Character Taught

Character Taught

Character Taught embodies the explicit teaching of character in all elements of the academy and answers the question: how are we developing children of character?

Teaching character at Brambles incorporates three key elements of the academy: the curriculum, the teaching and learning policy and related strategies and the activities and resources used in teaching character and our core values.

Curriculum

Whilst character is explicitly taught through the use of Commando Jo’s as a method of using a range of resources and experiences to focus specifically on character, we at Brambles have embedded our core values within all facets of the curriculum.

Particularly, we have developed a whole sequence of teaching linked between PSHE and our core values which is mapped to include key questions and reading spines linked to each of the core values an example of which can be seen below. These books and key questions are taught and discussed using a range of teaching styles to allow children to engage with and discuss the core values and their impact on the wider world.

Foundation subjects have been mapped to identify and provide explicit yet unforced links between the substantive and disciplinary knowledge being taught and our academy core values and these can be seen embedded within our adaptation of the Trust Curriculum Long Term Plan.

British Values and Protected Characteristics have been combined with both the explicit teaching of RSHE but also mapped alongside our core values allowing children to make key links between their learning using core values as the thread that ties the curriculum together.

Teaching and Learning

At Brambles, our teaching and learning policy allows children to engage in a wide range of activities and pedagogies supporting all pupils to learning and apply knowledge in a variety of ways. Primarily this policy is based on Teaching Walkthrus allowing a consistent approach and language and therefore reducing the cognitive load of both staff and pupils. This policy has been developed alongside staff knowledge and skill through a programme of instructional coaching and unseen observations.

Oracy and the development of speaking and listening is a key component of the teaching and learning at Brambles Primary Academy and the key concepts, substantive and disciplinary knowledge of teaching are embedded and assessed through the use of oracy and speaking and listening activities.

Activities and Resources

Alongside the long term curriculum plan, a wide range of educational visits, experiences and encounters are mapped to support the explicit teaching of the curriculum. This is backed by research completed by Jackson et al (2022) who researched schools that improved pupil outcomes, particularly amongst large cohorts of disadvantaged pupils. The aforementioned research indicates that some barriers to learning can be tackled through a rigorous curriculum rooted in a two-pronged approach: high-quality academic curriculum which incorporates retrieval practice, consolidation of concepts, substantive and disciplinary knowledge, constructive and timely feedback and allowing children to champion their learning; as well as immersing pupils in the opportunities, experiences and encounters that they may have been prevented from experiencing thus allowing children to develop character alongside the rigours of the academic curriculum.

Furthermore, books form a key driver for the teaching of both the curriculum and character at Brambles. Books are mapped alongside subjects yet also incorporated within the core values to make those explicit links where possible between the teaching taking place and the way that this can support the development of character. See an example below of how the PSHE reading spine has been developed to teach our core values.