life has a diverse and rich curriculum which is pupil focussed and gives pupils the time and space to reflect on who they are as individuals and how they would like to develop their character in the future.