Every Friday, Students Know It’s Assembly Day
The staff gathers all 420 students in their auditorium to celebrate and recognize student and staff displays of their touted seven core values: courage, wisdom, compassion, justice, respect, belief, compassion, and responsibility.
Benhurst’s core values have permeated every single aspect of its school experience and are at the heart of the connections that are made every day, from learning moments in the classroom to character-building moments on the playground to family-defining moments at home.
While core values show up in everyday lessons and interactions, it’s the Friday assemblies that are used as a special time to highlight extraordinary displays. “Sunshine Badges” are the special awards given on Fridays at the assemblies, and recipients are chosen by both staff and students.
In fact, it was a classroom of students a few years ago who had the idea for the teacher-student role reversal at the assemblies. Teacher Stella McCarthy was surprised at a Friday assembly by a group of students for her display of core values.
Teachers and staff at Benhurst are intentional about connecting academic learning to their character-based core values.
Take math, for example. At the surface level, a math lesson might seem to be focused only on hitting learning targets. But, as Life Education Trust CEO Julian Dutnall points out, there’s much more going on beneath the surface.
