Programmes bid to instil children with vital life skill of 'character'

Research linking character and resilience with performing well at school and beyond has become "sufficiently compelling that policy makers must act", the all-party parliamentary group on social mobility said last year.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan was quick to pick up the mantle, announcing soon after being appointed in July 2014 that she wanted England to become a global leader in teaching character in order to prepare pupils to "lead tomorrow's Britain".

Since then, the Department for Education has introduced its own character awards to recognise schools leading the way in embedding character skills into their teaching. Separately, earlier this month, it announced 14 schemes would share £3.5m to develop resilience programmes (see below).

However, some have questioned whether it is possible to teach character skills to young people because there is not a shared definition of what this looks like, while others are concerned the character agenda could go too far in instilling resilience and desensitise young people to talking about problems.

John Connelly, education policy adviser at the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England, said at a recent conference he is worried that character and resilience teaching could create a "no excuses culture" that encourages a "stiff upper lip", which is counter-productive to the mental health of already-stressed children.

In an attempt to define good character, the DfE has drawn up a list of personality traits it thinks will help young people succeed in life (see "Ingredients of good character", below). In the past, many of these character traits were often associated with the armed forces, which according to Jonathan Birdwell, head of citizenship at think-tank Demos, held back character education through the latter half of the 20th century.

"It's just a matter of branding - the agenda is about much more than this," he says.

Birdwell attributes the renewed focus on character to the United States, "where there has been a focus on grit for a lot longer than in the UK, as more evidence emerges on the importance of these attributes".

For England to succeed with character education, Demos has recommended that the government include character in teacher training, because it is "caught", rather than taught.

Birdwell says such a move is vital if society is going to redefine what good teaching looks like so that it incorporates a broader set of skills than simply coaching children to get high exam marks.

Here, we examine two different examples of how character is being taught to young people.

Character teaching underpins a school ethos

Gary Lewis, head teacher of Kings Langley School in Hertfordshire, says his school has been involved with character education for a long time.

He outlines three things that define character strength: "stickability" - doing things you don't want to do and overcoming them; self-regulation - controlling how you behave; and empathy.

"Before I came to the school, behaviour was appalling and staff morale had collapsed. The school needed a relaunch," he says.

Lewis has taken his ethos of what makes a well-rounded individual equipped for life beyond school, and embedded it into the school's fabric. He says Kings Langley has "a uniquely all-immersive programme", where teachers are committed to its ethos. Thirteen years into his role, Lewis says the relaunch has been "spectacularly successful".

But while he says the school's focus on character accounts for about "90 per cent of the school's success in exams", he says academic achievement is only one part of it. "It sounds naive, but happy children succeed."

Rather than pushing a child capable of a B grade to getting an A*, Lewis says he would "much prefer a child to get a B but have a range of skills to be able to exploit it".

The school also encourages volunteering, and that happiness involves helping others and is an enduring state, compared to short-term pleasures.

"We teach that you have to find happiness in whatever you're doing. Not all of us will become doctors and lawyers. If a pupil goes on to work in a shoe shop down the road, I want him or her to feel fulfilled and happy about that," he says.

Learning character through outdoor activities

One organisation teaching character away from the classroom is Challenger Troop, a community interest company that works with vulnerable and disengaged pupils to build resilience through outdoor activities.

It offers a range of courses, mostly led by ex-military personnel, with activities including fitness drills, fieldcraft, first aid, orienteering, bushcraft and community volunteering.

Islay O'Hara, Challenger Troop's national project development manager, defines character and resilience as having the ability to cope in new situations. Being resilient means that "huge" changes for children, such as moving from primary to secondary school, go smoothly and they are able to cope, she adds.

O'Hara says what Challenger Troop does could not be taught in schools. "It's important that we take pupils out of school to different locations, removing them from any negative influences."

O'Hara says Challenger Troop's programmes allow children to test their boundaries in a supportive environment. "Our programmes give children the opportunities to try new things. They don't realise they're learning, but they're building new skills.

