There are six moral positive traits that we value at HMS. They are: courage, generosity, justice, humility, integrity and honesty. Throughout the year we focus on one of these each half term. Our head pupil and house captaincy teams deliver assemblies on these themes. Character education is taught across the broad and balanced curriculum and wider-personal development offer at Hexham Middle School.
As a school we:
- Encourage all pupils to understand and value positive moral attributes (virtues) that would make them well-rounded, grounded citizens – these include courage, generosity, justice, humility, integrity and honesty. Pupils are exposed to these positive character virtues throughout the academic year. Each half term we dedicate time to learn more and attempt to apply these virtues. Throughout a pupil’s journey at Hexham Middle School, they should build their knowledge and understanding of these virtues and should be able to habituate them with increasing confidence.
- Support the development of the skills required to function in and contribute to society – these include the eight essential Skills Builder skills.
- Aim to aid the social and emotional development of pupils to better understand themselves and work on their weaknesses – we adopt the principles of emotion coaching to support the development of social and emotional co-regulation.
- Actively promote and instil in pupils a developing moral compass and 21st century competencies to support them to understand and interact with other people.
- Provide a wide range of extracurricular activities for pupils develop their character.
- Recognise the school values of Respect, Engage, Aspire as rewards on Class Charts.
- Value every opportunity for pupils and staff to forge positive relationships.
- Celebrate good character in weekly assemblies and during end-of-term celebration assemblies.