OLW uses The Pathway to Empathy as the basis of our curriculum.
"Empathy: sets us apart from machines and even from many other animals; enables us to relate to other people and their experiences; enables us to understand other people; yields kindness & courage to stand up for ourselves and others. Empathy brings about stronger personal connections and more meaningful, supportive relationships; is strongly linked with academic success and the more social and emotional skills students are equipped with, the easier they will find the social aspect of schooling, and the more they will be able to focus on their learning." Empathy is learnt ! (Source: EMPATHY)
If Empathy was a cake, the virtues are the ingredients to make the cake. We teach the virtues good manners, friendliness, courage, compassion, tolerance, acceptance, persistence and resilience. We teach these though good quality picture books, games and in a variety of curriculum areas.
Every 5 weeks the whole school explicitly teaches and practices the same virtue in the games we play, the reading we do, the writing we learn.
Empathy ... for today, tomorrow and into the future.