Distinctly Christian Character Education
"Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking." - J.C. Watts
We firmly believe that we have a duty to ensure that our students are able to fulfil their academic and personal potential. Central to achieving both of these is ‘character education’. As we enable students to develop their personal qualities, they will become better learners and have the ability to make a positive contribution to society.
What is Character Education?
“Character education includes all explicit and implicit educational activities that help young people develop positive personal strengths called virtues.” – A Framework for Character Education in Schools
Each child has a right to character education. Good character is the foundation for improved attainment, better behaviour and increased employability, but most importantly, flourishing societies.
Our approach to Character Education
In 2025, we developed our Distinctly Christian Character Education with the help of many people from our community. As members of the Association of Character Education (ACE), the Quantock Education Trust has supported St Bartholomew’s in attending conferences and training sessions. These events have provided us with valuable guidance to shape our approach.
Our Headteacher and Pastoral Lead visited a Quality Mark + school to learn from their experiences. After this visit, and implementing our strategy in school, we invited a member of their team to our school to give us feedback and further advice.
An Ethos Committee, which includes representatives from our school community, played a key role in creating our Character Education. We worked closely with Reverend CJ and Reverend Gray, and involved our staff, parents, and carers in shaping our school virtues.
Rooted in Christian teachings, our Character Education provides spiritual and moral guidance. We offer planned opportunities for pupils to grow in independence and to actively live out their learning through planned and spontaneous courageous advocacy.
St Bartholomew’s C of E Primary School approach to character education is based on the extensive research and projects carried out by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. The work undertaken by the Jubilee Centre has identified a range of virtues that are indicative of good character. At St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School there are twelve character virtues:
Why is Character Education at St Bartholomew’s C of E Primary distinctively Christian?
St Bartholomew’s is a proud Church of England primary school underpinned by a strong Christian vision based on the parable of the mustard seed and the school Christian virtues. The virtues are interwoven into the academic curriculum as well as discretely taught, linked to biblical teaching, as demonstrated in the document below. Children are invited to use the language of looking in, looking out and looking up as a process of noticing, feeling, reflecting on and responding to situations with an invitation to be guided by the biblical teachings.
Staff at St Bartholomew’s C of E School serve as positive role models who embody these virtues in their interactions with children. This helps children see these values in action and understand their importance.
Taught, sought, caught
To ensure that our students are constantly exposed to positive character virtues, we employ a taught, sought, caught approach to character development:
Taught – Children can be taught about what good character looks like through their educational experiences, and we ensure that opportunities to exploit links to character are made through the curriculum.
Sought – Children are encouraged to seek out opportunities to develop their character through extra-curricular experiences and an array of leadership opportunities.
Caught – Constant exposure to positive role models, and a recognition of when good character has been demonstrated means that children are able to ‘catch’ positive character traits.
