“At Reading School, we believe passionately that developing the character of our students is one of the fundamental aims of education and the basis from which to build a flourishing life. Good education is good character education and our focus on character development lies at the heart of the school community and permeates the individual and collective behaviours of our students. Our character education philosophy is known as ‘The Reading Way’ and is built upon our four school values of excellence, integrity, leadership and community. This is a holistic approach to education with a broad academic and co-curriculum that encourages intellectual curiosity, whilst enriching and developing the cultural capital of our students. The twin aims of academic excellence and building good men are complementary: we want our students to flourish through sustained high performance and the development of their character. 

The Quality Mark process was a thoroughly supportive and encouraging day where our character education team were able to share the fantastic character building work our students are involved in. It gave us the opportunity to acknowlege our successes and also to work with the ACE assessors to reflect on what’s next and how to get there! I would highly recommend an application for the Quality Mark or Quality Mark Plus award. The whole process is aimed at helping you celebrate the character work you are championing in your school and really helps you shape your character journey for the future.”