Today, Year 1 enthusiastically participated with their termly Virtues Day-a whole day dedicated to abandoning the usual timetable and focussing solely on developing awareness and understanding of additional virtues to our core five.

Year 1 have based their learning upon three satellite virtues today-courtesy, self-discipline and honesty. It’s safe to say that all of the children now have a much deeper understanding of these terms.

The children paid particular attention to ways in which they could show courtesy in the dining hall as it can be easy to forget when tummies are hungry. They created their own placemats to remind them of some of the great ideas captured in our discussions and put them to use during today’s lunch service. Year 1’s midday assistant was happy to report that she could see the children actively referring to the mats to remind their friends about how they could conduct themselves in an even politer and more courteous way.

This afternoon, the children learned that honesty was about more than just telling the truth. They considered how they could act in an honest way in various situations, such as asking to borrow something that belongs to somebody else nicely, rather than just taking it and that they can complete independent tasks such as spelling tests honestly by not talking to or peeking at anybody else’s work during those times. They now understand that this is only so that their teachers can see what they can do all by themselves and if they might need an extra bit of help with something.