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School Vision & Ethos

Our values drive our curriculum design to enable endless possibilities and success.

Vision

At Topcliffe we will make a difference through ensuring we are all responsible for being:

HealthyHARRI JPEG

Aspirational 

Respectful 

Resilient 

Independent 

 

Through these we will empower all to become happy and successful individuals.

Being Healthy

  • We will prioritise mental wellbeing to develop strong interpersonal skills, to increase our children’s chances of becoming academically successful
  • We will be mindful of the way we talk and use our body language to everyone and build strong relationships
  • We will ensure everyone feels like they belong
  • We will give our children meaningful and coherent experiences
  • We will modify our practice to meet the needs of individuals while also ensuring we develop the skills and knowledge that those children may be struggling with
  • We will use a ‘Model, Manageable and Meaningful’ approach to develop wellbeing
  • Our children will be educated in what eating healthy means
  • We will ensure that a wide range of physical and outdoor education is available for all our children
  • Our children will have a full understanding of what staying safe means, whether this be physically, mentally or online
  • We will skill our children to be able to make educated choices.
  • We will all take responsibility for engaging our community and enrich the lives of the families we work with (Building strong relationships, invitations to classroom, events in school, clear communication through social media and letters).

Being Aspirational

  • Dream! Picture what success means
  • Our curriculum will explore the idea of ‘opportunity’ and give the children extensive insight into their possibilities
  • All stakeholders will ensure everyone has high expectations in all the things we do and support and hold each other to account
  • All teachers will set high expectations and challenge for all their children.  Gender, ethnicity, pupil premium, EAL and SEN will not be an excuse – just a group title we use to ensure our teaching meets every child’s need
  • Teachers will fully understand their accountability to ensure all children make accelerated progress in their class (Regular pupil progress meetings, moderation, collaboration with others and weekly Personal Growth Plan)
  • We will ensure life-long learning skills are at the heart of our lessons (Values, growth mind set, peer and self-assessment)
  • Children will not be ability labelled within their class, each skill will be developed and assessed lesson by lesson to ensure every moment is a learning opportunity for all children
  • We will instil a love of learning in our children through our values being at the heart of all we do (Values visible throughout the school and referred to throughout all we do).
  • Our children will gain knowledge and skills that enable them to compete with peers nationally.
  • Support the SDP to provide outstanding provision for our children
  • Celebrate failure!

Being Resilient

  • Leaders at all levels will plan and assess carefully and accurately to ensure gaps in knowledge are filled and rapid progress is made throughout
  • Planning and assessment will address the needs of children immediately, teachers will not wait for the next unit, next term or next year
  • Teachers will enable children to drive their own learning and believe anything is possible even when it may be challenging or go wrong initially (values, growth mind set, self and peer assessment, feedback)
  • Staff will always strive to ensure all their children reach their full potential regardless of any barriers (strong AFL in all lessons).
  • We will learn from mistakes by taking risks
  • Through effective marking and feedback we will celebrate success but encourage perseverance
  • We take time to reflect upon our successes and mistakes to help us achieve
  • Through our curriculum we will plan activities to ensure our children engage with challenges that specifically test and develop their resilience.

Being Respectful

  • Our school community will demonstrate respect for each other at all times
  • We will promote strong British Values and celebrate everyone’s differences (Strong and consistent PSHE, Rights Respecting School)
  • We will all be strong, self-assured individuals that take responsibility for our actions and ensure we strive to be our best at all times
  • Give children opportunities to support and understand others in the wider community (planned curriculum)
  • We will respect our environment and provide an engaging, stimulating environment, both in and out of the classroom
  • We will be proud of ourselves and each other and share and celebrate our success
  • All staff will respect and fully engage in the schools drive to give our children outstanding teaching and learning; they will commit to understand and support the SDP and Personal Growth Plan to achieve this
  • We will celebrate and support difference. Equal opportunities and inclusion is at our core and is about giving all pupils equal chance to access learning – not about treating everyone the same.
  • All children will have a wide range of rich experiences regardless of barriers

Independent

  • All stakeholders clearly understand their role and take responsibility for it
  • Practice is embedded to sustain outstanding practice regardless of any changes that take place
  • Children feel confident and have the skills to run activities and make democratic decisions
  • Teachers will understand the needs of all the children in the class. They will use data of individuals and groups to plan effective learning opportunities
  • Staff will manage their time effectively to meet the needs of the children
  • Planning and teaching styles will be adapted as needed for the individual classes and groups of learners incorporating a variety of learning styles (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic)
  • Children will be enabled to lead their own learning, through accurate learning objectives, success criteria, high level questioning, active learning and effective AfL
  • We will use our marking and feedback policy to build independent learners
  • We will make the learning intentions (objectives) clear and be explicit about the learning taking place
  • We will make links in learning to encourage greater knowledge and develop independent learning and assimilation from short term to long term memory
  • We will provide dedicated reflection time
  • Children will know their next steps in learning and what to do to improve.
  • We will ensure learning follows a clear structure; we give children time to review previous learning, we introduce new materials in small steps, we ask quality questions, we check children’s understanding, we provide scaffolds to support challenging tasks, we give opportunities for independent practice.