Vision & Values Statement

“Growing together: Inspire to aspire”

At Woodlands Primary School, our collective vision is to provide every child with the fullest education and life chances they deserve, and to guide our children towards their best possible future. Together, we will continually strive to remove the fear of failure and any barriers to success. At every opportunity we will celebrate achievement, progress and effective learning behaviours. We will provide a culture of aspiration and acceptance with children moving onto their next venture with the knowledge, skills and values to set them on the path to achieve their dreams. We will enable our pupils to drive their own futures to realise greater success and to actively shape our diverse community for the better, all working in tandem for the common good.

 We value each child as an individual with their own unique potential for learning. We seek to inspire our pupils to love learning and to be the best learners they can possibly be: happy, engaged and resilient, with strong self-esteem and the ability to self-regulate effectively. We strive to seek out and nurture each other’s strengths, skills and interests within a calm, collaborative ethos of mutual respect and empathy for others.  All of our pupils deserve to learn in an environment that is calm, safe, supportive and where they are treated with dignity.

We encourage our pupils to reflect on their learning and the progress they have made, and to transfer what they have learned to say and to do from one school subject to another, and from school to their lives in the wider community. We provide opportunities for children to make real decisions about their lives, to take part in activities which simulate adult choices and where they can demonstrate their ability to take responsibility for their decisions.

Situated at the heart of our community, we provide a safe, supportive and stimulating environment where our pupils can develop the confidence to ask questions, challenge the information they are offered, draw on their own experience, express their views and opinions and put what they have learned into practice in their own lives.

We challenge each child to achieve their full potential through our relentless pursuit of excellence in progress and attainment, driven by the collaborative work of all staff and governors. We aim to work in partnership with parents, carers, and the wider community to help each child to grow positively.

We offer a rich, meaningful and exciting curriculum, and teach memorable lessons, inspiring a passion for lifelong learning whilst nurturing creativity and curiosity, and building up confidence, independence and the motivation to succeed.

We recognise that one of the most powerful factors in optimising pupil progress is effective feedback from a teacher.  For a pupil to be able to get feedback there has to be a trust, not just between teacher and pupil but in the whole class: “A trust that it is safe to take risks.  A trust that it is safe to make mistakes. A trust to ask questions and develop thinking”.

Through this optimising behaviour-orientated, whole-hearted community approach, we expect every child to thrive academically, socially, emotionally, culturally and physically.

Building Cultural Capital

“11 before 11”

To provide children with quality, worthwhile opportunities and meaningful outcomes, and to develop their character and personal, social and emotional development, there are eleven activities that our children will have completed/achieved on leaving Woodlands in Year 6, which we call 11 before 11.

These are:

• Learn to play a musical instrument (Y3 ,Y4, Y5 & Y6);
• Develop a love of healthy, locally-grown (including at school) food through learning about nutrition, seasonality and different styles of cooking; Healthy Cookery Club (Y2)
• Perform a play on stage (Y6);
• Visit an Art gallery or exhibition (Y5);
• Represent the school at a sporting event;
• Gather data for fieldwork and learn about physical processes through an off-site river study (Y5);
• Deepen understanding of local history by visiting Stonehenge, Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral, and national history at the Chalke Valley History Festival (Y6);
• Develop mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs by visiting places of worship of the main religions of the United Kingdom (Y3 & Y4);
• Understand how rule of law and democracy works by visiting the Houses of Parliament in London (KS2 School Council);
• Raise money for a chosen charity through entrepreneurial endeavour (every year group);
• Feel challenged at an adventurous, outdoor residential at Osmington Bay in Y6.

Our School Values

• Kindness
• Respect
• Community
• Aspiration
• Resilience

Our School Rules

• Be Ready
• Be Respectful
• Be Responsible