Best Practice

Character Curriculum: Can you answer the Ruby question?

Curriculum Skills Character education
We know that education goes beyond exam grades, but still we struggle to answer ‘the Ruby question’. Professor Guy Claxton introduces the seven Cs that we should be prioritising and teaching to our students

Imagine that you are walking down the street and you bump into Ruby, an 18-year-old who left your school two years ago. She button-holes you and thanks you for the wonderful education that your school gave her.

You remember that Ruby left with only a few mediocre GCSEs, so you suggest that maybe she’s referring to the friendships she made. True, she says, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the real education you gave me. You ask her to explain. What do you imagine she says?

How do we describe a great education that did not result in good grades? Exams are a competitive game. Standards are deliberately adjusted so that not too many people get As or A*s, and roughly half of all 16-year-olds do not achieve five “good” GCSEs including English and maths. The latest measures of individual performance set the bar even higher.

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