Staff Guidance for Character Reports 19_20

Character Reports Based on the 10 keys to happier living

Rationale for Character Reports 10 keys to happier living will underpin character reports as it feeds into our school ethos and our vision of a SBS Student.

Our Vision for the SBS Student The Simon Balle Student will have had a dynamic educational experience. They will have achieved the highest possible grades and will be able to go out into the globally competitive world with the skills, attributes and behaviours equipped for the twenty-first century.

Our students will be motivated to achieve their very best, be resourceful and resilient, able to accept others for who they are. They will be contented people, creative in their thinking, respectful and responsible in their actions.

Simon Balle students will have discovered what they find interesting and be passionate about their learning. They will possess confidence and have a sense of self worth, being empowered to make decisions and to self improve.

The SBS Ethos We believe that: Education is a key driver to ensure that all human beings flourish so that they can become happy, successful people who live well together as part of a community Each individual is valued for who they are and what they bring. Everyone will be treated fairly and with dignity Mindset and intelligence are not fixed and we have the highest aspirations for all We believe that it is our purpose to ensure we are education “tomorrow’s citizens today” and as such they need: – Knowledge, skills and wisdom to achieve well and make wise choices – Hope and to be aspirational – In a diverse world, be able to work well with a range of people and live in happy communities – Treat others and treat themselves with dignity and respect

Two Strands To The Character Reports The first five characteristics are about how students interact with the outside world in their daily activities.

The second five characteristics come from inside the students and explore their attitude to life.

Interacting with the outside world

1. Doing things for others – Giving Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do, it also makes us happier and healthier too. Giving also connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier society for everyone. And it's not all about money we can also give our time, ideas and energy. So if you want to feel good, do good.

Giving to others can be as simple as a single kind word, smile or a thoughtful gesture. It can include giving time, care, skills, thought or attention.

Key words: Kindness Thoughtful Time Care Attention Reflection Loyalty Service Responsibility Citizenship Compassion

2. Connect With People – Relating People with strong and broad social relationships are happier, healthier and live longer. Close relationships with family and friends provide love, meaning, support and increase our feelings of self worth. Broader networks bring a sense of belonging. So taking action to strengthen our relationships and build connections is essential for happiness. Experiencing positive emotions together - e.g. enjoyment, fun • Being able to talk openly and feel understood • Giving and receiving of support • Developing a wider circle of friends • Shared activities and experiences • Even seemingly small, incidental interactions, such as a friendly smile or act of kindness can make a difference - to ourselves, the people we interact with and the people they affect too.

Key words: Support Connections Reaching out Sharing Loyalty Trustworthy Honesty Humility

3. Taking Care Of Your Body– Exercising Our body and our mind are connected. Being active makes us happier as well as being good for our physical health. It instantly improves our mood and can even lift us out of a depression. We don't all need to run marathons - there are simple things we can all do to be more active each day. And we can also boost our well-being by unplugging from technology, getting outside and - importantly making sure we get enough sleep.

Key words: Balance Connected Leadership Independence Resilience Teamwork Determination

4. Live Life Mindfully - Awareness Learning to be more mindful and aware can do wonders for our well-being in all areas of life - like our walk to work, the way we eat or our relationships. It helps us get in tune with our feelings and stops us dwelling on the past or worrying about the future - so we get more out of the day-to-day.

Two critical elements of mindfulness are that: It is intentional (i.e. we are consciously doing it); and We are accepting, rather than judging, of what we notice.

It is about having as full as possible awareness of what is around us - what we can see, hear, touch and taste. And what is happening inside - our thoughts and feelings. Crucially it is about observing all this but not getting caught up in thinking and worrying about what we are observing. It then gives us more control of what we decide to give our attention to.

Key words: Awareness Observing Perspective Balance Optimism Reflection Determination

5. Keep Learning New Things – Trying New Things Learning affects our well-being in lots of positive ways. It exposes us to new ideas and helps us stay curious and engaged. It also gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps boost our self-confidence and resilience. There are many ways to learn new things - not just through formal qualifications. We can share a skill with friends, join a club, learn to sing, play a new sport and so much more.

Key words: Curious Engaged Confidence Accomplishment Resilience Fortitude Creativity Leadership Independence Determination

Their attitude to themselves and their life

1. Having Goals - Direction Goals are the way we can turn our values and dreams into reality. Happiness doesn't just happen - it comes from thinking, planning and pursuing things that are important to us. Scientific research shows that setting and working towards goals can contribute to happiness in various ways, including: Being a source of interest, engagement or pleasure Giving us a sense of meaning and purpose Bringing a sense of accomplishment when we achieve what we set out to (or milestones along the way) - this also builds our confidence and belief in what we can do in the future Goals help focus our attention. Actively working towards them appears to be as important for our well-being as achieving the end results we are aiming for.

