Ask any teacher at Colyton why they went into the profession, and chances are that over and above teaching our children to be an English, maths or science whizz, they want to help them become happy, confident and well-rounded individuals who make meaningful contributions to society.

These are the foundations of character education: a vital part of a good all-round education.

The Department for Education set our six 'character benchmarks' to enable schools to better articulate what their character education looks like. 

1. What kind of school are we?

We are a lovely school set in the heart of our community. 

We have a challenging and aspirational curriculum because we realise that we are set in rural East Devon and our children are not exposed to the opportunities that other parts of the country may have. We want our children to aspire, flourish and achieve - to aim high and be successful. 

Our curriculum subject stories set out or progressive and well thought out curriculum that takes in to account the National Curriculum as well as aspects of the personal development curriculum. Themes that are important to our staff, families and communities are equality and sustainability and these run through all of our subjects. 

Staff turnover at Colyton is low. This is because our staff feel valued and genuinely care about our children and families. All staff know our four curriculum drivers; being a fluent reader, having high aspirations and learning using good metacognitive practices. 

We share our yearly overviews with parents and update them weekly about the exciting learning in the newsletter, on the Facebook page or on the website. Whenever we can, we welcome parents in to school to share our successes. 

Being proud of our school is our moto - we are proud of our learning, behaviour, school and town. Being proud is not about being boastful, it is about recognising our hard work and we share this in our weekly celebration assembly where we hand out 'Pride of Colyton' certificates and badges to students, staff and sometimes parents! 

2. What are our expectations of behaviour towards each other?

We clear on the importance of discipline and good behaviour in school life.

We have three clear school principles; 

- To be caring and kind

- To try 

- To be safe 

These are our principles for life! 

We use this language daily with all children and this helps us to promote respect and consideration towards others. 

We reward this behaviour using our school reward system and give children opportunities to practice polite and respectful behaviour by taking part in as many community events as we can.

We know for some children additional needs or safeguarding concerns can mean that things can go wrong. Our children with complex needs are well supported to help make good choices. They may have a relational support plan or co-regulation plan to help them. Our key and vital method of supporting these children however is our priority in building strong relationships. This is something we pride ourselves on. 

All of the children at Colyton know what British Values are and how these also support us with our behaviour expectations. We promote these regularly as we believe it is important to be the best citizen that we can. 

Children at Colyton also understand how the brain works; the role of the hormones, amygdala, hypo-campus and pre-frontal cortex. They know how this helps and regulates behaviour and emotions and we take part in lots of activities in school that promote good mental health. 

On a basic level we expect children to hold the doors open for each other, to say please and thank you, to use a knife and fork correctly and to speak politely to each other and adults. 

Staff model this all of the time through our Trauma Informed Approach to behaviour management and through praising the children who do this well. 

3. How well do our curriculum and teaching develop resilience and confidence?

Our curriculum ambitious and aspirational. It develops children's knowledge and skills. 

It has a strong cultural capital and where there this is not specified in the National Curriculum we add it in where we can.

We always study Black History month, International Women's day, Earth Day, Children's Mental Health week to name but a few. Within this we make sure our children are exposed to a range of artists, poets and inspirational people from all walks of life. We encourage sport's figures to attend school and we also celebrate local success. As part of our careers curriculum we invite parents or local people to school to share their jobs and careers - we want our children to see and understand what the world of work is like first hand. 

Our curriculum logically organised and sequenced, including within subjects, and taught using effective pedagogy, so pupils gain a strong sense of progress and grow in confidence. We do this especially well using a metacognitive approach so that our children know more, remember more and EVALUATE their learning. 

Our school have received training via Thinking Matters and have promoted this method of teaching locally, regionally and nationally at the Conference for Metacognition.

We are really proud of the journey the school have been on with this and using metacognitive tools in all lessons and all year groups is now a standard practice at Colyton. 

4. How good is our co-curriculum ?

We make sure our co-curriculum covers a wide range of 'other' learning.

We hold an annual sport's day as well as hosting sporting events for other local schools.

Our year R/1/2 children always take part in the nativity play, our year 3/4 children showcase their talents in a musical each year and our year 6 children always perform a Shakespeare play, with mostly our Shakespeare script.

We have a residential for year 4 each year, a school camp out for our year 5s and another, longer residential, for our year 6.

Year 6 children are lucky to take part in canoeing on the River Axe each year and we have a well developed forest school area so that all year groups can experience outdoor learning.

Every year our year 4 and 6 children take part in swimming lessons, which is over and above the NC requirement. 

One of our favourite events is the May Pole and Country Dancing cream tea that we showcase on the Church Green each year (we try not to get tangled in the May Pole!)

We promote Walk to School week, Children's Mental Health week and a Hopes and Dreams week that is the culmination of our careers curriculum.

We have taken part in the Young Leaders and Young Duke of Edinburgh award schemes. Both of which promote independence and resilience. 

All of our co-curriculum events and activities are showcased in our class 'Big Books' and we are proud of the journeys these demonstrate. 

5. How well do we promote the value of volunteering and service to others?

At Colyton we have six 'Flourish Fridays'

These are days we set aside to promote positivity and helpfulness towards others. 

We know that this makes us good, kind people. 

They have three concepts; school, community and international.

As part of Flourish Fridays children may visit local coffee morning groups, sing or read at local care homes, shore country dancing at the Memory Cafe, our choir sings at many town events such as the Christmas Light Switch on or simply leave cards/pebbles/pom-poms of positivity around the town. 

We have recently started a lending library for the local towns people to share books and celebrate in our love of reading. 

We have strong links to the Church and History Society and our Friends and Family Association support local events such as the Carnival and Grissly Race. 

Being a part of the town - albeit a rebellious one - is of vital importance. 

6. How do we ensure that all our pupils benefit equally from what we offer?

At the beginning of each year we set our school diary dates. We do this so that parents and families are aware of what events are happening when. This helps parents to plan financially for larger trips. Where possible we support our families with keeping costs down as much as we can. We my use some school funds, fund raise or ask local charities to help with this.

Colyton is an inclusive school for all and our personal development curriculum, alongside British Values, promotes acceptance of all and an understanding that we are all equal.

Colyton is a special place and we are lucky to be able to be a part of such a wonderful community. We know that our role in that is to guide and educate the children of that community to be the best that they can possibly be - and also to be happy.