“But that’s the whole aim of civilization: to make everything a source of enjoyment.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Last week we held our first ERA week, five days that were dedicated to promoting our values of ‘enjoy, respect, achieve’. The photographs shared on our Wall of Wow in school and via our social media output demonstrate the energy, creativity and compassion that went into planning and participating in the activities, not just from our staff and students but Trust and parent supporters helped out too. I loved watching students getting involved in African and street art, hearing their tales of learning about the Windrush Generation and seeing the records created by our first ever Sports Day and highest ever fundraising event with Friday’s sponsored walk. A whole week dedicated to the three things we believe in most is absolutely something to celebrate, particularly in a year like this last one.
For our school community, enjoyment, respect and achievement are at the heart of everything we do. Our pastoral system, our curriculum, our co-curriculum and everything in between is built on those three words.
We believe that children cannot learn if they aren’t happy, safe and well and we strive to ensure that happiness, to identify where students need support in being happy through relationships as well as through mechanisms such as regular check ins and wellbeing surveys.
We are a school, and part of a trust, that believes in creating game-changers. Our students will go out and make the world a better place and they will do that first here, in our own community. We teach, model and expect respect in everything we do, from conduct in school to friendships and relationships and the welcome we give to visitors and newcomers in our space. Our standards of respect are high but the work to become a school where intolerance, bullying and wasteful or destructive behaviour is never tolerated will always be ongoing.
We aren’t a school that believes exam results and skills for work are our ultimate goal, achievement for our students is much more than just those we know we will be celebrating on our first ever results day in August 2024. Our school community celebrates achievements that are personal and important to the individuals who make that community.
ERA isn’t one week in June, it’s embedded in our identity, its artefacts can be seen, heard and felt everywhere you go in our school and we take it with us wherever we go too. Our hope for our legacy is that our students will leave us happy, kind and successful citizens of this world, we believe in them and in their power to make the world a better place. We will never lower our expectations of them and they will never stop exceeding those expectations in the things they show us they are capable of.
