Character Education

Character Education at River Mill

Character Education is a fundamental part of our curriculum at River Mill. We believe that developing the 'whole child' and that children will leave us in Year 6 as well-rounded individuals who demonstrate a range of positive character strengths is a very important part of primary education.

At River Mill we have developed a list of those characteristics we feel are the most important to teach.  Our curriculum is infused with opportunities for children to develop their character strengths and virtues. These are taught and celebrated through assemblies, circle times, discrete lessons and our weekly 'Star of the Week' celebrations.

Character education includes all educational activities that help young people develop positive personal strengths called virtues. Children are encouraged to decide wisely the kind of person they wish to become and to learn to make positive choices about their behaviour.  The aim of character education is to enable children to know how to choose the right course of action in different and often tricky situations, something we are sure you will also be doing all the time at home.

Each month we will focus on a different virtue and children will be encouraged to think about how they can make positive choices linked to each virtue.  Children will be rewarded when they demonstrate each virtue.  We would you to support us by talking to your children about the monthly virtue and thinking about why it is important.  We will support you by sharing resources and activities with you under the curriculum tab – under ‘Parents’ then ‘Curriculum Education’.

Our virtue focus for January is caring

What does caring mean?

Being caring can come in many different forms, such as displaying kindness towards others, sharing with others, being polite and saying 'please' and 'thank you', being sensitive to other's feelings, showing compassion to those less fortunate and forgiving someone who has upset you. 

One of the biggest reasons why this quality is so important is that it gives us the ability to help others and understand when others are in need.

Being caring allows us to make a positive difference in someone else's life.