Goals are most successful when they're something we really want to achieve and when we set them for ourselves - rather than being something someone else wants us to do.

Key words: Accomplishment Drive Determination Purpose Engagement Pleasure Achievement Focus

2. Finding Ways To Bounce Back Resilience All of us have times of stress, loss, failure or trauma in our lives. But how we respond to these has a big impact on our wellbeing. We often cannot choose what happens to us, but in principle we can choose our own attitude to what happens. In practice it's not always easy, but one of the most exciting findings from recent research is that resilience, like many other life skills, can be learned.

Key words: Strength Drive Resilience

3. Look For What Is Good – Emotion Feeling positive emotions is good for us, so we can benefit by findings ways to build more of them into our lives. There's also evidence that positive emotions are contagious and when we feel good it can also have a knock on effect on those around us. So by doing things that help us feel good, we can do others good too.

We need a healthy balance between enjoying the moment and doing things that bring meaning and fulfilment in the longer term.

Certainly evidence shows that enjoying the moment can increase how happy we feel overall. But there are lots of different positive emotions and not all of them come from "having fun". For example, some are feelings we get when we're truly interested in something or have put our best effort in to achieving something.

Key words: Joy Gratitude Contentment Inspiration Pride Positivity Perspective Optimistic

4. Be Comfortable With Who You Are – Acceptance No-one's perfect. But so often we compare our insides to other people's outsides. Dwelling on our flaws - what we're not rather than what we've got - makes it much harder to be happy.

Learning to accept ourselves, warts and all, and being kinder to ourselves when things go wrong, increases our enjoyment of life, our resilience and our well-being. It also helps us accept others as they are.

Key words: Self-compassion Happiness Optimism Kindness Understanding Humanity

5. Be Part Of Something Bigger – Meaning People who have meaning and purpose in their lives are happier, feel more in control and get more out of what they do. They also experience less stress, anxiety and depression.

Key words: Connecting Passion Teamwork Inspiration

Writing Character Reports Written comments ❖

Must reflect school ethos and values

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Should be positive

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Should outline the development in the student’s character, referring to the two strands of characteristics whilst using key words, and how they have done this

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Should provide targets for further development and how to achieve these

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Should be mindful of the fact that these reports are often kept as mementos by families

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For Year 11 should show an awareness that these are often used as references for college, jobs etc

Character Reports Template: Part 1: outline the ways the student has developed how they interact with the outside world in their daily activities using keywords Part 2: outline the ways the student has developed their attitude to life using keywords Part 3: provide targets for further development and how to achieve these

Sample Character Reports ????? is a valuable and active member of the school's sporting community, participating in a number of clubs and representing the school. She should be proud of her determination and commitment in athletics, which saw her achieve a PB of 1m50 in the high jump in a recent meet. As well as this, her nomination above many other scientists to be part of the industrial cadets project should be a point of pride and instill confidence in her ability to work with others in unfamiliar surroundings. This takes great maturity, which ????? has in abundance, along with compassion and citizenship which she will no doubt demonstrate when travelling to Chile in the summer for project work to help others less fortunate than her.

This drive and purpose is evident in ????? in the academic side of school life too. ????? is a polite, conscientious student with a great attitude to learning. This is reflected across her subjects and she should have confidence moving into year 10 of achieving her target of 1s in all of her ATLs. She engages well in learning for life lessons, for example displaying wonderful self-awareness and kindness in our work on ‘Bullying’. She should now look to build her confidence to lead more class and peer discussions in her role as Student Leader. She should also seize the opportunity to become a KS4 Ambassador to develop key communication and project management skills.

Sample Character Reports It is clear that ????? has felt a great sense of accomplishment and increased confidence since joining the rugby team this year. This broader network seems to have brought an even greater sense of belonging in the school as a whole. This will definitely help to ensure ????? has a greater balance to help manage the increased demands of GCSEs. Setting and achieving this goal has certainly improved ????? ability and willingness to set his own goals academically as well. ????? is beginning to show the required drive and determination to be successful at GCSE. He is attending the after-school support sessions and is fully committed to the 6th Form Tutoring, even arranging to do additional sessions at lunch. Taking control of his learning in this way has led to ????? being far less self-critical and the adoption of a more optimistic demeanour. ??? should should still seek to improve his resilience when things do not go to plan and keep perspective on what he has achieved. ??? has mentioned a desire to give back so I would now like to see him seek to do so, perhaps volunteering to help support the coaching of the Year 7 rugby team.