Achieving excellence through personal growth
Every individual in our school community will develop the character required to make the right choice for lifelong success. We will achieve this through the six strands of our development plan:
Rich Curriculum
Be as broad as possible for as long as possible
Be based on an understanding of the communities we serve
Build on students’ prior learning and work towards subject mastery
Specify the knowledge and skills our students need to learn
Be enriched through a substantial and varied extra-curricular programme
Prepare our students for their next steps and link to the world of work
Positive Behaviour
We will
Uphold high expectations for all
Instil the importance of respect and empathy
Approach learning with courage and determination
Celebrate the successes of our students, our staff and our community
Take pride in representing our school
Prepare our students to make safe and healthy choices
Innovative Employer Engagement
We will
Recognise the additional value external organisations can bring to our community
Sustain mutually beneficial relationships with a range of organisations
Provide our students with meaningful and ambitious careers experiences throughout their education
The Thomas Alleyne Academy is an equal opportunities employer with a culture of inclusivity, and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons. We are committed to treating all people equally and respectfully, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation
Outstanding Teaching
Our staff will
Share their enthusiasm and passion for learning
Be excellent classroom practitioners
Provide meaningful feedback to enable individual growth
Demonstrate expert knowledge for the subjects they teach
Actively engage with relevant research
Be determined to ensure equal opportunities for all students to thrive
Excellent Attendance
We will
Expect 100% attendance and punctuality from all
Challenge and support individuals and families to achieve excellent attendance
Effective Parental Engagement
We will:
Build positive relationships and engage with the views of our parents and carers
Take every opportunity to celebrate student success
Encourage our families to promote our core values at home
Character Education
Introduction:
At Thomas Alleyne, we ensure our students have the qualifications that they need for their futures but also the character traits to be successful. We need students to be lifelong learners, responsible citizens and make positive contributions to society. We want all of our students to flourish. To flourish means to fulfil one’s potential. Character education is a planned approach to help our students to develop the courage they need to cope with life’s challenges, the determination to achieve their goals and the empathy to support others and be responsible citizens.
Aims:
Character education should prepare students for the next stage in their lives. Schools play an important role in ensuring students are responsible for themselves, each other and the world they live in. At Thomas Alleyne, we want our students to:
- make reasoned, informed and ethical choices
- have a sound understanding of right and wrong
- have high self-esteem
- be excellent communicators
- be creative and enquiring
- be open to trying new things
to have a voice and to influence society - have the ability to be independent and use their initiative
- be good role models
- be cooperative, adaptable and able to work as a team
- contribute to a multi-skilled workforce
- value diversity
- fight to look after their environment
Underpinning our work on Character are our three core values. Everything that we do links to our core values and the virtues that students need to fulfil each value:
- Careers and Character Timeline 24/25 (2.34MB)
- Character Education Core Values (218.31KB)
Delivering Character Education
Character education at Thomas Alleyne is all-encompassing and is threaded through all areas of the curriculum and personal development opportunities that the students receive. We take character education seriously as we believe it is fundamental to the development of our students, and this was demonstrated by our receiving the Character Quality Mark.
Character education is taught through our form time programme and assembly programme. The character curriculum is linked carefully to our PSHE programme. Subject areas take responsibility for further developing opportunities to discuss virtues and virtue-based dilemmas. Opportunities for students to put their “character” into practice are wide-ranging and include:
- an extensive clubs list of extra-curricular clubs
- STEM activities such as the Faraday challenge
- music and drama productions
- trips and events such as the trip to the Stevenage parliament and Young Enterprise activities
- student leadership including the school council, prefect positions
volunteering and charity work
Duke of Edinburgh at both bronze and silver
Despite all the opportunities that are planned to teach character, both explicitly and implicitly, we believe that the modelling of character is a crucial aspect and to this end, we work with staff and parents/carers on character and character virtues. It is important that staff model good character behaviours and engage in positive character language with students, and therefore this is an aspect of our CPD programme.
