In essence, character and community day is a wonderful idea. In our modern world, success is based off more than just our academic achievements; people need to know how to work together, to assess and improve by themselves, to take in information in the most efficient way, and of course to feel confident and good about their own abilities as well as desiring to improve. These goals are not always focused on in our everyday lessons, so to have a day assigned especially to these abilities seems a good idea.
Our third character day (and first since the start of this school year) has received a variety of different feedbacks, it seems to me. In year 11 there was a lot of criticism surrounding the organisation. The timetable for many students changed in the middle of the day, with different activities being switched around for different times. Activities also ended at different times than the original sent timetable suggested they would. These organisation problems often led to many students standing around, being unsure of whether or not they were in the right place or where they had to go if they weren’t. However, ignoring the organisation problems (which can always be improved upon), there was also positive feedback from students. In the morning, almost the entire Year 11 went to a play called “Parlez-moi d’amour”, which was interesting, though really only ensured that students who were confident enough with public speaking and their french speaking abilities to participate (as it required acting in french in front of the entirety of the audience). Later on the year split up, and I went to a talk by Adebanji Alade, who came from London to speak as part of a Learning Performance team on the importance of being confident, and knowing that if you put your mind and effort into something you can accomplish it. It was, to me, a very motivational and uplifting talk.
Feedback from Year 12 told me that they heard many speeches throughout the day. One student told me that they were very engaging, as discussion was encouraged for each one. The passion in each of the talks – especially the talk by András Biró, who fought for the rights of Romani people and other ethnic minorities in Europe – was wonderful to hear. He ended by expressing his bafflement of inequality, and stating that above all we’re all human. Other talks to year 12 were apparently also very special, and they targeted world issues, bullying, and emotional intelligence. However, one Year 12 student told me that whilst the speeches were altogether engaging, it would have been more interesting to have different activities interspersed with listening to people speak. In Year 11 there were activities organised which revolved around team building, though they were very similar to activities which are already done in many year groups in gym class; such things as getting a team through a set of intersecting strings without anyone touching the string.
To tell the truth, many students didn’t turn up to this third Character Day – at least not in my year – and this reflects that there is yet to be improvements to the day, or at least the day’s reputation. Overall, the feedback from those who went seemed to be that if there was more organisation to the day, if there were more engaging activities which are accessible to all students interspersed with interesting talks, and if the activities which are done are different than ones which students are used to in school, then character day could be a day which students look forward to rather than one which some may avoid.
