Developing a ‘Crossley Heath Character’ comes from our curriculum offering and all aspects of school life including our out of school activities, extra-curricular offerings PSHE, outside speakers, student leadership opportunities, school council, house activities, Duke of Edinburgh, National Citizenship Scheme, careers education, sports teams, academic competitions, school trips, commitments and the involvement in our outside community.

The Tutorial programme is an important part of our ‘taught’ education offering to our students. It reinforces school values, is thought provoking and aids the building of ‘Crossley Heath character’ so that our young people can go on to live successful, happy, flourished and fulfilled lives. Crossley Heath Character Education is about acting through our values, about developing a good ‘moral’ sense and developing practical wisdom in the differing circumstances of our student’s lives. It is about informed action, reflection, personal and practical experience and fundamentally growth. A typical week in tutorial will consist of daily notices, house points updates and standard checks. One session a week is whole year group or house assembly, one session for a discussion on a topic of the week provided by ‘Votes for Schools, one session for personal reading, one for guided reading and a session that focuses on ‘Character Education’.  Students will also work in groups to research, create and deliver speeches on topical issues during house assembly weeks.

Some common Character Education themes include:
Managing emotions, moving into adulthood, virtues of good sense, courage, humour, honesty, compassion and self-mastery, academic and personal reflection, MHWB, Mindfulness, school values, friendships, civility, having a growth mindset and British values.

Tutorials are also a mechanism to allow Tutor 121’s and academic reflections to take place.

• Assemblies support our tutorials and PD by focusing on school values, British values, topical issues as well as being a time for celebrating our achievements. Each year group will have an assembly once a week.
• During house assembly weeks, a diversity activity/mini project will be completed which also allows our students to increase their confidence in their oral presentation skills.

Building character takes practise: and, practise presupposes that we make mistakes, but are constantly prepared to learn from them. This is a healthy and realistic attitude to becoming a better person. It also might be seen that building character is not a straight trajectory of progression and nor should it be so.

How our School Values match our definition of “Crossley Heath character”: