Character Education Leaders’ Course to give Education Professionals the confidence to run a successful character education programme in School! Book Your Place

Commando Joe’s prides itself on innovation, collaborative working and creativity. We first began back in 2009 when our founder Mike Hamilton, had the idea of setting up Commando Joe’s to help improve education and life outcomes for the most disadvantaged children and young people. To further develop the Commando Joe’s programme, we called in the experts from the Wise Owl Trust. Joining forces, we combined Commando Joe’s experience in delivering exciting sessions with Wise Owl’s education expertise and pioneering spirit. The result – is a curriculum packed with overarching lesson plans, tools and resources developed by teachers for teachers. With Wise Owl CEO/ Executive Principal Sophie Murfin’s team transforming our concept into a complete package guaranteed to hit key targets. The Wise Owl Trust have developed our EYFS programme, Character Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, Transition programme, our adventure programme and more. 

Our fantastic Character Curriculum in turn inspired Woodlands Primary School to create its own set of resources, that link with their curriculum and core reading texts. To further extend their pupil’s learning, Woodlands got in touch about developing their own resources. After months of planning, staff from EYFS to Year 6 crafted their very own missions. We helped design the new resources, into a fun format for all schools to enjoy. 

Woodlands said “The RESPECT programme is synonymous with our own school values. We want our staff, as role models, to inspire our children inside and outside of the classroom and the practical element of the RESPECT framework, embedded in our wider curriculum offer, and coupled with the people selected to demonstrate the missions, facilitated them challenging common stereotypes of gender and ethnicity and modelling the characteristics in a tangible way.“

The new resources cover everything from EYFS to Key Stage 2, ensuring a whole school approach. EYFS jumps straight into a magical storybook world, with missions inspired by “The Shark in the Park” by Nick Sharatt, “How to Catch a Unicorn” by Adam Wallace and “Harry and His Bucketful of Dinosaurs” by Ian Whybrow. Year 2 go on a Kenyan Adventure, discovering the vast plains of Africa and its varied wildlife. Year 3/4 travel back in time to the Stone Age working on their survival skills, working together to gather food, build safe structures and tend to the wounded. Year 5, take on the helm of Norse warriors, helping Odin re-build the Bi-Frost bridge. Delve deep into Norse Mythology, with code-breaking missions and mysteries to unravel.

The final resource is the Future Commando, which can be used for all-year groups. Future Commando is a reflective resource, ideal for looking back on the year and seeing exactly what you have worked on as a class.

Mike Hamilton founder of Commando Joe’s said “It was a pleasure to work with Woodlands Primary School, it’s amazing to see the results of Woodland’s hard work. I’m so pleased the RESPECT programme has inspired the school to create its own resources, it was great to meet all the teachers and explore the mission topics.”

The resources are available on the Commando Joe’s portal, please share with us and Woodlands Primary School your mission attempts. 

Please give Woodlands Primary School a follow on their Twitter and tag them in any future missions! @CoJoWoodlands 

For more information on the amazing work, the Wise Owl Trust do, head over to their website here. Make sure to tag Wise Owl in your tweets @wiseowltrust. Let’s celebrate success, share good practices and change children’s lives.