One of the threads running through character education at UCS are the learning values of resourcefulness, responsibility, relationships and resilience – dubbed the ‘four Rs’ – which are embedded into the curriculum and regularly referenced in lessons and through the co-curriculum.
These are complemented by the life values that pupils learn from Year 7 upwards. They consist of aspiration, bravery, compassion, decision-making and self-reflection – or the ‘ABCDs’. Introduced at the start of the last academic year, these values have their own dedicated week in which Years 7 and 8 follow a course and reflect on how they go about things.
Typical of UCS, older pupils as well as staff mentors make contributions to the ‘Life Values’ course, with role modelling recognised as a positive factor in young people’s development. The youngest year group also receives wellbeing and mental health mentoring from Year 12 students participating in the Mental Health Foundation’s Peer Education Project, while the entire pupil body benefits from the trained pupil volunteers – again from Year 12 – who make up the in-house Student Support Service.
The aim is that these formative years of secondary education will be shaped by a growth mindset; one that, among other qualities, embraces challenge and does its best; one that impacts positively on both the individual pupil and the wellbeing of those around them. Therefore, key values and good habits are promoted from the off, mirroring the time-honoured wisdom that says “give me a child and I will give you the man”.
The latest iteration of this overarching approach to UCS’s educational provision was also its newest: a ‘Pupil Champion’ course run for Lower School pupils which emphasised bravery, humility, vulnerability, empathy, tolerance and reflection. The course’s inaugural edition, held this month, reiterated key principles and pupils examined the importance of humility and vulnerability in leadership today. Year 8 pupils took part and enjoyed sharing their experiences and exploring the role authenticity and gratitude play in life today.
The leadership element dovetailed, too, with the ‘Young Leaders’ course which is being offered to Lower School pupils alongside a bespoke Headmaster’s Award programme (imagine a ‘mini DofE’). In all of this bustling but well-thought-out endeavour, UCS is encouraging its young people to be both individuals who prize justice and integrity and the good citizens and standard bearers of tomorrow.
Find out more about a UCS education at: ucs.org.uk
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