From September 2022 each student in Year 7 – 9 will receive one Virtues lesson a week and years 10 and 11 will receive one Virtues lesson a fortnight. Virtues will be very important to your child’s time at English Martyr

What are Virtues?

A virtue is described as a moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle by people within society. These virtues are summarised in our school mission statement.

The following virtues circle underpins studies and formulate the keywords associated with the subject.

Why do we need to study Virtues?

  • The academic subjects that children study at English Martyrs are very important to their future for a variety of reasons. We all understand the importance of children achieving their academic potential.
  • Achieving that academic potential is not always easy, other things in life contribute to how well children do at school. Virtues, although being an academic subject, will help all students across the curriculum to achieve that potential. For example, Virtues will explore how children need to be able to manage stress and anxiety in high-pressure situations like examinations in order to achieve their best.
  • Alongside doing well at school academically, becoming a person who will contribute in a positive way to the world in which we live, not just in the job that we want, or the subjects we enjoy, is very important. For example, Virtues will explore how being able to build positive relationships now and in the future with the people around us is vital to making a positive contribution within society.

What will we study in Virtues?

In line with our whole school approach to curriculum, our virtues lessons are structured around 5 key concepts, which are developed each year and planned sequentially to support progress.

The 5 key concepts that are the foundation of our curriculum are

  • Health and Wellbeing Education
    This will cover both physical and mental health as well as personal hygiene and keeping safe online.
  • Relationships and Sex Education
    This will cover healthy relationships, sexual health, puberty, sex education and keeping safe and relationships with friends and family.
  • Living in the Wider World
    This will provide our students with the opportunities to be educated about things that will serve them in the wider world and will include citizenship and careers.
  • Developing Learning Attributes & Skills
    This concept is bespoke to EMS and will teach students how to develop their learner attributes so they can become effective independent learners. It will also cover key skills such as reading for pleasure and literacy to facilitate their wider learning.
  • Ethos at EMS
    Ethos at EMS covers all of out religious services and key themes in the Catholic calendar such as Advent and Lent. It will also cover other school activities such as inter house, and enrichment week that allows students to develop their skills through the Ethos of our school.

Assessment

There will be no formal assessment in Virtues, however, students will receive a exercise book from their teacher for completed work which will be kept as a record. Students will take part in base line assessments and use these as part of a refection process on the areas they have studied. Students will be expected to make positive efforts and take pride in their work as is our school expectation. This will be recognised in line with our rewards policy. Although there will be no formal homework, students are encouraged to read around the topics studied and hold further discussions with parents/carers about the learning that has gone on in lessons

Parental Portal

Part of the Virtues programme will include Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) lessons which become statutory for all schools during this forthcoming academic year. As a school, we will be delivering these lessons via the Tenten theatre company’s provision which meets the statutory requirements and is recommended by the Catholic Education Service (CES).

Tenten have kindly created a parental portal which will enable parents/carers to access the lesson materials in advance, and to further assist the learning of children in the home environment. The information can be found at:- https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/parent-portal/

Username: opp-em-25  Password: rse-parent-brown

Sensitivity
Parents/Carers are reminded that some of the material, although age-appropriate by key stage, is sensitive and further discussions around any concerns can take place with Mr Gray (agray@ems.bhcet.org.uk). Regular updates will be provided via the Virtues page on the school website so that Parents/Carers can take a keen interest in the programme of study and support the learning at home.