"A child might not speak up in school, but then ends up shouting commands across fields. They then go back into class and are able to ask questions. These are massive life-changing skills."

Challenger Troop is all about positive mental attitude, she says. "We tell children that emotions are healthy, and that feelings shouldn't be kept inside. But we don't accept a moaning culture."

She says many parents like this structured approach, which requires children to wear uniform - something O'Hara says acts as a leveller, so that "everyone is the same and can focus on the task".

When it comes to building character and resilience, O'Hara says it is important to give children support that is unique and appropriate. "If you give a child the right support at the right time, the capacity for change is phenomenal," she says.

Ingredients of good character

• Perseverance
• Resilience and grit
• Confidence and optimism
• Motivation
• Drive and ambition
• Neighbourliness and community spirit
• Tolerance and respect
• Honesty
• Integrity and dignity
• Conscientiousness
• Curiosity
• Focus

Source: Department for Education

CHARACTER FUNDING GRANTS

• Challenge Network £315,734 for its HeadStart programme, challenging young people to volunteer
• Church of England Education £124,820 for a cross-curricular model of developing positive virtues in school
• City Year UK £334,206 to provide four schools with a team to help promote a positive culture
• CSN Community Interest Company £79,945 to build character traits in disadvantaged young people
• Floreat Education £124,002 to pilot a project to develop character in its two new free schools
• King's Leadership Academy £35,000 for being a "leader" in teacher character
• King's School £193,784 for a character-building programme for disadvantaged children
• Premier Rugby £556,494 for professional clubs to deliver rugby's ethos to schools
• Prince's Trust £584,366 to expand its XI programme
• PSHE Association £137,000 to develop and pilot a personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) character curriculum
• St John's Ambulance £254,911 to teach pupils first aids
• Scout Association £302,299 to deliver a pilot project, Scouting by Doing, in six schools
• University of Birmingham £201,895 to research how character education can be taught in schools
• Young Enterprise £162,495 to support young people with special educational needs or disabilities
• Youth Sport Trust £95,527 for a programme to help build character traits in physical education
  
  
  

EXPERT VIEW: BUILDING CHARACTER AND RESILIENCE IS NOT ALL ABOUT RUGBY CLUBS

By Leon Feinstein, director of evidence, Early Intervention Foundation

The recent press release for the Department for Education's new "character pilots" seems to suggest all pupils will or should be playing rugby regardless of their interest, aptitude or enjoyment.

In fact, the pilots offer a wide set of approaches for supporting the social and emotional development of children, only some of which are focused on grit in a narrow sense, many of which replicate or build on existing activity to help children's wider development, and only one of which is about rugby.

The Early Intervention Foundation report Social and Emotional Learning: Skills for Life and Work indicated that there is a lot already being done in schools and elsewhere that works very well, but also some big gaps. Activities such as volunteering or after-school clubs can make a difference, although there is also evidence of ineffective activity and it is unlikely all 14 programmes will achieve positive impacts in evaluation.

Some are concerned that there is as yet little clarity of definition on what is meant by grit, character and social and emotional skills, and the myriad of attributes and attitudes underpinning them. I am glad there is no push to a single narrow definition. EIF found that the impacts of a wide range of types of social and emotional skills in childhood can be seen in the mid-life health and wealth of people in the UK.

This range of social and emotional skills including resilience and grit are important to children's life chances, even more so as they grow older.

There were also significant differences between children of different socio-economic backgrounds evident from age three. More opportunities are needed for the development of these skills, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, in the school setting and elsewhere, drawing on what is shown to work across the country. We found evidence of innovation in the youth sector and in schools.

There are clearly many aspects of the individual that matter in forming life chances within the wider context in which they grow up. It is for schools, pupils, parents, teachers, youth workers and others to agree the precise aspects or outcomes that matter in particular to them.

The government's responsibility is not just to run pilots, but also to address barriers of funding, incentives and measurement of impact to ensure the whole system works to help children grow up equipped with these skills for life and work.