Character Curriculum
We aim to empower all our students with the understanding that their character is equally as important to their future happiness and success in life as academic learning and qualifications.
Our vision at Harris Academy Beckenham is to enable students to flourish in all areas of their lives, by supporting their development into well-rounded, empathetic beings who can contribute and shape society and the wider world, whilst respecting and supporting those who live in it, though the teaching and modelling of good character.
How do we develop character?
Our character wheel is focused around the four Rs which is our learning ethos and eight character traits. Character education is an integral part of school life. It underpins our school ethos, dictates our values, and is embedded across the Academy in the following ways which will use a 'caught, taught and sought' approach:
Character is primarily 'caught' i.e. it is picked up through the experiences one has. Therefore, we ensure we create an ethos and environment that nurtures each one of our character traits. For example, our behaviour for learning policy and house system is based on developing students’ empathy, self-control, and sense of responsibility. We believe that every interaction is an opportunity to develop the good character of our students to help them be cleverer and kinder every day.
Our character is curriculum is taught through assemblies, tutor time and through our curriculum. Our assembly programme is created to include all of our character virtues, their meaning and the ways in which the virtues are evident in daily life and how important they are in testing life moments e.g. situations requiring courage, integrity, resilience and resourcefulness. In addition, we devote one tutor time per week to teaching students about each of our character traits. See an example here of one of our character development tutor time sessions.
It is important that one’s environment provides opportunities for character to be 'sought' for example, being at Harris Academy Beckenham offers students opportunities for the development of personal habits and character commitments e.g. good time-keeping, good manners, friendly relations and leadership opportunities throughout the school.
Character badges
Students are awarded a badge for each character trait they successfully demonstrate. Students can work through the character challenges to be awarded their character badge or they can be nominated by staff for their character development both in and out of school. Click HERE to download a booklet about our HABE Character Challenges.
Character Development Days
The academy has a thoughtful and ambitious curriculum that is designed to give all pupils the knowledge and cultural capital they need to become confident, resilient and independent.
To help achieve this ambition, we run four Character Development Days during the academic year. On Character Development Days students are not in their normal timetabled lessons but have the chance to experience different activities and trips all focused on building their character.
Character Development Days are used to strengthen students’ practical application of skills and provide a deeper learning experience. They provide students with the ability to be equipped in valuable life skills which extend beyond the classroom context, serving to promote overall health and well-being.
These Character Focus Days allow student to be fully immersed in a topic/theme, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation for other cultures, viewpoints and life experiences. More details of this year's Character Development Days is shown below.
Enrichment programme
Enrichment takes many forms and there are many clubs that students can take part in throughout the year which allow them to develop teamwork, creativity and leadership skills as well as igniting their own passions. Find out more about enrichment at the academy.
Student leadership opportunities
There are a plethora of societies, councils and groups that students can join not just for their own enjoyment, but also as a mechanism to be involved in school improvement. Some of the opportunities include: becoming a student librarian, being a member of the student leadership group and leading assemblies for their year group. In addition, the opportunities for students to put their “character” into practise are wide-ranging: extra-curricular clubs including debating club; music and drama productions, trips and events such as the Wild Child Camping Trip, sport leaders; volunteering and charity work, Duke of Edinburgh at both bronze and silver; and International trips. Find out more about Student Voice at the academy.
