On Thursday 19th October, the Jubilee Centre launched a new research report, titled Schools of Virtue. The report was launched at the University of Birmingham School by Gary Lewis, Chair of the Association for Character Education and Executive Head of Kings Langley School. The project focussed on three schools in Birmingham that place the development of their pupils’ character at the heart of their educational vision. The Schools involved in the study were the University of Birmingham School, Nishkam High School, and St Brigid’s Roman Catholic Primary School. This report demonstrates how a neo-Aristotelian conception of character education can be brought to life in any type of school, and where teachers see themselves as character educators, they can act as ‘role models’ in the development of shared ‘virtue literacy’ among students. The Press Release published for the report is available to view here. 

The study also found that pupils at the two secondary schools displayed higher levels of moral reasoning, when compared with a national survey of more than 10,000 pupils in the Centre’s 2015 Character Education in Uk Schools study. Pupils reported moral virtues such as honesty and gratitude as being more important to them than performance virtues such as self-discipline and resilience.

You can download the full report here.