Ark St Alban's Academy has been awarded the ACE School of Character Quality Mark, a national award which recognises outstanding character education to enable the cultivation of positive character qualities.
The award celebrates and recognises high-quality Character education, which is driven through our values, Big Questions and our mission to provide every pupil with a transformational education and the character needed to flourish in all that they do.
Assessors from ACE met with staff, governors and pupils on the assessment day. The assessors said:
"It is with great privilege that the Association for Character Education is able to award Ark St Albans with the School of Character Quality Mark. ACE would like to express its congratulations and formally acknowledge the significant dedication and commitment that yourselves, staff, pupils and governors have demonstrated, in order to meet the high standards of character education, that this award represents."
The assessment report outlined a number of strengths in Character provision. The assessors noted that the "quality of the school’s character curriculum is excellent" and "extensive research into the theory, philosophy and pedagogy that underpins character education has been used to effectively shape the content".
The report also noted that pupils "demonstrated an in-depth understanding of character, referring to complex concepts such as virtue excess and deficiency (golden mean)" and that lessons have enabled pupils to demonstate "strong moral reasoning and the ability to make wise choices".
Staff at the academy are proud of our pupils and are looking forward to developing the Character Programme further, so that all pupils leave us at the end of Year 13 with the character needed to flourish in all that they do.
More information about our mission and values can be found here: https://arkstalbans.org/about/welcome
More information about the Association of Character Education can be found here: https://character-education.org.uk/