Kevin Sexton, Acting Headteacher at Challenge Award-accredited Chesterfield High School, shares the school’s use of learning journeys to support the development of character, culture and challenge throughout students’ career in education.

In our recent presentation at the NACE National Conference, we spoke about our use of learning journeys to support our focus on the three 3Cs used by the PiXL Club in school development – Currency, Character and Culture – as well as supporting our work with the NACE Challenge Framework to improve provision for more able learners and provide challenge for all.

For examples, you can view our school’s overall learning journey here and our learning journeys by subject here.

Looking beyond “currency” to focus on character, culture and challenge

The DfE’s 2017 report “Developing character skills in schools” found although 97% of surveyed schools claimed to promote desirable character traits, only 17% had a formalised plan or policy for this, less than half dedicated any time to staff training for character education, and fewer than a quarter had a dedicated lead for character development.

Currency (all data about the individual learner) will always be important. However, we also want our students to be better people. A newspaper article alerted me to statistics in the latest OECD report on health behaviour in school-aged children, which shared data on the percentage of 15-year-olds who agree that classmates are kind and helpful. The figure was 84% in the Netherlands, 82% in Iceland, 81% in Portugal 81%... and just 59% in England.

What success is it to have very academically successful students who do not know how to be kind or helpful to each other or those in the community around them? We wanted to plan a learning journey for our students that would give them opportunities to be challenged as they developed their character and culture. We asked ourselves:

• How do we ensure every young person has a chance to develop their character in this school?
• How will we celebrate young people developing their character?
• What work do we need to do with parents and other stakeholders?
• What will be included in a challenging character development programme at our school?
• What do we want more able learners to be like when they leave our school and move on?

The fourth C: adding “challenge” to the mix

Our involvement with NACE and use of the NACE Challenge Framework provided clarity on how character and culture could support currency; in some cases, it matched existing thinking and in others it inspired refreshing thinking. We used CPD time to look at key characteristics of more able learners across each subject. When completing the Challenge Framework audit, we looked at how we were enabling more able learners to show and develop their talents. We agreed that students who have developed key skills of leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communication (LORIC) do have better currency – both in terms of exam data and personal development data.

We discussed how we could use a learning journey to review our current character and culture programme, ask whether it leads to our “desirable end state” for students, identify gaps and introduce new strategies to bridge these gaps. Within this, we created learning journey opportunities that would match key aspects of the Challenge Framework and key characteristics that we were trying to develop for our more able learners. The learning journey model has also proved effective in keeping parents of more able learners involved in their performance both inside and outside the classroom – aligning with the focus on partnership, communication and rounded education emphasised by the Challenge Framework.

Developing a learning journey for your school

The learning journey model is designed to create a plan based on the 3Cs, spanning a learner’s whole school career. It should be understood by everyone in the school community, deliberately and explicitly shared and taught using a common language. It should create sequential activities and challenges which are open to everyone, of all abilities. Students are recognised and rewarded along their journey through schemes such as Duke of Edinburgh, Sports Leaders awards, and so on.

Here are five steps to develop a learning journey for your school:

1. Lead a session on character education for all staff, exploring its importance within subjects and across the whole school.
2.  Plot your current character and culture programme. As a group of staff or SLT, identify the gaps. What’s missing? Where does the new careers strategy need to be included (for example)? Does your learning journey lead to your school vision? Does it lead to the “desirable end state” for students?
3. On a blank learning journey template, plot out your school’s learning journey across all year groups ensuring all students are catered for.
4. Repeat this process for each year group, adding more detail.
5. Share your learning journeys with students, parents and staff so all stakeholders can see where learners are heading – in our case, from the start of Year 7 to the end of sixth form.

In line with the new education inspection framework, a learning journey gives you and your school a clear map of where your personal development work is going and how and why it is sequenced in such a way. When new demands come along or as cohorts change, you can review year by year to ensure you don’t lose direction. We have now used the same structure within specific departments, mapping out the 3Cs journey at departmental level and using this to support thinking around the “intent” aspect of the new framework.