News

Congratulations to pupils and staff at Morpeth First School! The school is celebrating after becoming the only First School in the country to be awarded the Quality Mark Plus Award for Character Education, by the Association for Character Education (ACE).

Academic Excellence for All

The school has designed and embedded a bespoke character education programme, based on its vision, created to instil a set of core values in its pupils, alongside promoting academic excellence for all.

Nadine Fielding, Head Teacher at Morpeth First School said:

“I am immensely proud of what we have created in our school. Our aim is for every child to have good character, and that runs like a golden thread through everything that happens here. We want our pupils to grow up to be flourishing members of society, where they have the values, skills and experience to make a positive impact in the world.”

Inclusive and Ambitious

Tom Haigh, CEO of ACE commented:

“It is always reassuring to visit a school where values and a genuine commitment to character education are at the core of all activities and are threaded through the ‘DNA’ of the school; it is clear that at Morpeth First School, character is viewed as the starting point for everything else and represents an instrumental feature of the school’s inclusive and ambitious ethos where success for all is a key driver.”

Andrew Pettit, Director of Schools for ACE added:

“It was evident throughout our visit that leaders have fostered a strong sense of community, nurture and support. It was also clear that leaders have succeeded in building a culture of trust, collaboration and mutual understanding which has helped create the conditions in which staff and students can flourish and where character development is an authentic and sustained part of what it means to be a student or member of staff at Morpeth First School. “

Sadie Rodway, Character Champion, added “If you ask our pupils what character is, they will tell you it’s what you do when nobody is watching.”

Morpeth First School are the Regional Hub School for Character Education in the North East and support other schools on their journeys with their character programmes. For more information please click here for the school’s website or here for Regional Hubs.

Morpeth First School is a Schools North East Partner School. If you’d like to find out more about our Partner School Programme click here.

We love to hear good news from North East Schools, to share your news with Schools North East please tag @SchoolsNE on Twitter or apply here.