Character education is the deliberate effort by schools to develop pupils' personal qualities — such as resilience, integrity, empathy, and self-discipline — alongside academic study. In England, the Department for Education published a Character Education Framework in 2019, and Ofsted inspects these qualities as part of its personal development judgement.
What does the government's character education framework say?
The DfE's 2019 Character Education Framework identifies five broad categories of character traits that schools should develop:
| Category | Example traits |
|---|---|
| Resilience and confidence | Perseverance, managing setbacks, self-belief |
| Creativity and enquiry | Curiosity, problem-solving, innovation, risk-taking in learning |
| Civic duty and open-mindedness | Volunteering, community service, respect for different perspectives |
| Empathy and emotional regulation | Listening to others, managing anger or anxiety, kindness |
| Self-regulation and conscientiousness | Hard work, reliability, attention to detail, managing time |
The framework does not prescribe exactly how schools should develop these traits — it is a statement of intent rather than a statutory curriculum. Individual schools choose their own programmes, activities, and approaches.
How do schools teach character?
Character education is embedded in school life in multiple ways, not just through specific lessons. The most effective provision usually combines:
Explicit curriculum content — PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education) lessons often cover topics such as managing failure, teamwork, self-confidence, and ethical decision-making. Citizenship lessons address civic values, community engagement, and democratic participation.
Co-curricular activities — The Duke of Edinburgh Award, Combined Cadet Force (CCF), school prefect programmes, sports captaincy, debate clubs, community volunteering, and the Arts are all widely used to develop character qualities in applied contexts. Research consistently shows that structured, challenging extracurricular activities develop resilience and leadership more effectively than classroom instruction alone.
School ethos and culture — The way teachers speak to students, how the school handles failure and success, whether pupils are trusted with real responsibility, and how conflict is resolved all contribute more to character than any single lesson. A school where teachers model intellectual curiosity, fairness, and persistence communicates those values far more powerfully than a PSHE booklet.
Pastoral systems — Form tutors and mentors who have sustained relationships with pupils can spot when a pupil is struggling with resilience, self-regulation, or empathy, and provide individual support that no lesson can replicate.
Why does character education matter alongside academic achievement?
Academic qualifications remain the most important currency for sixth form, university, and employment. However, employers, universities, and research evidence increasingly point to the same finding: pupils who combine strong academic results with developed character qualities — particularly resilience, self-regulation, and collaboration — perform better in higher education and the workplace than those with academic results alone.
The Education Endowment Foundation and other research bodies have found that:
- Self-regulation (the ability to manage attention, emotions, and behaviour) is one of the strongest predictors of academic progress, particularly during the challenging transition from primary to secondary school
- Resilience — the capacity to persevere in the face of difficulty — is particularly important at GCSE and A-level, where the volume and difficulty of work exceeds what many students have previously encountered
- Pupils who develop a sense of civic responsibility and empathy show lower rates of school exclusion and higher rates of sustained engagement with education
How does Ofsted inspect character and personal development?
Under Ofsted's inspection framework, personal development is one of four separate judgements (alongside Quality of Education, Behaviour and Attitudes, and Leadership and Management). Inspectors look for evidence of:
- A broad, structured programme of PSHE and citizenship that addresses pupils' character development
- A rich range of co-curricular opportunities accessible to all pupils, not just those whose families can fund activities outside school
- Pupils' spiritual, moral, social, and cultural (SMSC) development — a statutory requirement embedded in Ofsted's framework
- Pupils' ability to understand and appreciate different cultures, beliefs, and viewpoints
- Whether disadvantaged pupils access the same quality of character-building provision as their peers
A school can receive an outstanding academic curriculum judgement but score poorly on personal development if its co-curricular provision is thin, its PSHE programme is poorly sequenced, or its most disadvantaged pupils have limited access to enrichment.
What should parents look for when evaluating a school's character education?
When visiting a school for an open evening or reading an Ofsted report, the following questions are useful:
- What co-curricular activities does the school offer, and who accesses them? A sports programme that only fields the strongest players, or a debating society attended only by the most confident pupils, is not effective character education for the whole school.
- What does the school do when pupils fail? Schools that treat academic setbacks as opportunities for reflection and re-engagement develop resilience; schools that respond only with punishment or withdrawal develop anxiety.
- What responsibilities are given to pupils? Prefects, house captains, school council members, and peer mentors all experience genuine leadership, which is qualitatively different from being told about leadership in a lesson.
- Is PSHE timetabled with sufficient time and taught by committed staff? PSHE delivered as a fifth-choice subject by reluctant teachers produces very little character development.
What can parents do at home to support character development?
Schools cannot develop character in isolation. Research identifies the following home behaviours as consistently supportive:
- Praising effort and strategy rather than talent or results — this develops growth mindset and resilience
- Allowing children to experience failure and manage frustration rather than intervening to remove difficulty
- Encouraging participation in activities that involve sustained commitment (a sport, instrument, creative pursuit, or volunteering role) rather than sampling without depth
- Modelling the character traits you want to see — intellectual curiosity, admitting mistakes, respectful disagreement, and perseverance are all taught by example
Frequently asked questions
Is character education the same as PSHE?
Not exactly. PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, and Economic education) is a school subject with specific content areas, including health, relationships, financial literacy, and wellbeing. Character education is a broader concept that encompasses PSHE content but also includes the school's ethos, co-curricular activities, pastoral care, and the modelled behaviour of staff. PSHE is one vehicle for character education, not the whole of it.
Is character education religious or values-based in a specific way?
The DfE framework is deliberately non-denominational and applicable across all school types, including faith schools and secular academies. Faith schools may emphasise virtues drawn from their religious tradition, but the core qualities — resilience, empathy, civic responsibility, self-regulation — are shared across traditions and are compatible with a secular education. Character education is distinct from Religious Education (RE), which has its own statutory framework.
How does character education relate to British values?
Schools have a statutory duty to actively promote fundamental British values: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. British values form a specific component of character education and are inspected by Ofsted. They were introduced as a statutory requirement in 2014 following the "Trojan Horse" investigation into some Birmingham schools. All schools, regardless of type, are required to promote them.
Can I see evidence of what my child is learning about character at school?
Schools vary. Some produce clear documentation of their character curriculum; others embed it diffusely across subjects and activities. Asking the school's PSHE coordinator or head of year for an overview of the school's character education programme is reasonable. Many schools also include character and values-related comments in school reports, particularly from form tutors, which can give a parental window into this aspect of development.
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