Enrichment

My Activity Passport

When we are young, how do we know what we will like, what interests we will have and what challenges we might want to take on? It is important that children have the chance to try things out, to get a taste of the world around them, to see and do things that they wouldn't normally do, or go to places they wouldn't normally go and to meet people they wouldn't normally meet. These things are important because a world-class education is about much more than qualifications, it is also about your character and well-being.

We develop our character from taking on challenges and pursuing our interests, by doing things that are worth doing even when they are difficult and may not give us an immediate reward. The new 'passport' of activities has been launched by the Education Secretary to encourage more family time and help build children's character and resilience.

We have many enrichment activities across the curriculum that children have access to, but we would also like to share this 'Activity Passport' for your child to work on each year at home. You can download from the image below, or alternatively ask at the school office for a printed copy.

Download your Activity Passport here

Character Education - The Cromwell Challenge

Developing Character Education at Cromwell Primary Phase, so all our pupils develop into Successful, Respectful and Confident Learners.

Character Education can be defined as the active development of character strengths or virtues in young people. The practice of character education is based on the view that these strengths are not merely given but can be developed through instruction and practice. Our work in this area is premised upon two ideas. First, that character is both ‘taught’ and ‘caught’. Taught because pupils need to learn directly about character strengths and virtues, and to be given opportunities to practise them. Caught because pupils need to be exposed to the concepts and language of character throughout their experience of school. This is best delivered through the ethos of the school, by teachers and other adults in school acting as role models, by empowering children to be role models and recognising them publicly as such, and by engineering enrichment activities so that it emphasises character development.

The second idea is that there are four core dimensions to character:

intellectual
performance
moral
civic

A complete character education seeks to develop pupils along all four dimensions, and in this broad conception character encompasses academic achievement as a route to the development of intellectual character strength.

Intellectual virtues – character traits necessary for discernment, right action and the pursuit of knowledge, truth and understanding. Examples - autonomy, critical thinking, curiosity, judgement, reasoning, reflection and resourcefulness.

Moral virtues – character traits that enable us to act well in situations that require an ethical response. Examples - compassion, courage, gratitude, honesty, humility, integrity, justice and respect.

Civic virtues - characters traits that are necessary for engaged responsible citizenship, contributing to the common good. Examples - citizenship, civility, community awareness, neighbourliness, service, volunteering

Performance virtues - characters traits that have an instrumental value in enabling the intellectual, moral and civic virtues. Examples - confidence, determination, motivation, perseverance, resilience and teamwork

Through our rich and exciting creative curriculum, we focus on teaching pupils to be their best selves, to take pride in their work, and to be positive members of the school, and greater global communities. We want to create children who thrive on challenge, love learning, respect each other and have attributes that will ensure that they will be valued members of our society.

We have designed a set of challenges based on 5 pillars of learning at Cromwell Primary. Pupils are invited to work towards these to gain awards. At each milestone (Year 2, 4 and 6), pupils can earn each of the badges by bringing in evidence within their Character Education Journal. This could be a photograph, written piece, examples of finished products, witness statements. Pupils can work towards awards and collect evidence at any point during the two year milestones. If they complete all challenges by the end of Year 2, 4 and 6, they will earn their bronze, silver or gold award badge. Children are invited to wear any of the award badges proudly on their school jumpers. Children receiving all pillar badges and their associated pin badges over their time at Cromwell Primary, will be presented with a special Character Education Trophy. Children can work toward the badge for the milestone, but not work out of the milestone. If they are in Year 3, they should be working toward the Year 4 milestone and not the year 6 milestone until they are in Year 5. Evidence will only be taken into account for the two year milestone. Tasks have been carefully designed in these years so that children apply their class learning as well as their age and stage of development.

Wherever you see this image, children are free to be as creative as possible to add their own activity that links with one of our 5 Pillars.

SMSC the over-arching umbrella that encompasses personal development across the whole curriculum
Ecology - opportunities for pupils to connect with complex environmental issues, developing positive attitudes, knowledge, and motivation to take action on the environment
Outdoor a broad term that includes discovery, experimentation, learning about and connecting to the natural world, and engaging in adventure activities and outdoor sports.
Enterprise a combination of competencies including creative, innovative thinking, problem solving, communication and team work
Global Learning helping pupils make sense of the world in which they live and to understand their role within a global society

Tasks highlighted in green will be worked on in school, so all children will be participating – regardless of whether they are working towards their Character Education Awards.

developing character education at cromwell primary edited .pdf

Download your Character Education Journals here: