Ethos, Visions & Values

Ethos – Our children are our priority. Everything we do as a school encourages each child to achieve their very best.

Vision – Excellence, achieved through care, creativity and challenge.

Respect and trust – Staff members work well together and deal straight with each other, with pupils and with parents. Pupils respect adults and each other and take pride in their own behaviour.

Pupils – Our systems drill down to each separate child and check that they are receiving the attention they need and making the progress they can. Every pupil is encouraged to understand their own learning objectives and to work towards them.

We educate the whole child: we educate pupils to perform well academically; and we educate them to become resilient happy members of the community, cooperating with each other and learning broadly to be good citizens, to play, to compete appropriately, to use IT and the internet safely, to perform artistically and athletically, and to enjoy art and performance. We want them to be the best that they can be to become successful citizens.

Our curriculum has been developed to be a consistent whole from the Nursery to Y6. Teachers across the Federation use a similar approach and terminology, so pupils can easily move between adaptive teaching groups in any year group and easily follow the language with a new teacher each school year. Similarly, the curriculum facilitates teachers checking and sensibly revisiting what has already been learned and then developing it for new learning.

The Nursery provides an opportunity for pupils to socialise and learn at an early age; we find they make rapid progress. Pupils with special needs are identified early and support is put in place.

Parents – We involve parents in the education of their children and keep them well informed. We support parents and assist them to access support from other bodies. We challenge parents where necessary and encourage them to learn and develop and to support their children further.

Staff – We encourage excellence from staff through strong leadership and systems. The Head and senior managers have a clear and up-to-date sense of the performance of all staff members and give immediate support if that is requested or, in the leaders' judgement, desirable. The Federation's systems allow staff to work efficiently, minimising (to the extent practicable) record keeping for its own sake.

Teamwork is at the core of our working. The teachers and support staff of each year group are a team jointly responsible for their pupils and cooperating in preparing lesson plans and adapting work for specific pupils. All teachers (except those in the first year of their teaching career) lead a subject in the school and are supported in this. “Excellence for All” provides group professional support for all teachers. The senior leadership of the Federation meets regularly and provide internal challenge and developing of consensus.

We provide good IT equipment and back-up for record keeping and for teaching, maximising availability of shared resources and teaching plans. Training of staff is a regular part of Federation life and we expect staff to develop their skills and careers. Wherever possible, we provide promotion opportunities within the Federation; and if it is not possible, we support staff members seeking to move. We address any under-performance, initially with informal support and if necessary through the capability procedures.

We encourage innovation. Projects are approved by senior leadership and often led by class teachers; if successful, they become part of our way of working. Examples are the recent embedding in our teaching of metacognition (the ability of pupils to be aware of and control their thinking processes to improve learning) and oracy (the ability of pupils to use spoken language to communicate effectively).

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development – Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are at the heart of the Federation’s work. We are a secular organisation. We teach pupils about the major world religions and about non-religious beliefs. We promote the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith. Pupils learn to respect faiths, feelings and values.

We have part-time specialist teachers for art and music, setting high standards and supporting other teachers in these subjects. The music teacher leads a group of teachers learning new instruments themselves, so staff are also seen by pupils also to be learners. We employ a specialist sports coach.

Strong systems – We have developed good systems and continually challenge ourselves to improve them. They are Federation wide. Examples are:

The behaviour policy

The use of assessment and tracking systems to monitor the progress of every child

“Excellence for All”, a structured mutual support system for staff

The use of subject leaders and the development of consistent teaching models for each subject across all age groups. Our bespoke curriculum has the overarching objective that all children succeed in the next stage of their education and in future life.

Clear and specific (positive and negative) feedback to staff and to pupils

Strong financial systems

The application of clear discipline and capability systems at all levels of staff in the Federation, even if this may involve challenging important or critical people.

Approved by the Governing Body 2 October 2024