Character Education

Our 7 Key Principles (Inclusivity, Leadership, Creativity, Globally and Locally Aware, Independence, Resilience and Healthy and Well) were developed in 2017, following consultation with all stakeholders within the school community. They are designed to shape who our children aspire to be and to encourage them to think and behave in a prosocial way.

Reward postcards are given to any pupils who display a particular principle (either inside or outside of school), and once all seven postcards have been achieved, a fabric badge is awarded. They are the foundation of our personal development programme at Colmore and weave through all areas of school life, including our curriculum, behaviour policy and recruitment procedures.

Our Colmore Values were created as a result of a pupil-led research project. They interpret aspects of the fundamental British Values that make our school a happy and inclusive environment. The values are linked to animals, as the research project found that this enabled pupils to remember them more easily.

The Colmore Values are: Respectful Rabbit, Determined Donkey, Polite Peacock, Rule of Law Lion, Helpful Hawk and Kind Koala. Every day within class, pupils are given an aspect of one of these values to focus on. Children who demonstrate this have their name placed on the recognition board within the classroom.                          

In 2019, we were delighted to receive the ACE (Association for Character Education) Quality Mark + award in recognition of the quality of our character education.  We have close links with the University of Birmingham’s Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, and in Summer 2022 completed a funded project to develop a character education CPD resource for ITTs and ECTs.