Building character alongside academics is a fundamental part of strong educational practice. Effective schools do not focus only on what students know; they also help students learn how to work with others, manage themselves, make thoughtful choices, and contribute positively to their communities.
Ontario’s curriculum and policy documents consistently connect achievement with well-being, inclusion, and the development of the skills students need to participate fully in school and in society. For example, Ontario’s equity and inclusive education policy emphasizes that schools should support both student achievement and student well-being (Policy/Program Memorandum No. 119). In contrast, curriculum policy documents across subject areas describe learning experiences as opportunities for students to grow as capable, caring, and responsible citizens.
This whole-child view is especially clear in Ontario’s Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools (2010). This document remains the central policy foundation for assessment and reporting in Grades 1 to 12 in Ontario. It makes clear that schools are responsible not only for evaluating curriculum expectations, but also for explicitly assessing and reporting on students’ learning skills and work habits. These include:
- Responsibility
- Organization
- Independent work
- Collaboration
- Initiative
- Self-regulation
Importantly, this document describes the development of these skills and habits as integral to student learning, which reinforces the idea that education should nurture habits of character alongside academic understanding.
Ontario’s curriculum guidance also recognizes that students learn best when they are supported socially and emotionally as well as academically. The Ministry’s Social-Emotional Skills learning guide (2025) explains that the development of SEL skills supports students’ overall well-being, positive mental health, and ability to learn. This matters because character is not built through isolated lessons alone. It develops through daily classroom experiences that require students to listen, reflect, persevere, solve problems, and act with empathy and self-awareness. When classrooms intentionally foster these qualities, students become more engaged participants and confident members of their learning communities.
Ontario’s approach, therefore, provides schools with a valuable framework for character education and development. Rather than treating character as separate from academic learning, the curriculum allows it to be woven through instruction, assessment, collaboration, and metacognition. Students are asked to think critically, communicate clearly, work responsibly, and regulate themselves across subject areas. In this sense, character education is not an added extra. It is built into the habits, routines, and relationships that help students succeed. This is one of the strengths of the Ontario model; it recognizes that academic excellence is most meaningful when it is accompanied by integrity, empathy, resilience, and a sense of responsibility to others.
Character at Glen Briar Academy
At Glen Briar Academy, a deep belief in the value of character instruction shapes how we approach teaching and learning. As an IB Candidate School, we value the strong foundation offered by the Ontario curriculum, including its emphasis on learning skills, student well-being, and character development. From there, we extend that work through the IB framework.
In our classrooms, the ten IB learner profile attributes are woven into inquiry units so that character development happens in purposeful and authentic ways. As students investigate meaningful questions, collaborate with peers, and reflect on their learning, they also grow as inquirers, thinkers, communicators, principled and caring members of a learning community. In this way, whole-child education becomes not just a goal, but a lived part of everyday school life.
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Glen Briar Academy is a Candidate School* for the Primary Years Programme (PYP). As we move forward in pursuing authorization as an IB World School, we share a common philosophy with other IB educational institutions; a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that we believe is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org.
References:
- Policy/Program Memorandum No. 119: Developing and implementing equity and inclusive education policies in Ontario schools
- www.ontario.ca/document/education-ontario-policy-and-program-direction/policyprogram-memorandum-119
- Ontario’s Social Emotional Learning Guide
- www.ontario.ca/document/health-and-physical-education-grades-1-8/social-emotional-learning-sel-skills
- Ontario Ministry of Education. Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools, First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2010.
