Our Core Virtues

At Les Quennevais, our curriculum is about more than learning facts, completing work or passing exams. We want students to leave us with the knowledge, skills and confidence to understand the world, but also with the character to contribute positively to it. Our core virtues help us describe the kind of young people we are helping our students to become.

Our four core virtues are Compassion, Optimism, Resilience and Empathy.

Compassion means noticing the needs of others and choosing to act with kindness. It is seen in the way students support one another, include others, take responsibility for their community and think carefully about the impact of their words and actions.

Optimism means believing that things can improve and that effort matters. It is not about pretending everything is easy, but about helping students approach challenges with hope, curiosity and a willingness to try.

Resilience means continuing when learning is difficult. In every subject, students encounter moments of struggle: a complex text, a challenging equation, a demanding performance, a difficult practical task or a piece of work that needs refining. Resilience helps students understand that mistakes, feedback and practice are all part of learning.

Empathy means trying to understand the experiences, feelings and viewpoints of others. Through our curriculum, students meet people, places, cultures, histories, stories, problems and perspectives beyond their own. Empathy helps them listen carefully, think deeply and see the world with greater humanity.

These virtues are not taught as separate slogans. They are woven through the life of the school and through the curriculum itself. In English, students explore characters, voices and moral choices. In history, they consider power, injustice, conflict and change. In science, they learn how knowledge can be used to improve lives and solve global problems. In the arts, students express human experience, emotion and identity. In languages, geography, PSHE, technology, PE and every other subject, students encounter opportunities to think about themselves, others and the wider world.

Our curriculum gives students rich knowledge, but it also asks important human questions: What kind of world do we live in? How have people shaped it? How should we treat one another? What does it mean to aim high? How do we respond when things are difficult? How can our learning help us make a positive difference?

By making our core virtues part of curriculum thinking, we help students connect knowledge with meaning. We want them to learn deeply, think carefully and act wisely. Our aim is that every student develops not only what they know and can do, but also who they are becoming.