Vision and Values

Vision Statement

Our vision is to be an inspirational, forward thinking school where children are at the centre of everything we do: nurtured, welcomed and safe. We provide outstanding, well-rounded education and acknowledge, encourage and celebrate children’s talents as individuals. We foster a love of learning and enable children of all abilities to flourish and make excellent progress, and be well prepared for the next stage of their learning journey. Staff have high expectations of themselves and others, work as a supportive team and are encouraged to fulfil their career aspirations.

Strategic Priorities

We will continue to refine and develop our approach to supporting children’s wellbeing and ensure they feel safe and secure as we respond to both national and global changes in the external environment.
We recognise our very successful methods of curriculum delivery including outside learning, arts education and sport and therefore we will continue to promote, invest and develop these areas.
In order to nurture and support the individual talents of our pupils we will continue to develop and offer a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular activities.
We recognise the ever expanding role of technology both in everyday life and in the education of children, we should ensure we have systems in place to keep up to date and plan for the ‘smart’ use of technology within the school. We will also utilise technology such as learning platforms media to promote our school and as an increasingly valuable method of communicating with our parents and the wider community.
We should ensure that we have robust long term plans in place to maintain and develop our building facilities, interiors and fittings and infrastructure for technology, to ensure we create a welcoming and safe environment for all which is inspiring and conducive to learning.
Similarly, we recognise a need to develop the broader school site with a focus on improving our sustainability and addressing environmental concerns.
We recognise the important role of the local community in school life and the value of strengthening connections with partners to ensure the school is at the heart of the community.
We recognise our staff as our greatest asset therefore we need to sustain the high quality and commitment of our staff by ensuring they feel valued, with high expectations of themselves and other and they are able to fulfil their career aspirations. We also need to ensure we continue to attract the best candidates to fill any new staffing opportunities.

Our Values

Core Value	Children are:
Respect	Fair Tolerant Caring Polite We value everyone as individuals, celebrate our uniqueness and build a strong community, caring for our environment.
		Resilience	Curious Patient Independent Determined We embrace life’s challenges, solve problems and believe we can succeed.
Aspiration	Creative Communicative Self-confident Ambitious We aim high, dream big and achieve our potential in every aspect of our learning.

The Grove Infant and Nursery School - British Values Statement

Since September 2014, schools have been required to promote fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs in order to help demonstrate how they are meeting the requirements of Education Act 2002 regarding their provision of SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural development).

The government set out its definition of “British Values” as:

The rule of law
Individual liberty
Mutual respect
Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

At The Grove Infant and Nursery School, we believe that the British Values are intrinsically linked to our own values of respect, resilience and aspiration. We believe in a holistic approach to the teaching of fundemental values and understand that they are not simply taught; they have to be lived through the school’s ethos and values.

The following are a selection of activities and external accreditations that evidence our commitment to British Values and the effective promotion of SMSC.

Democracy Links to school values: Respect Aspiration	We ensure that all pupils within the school have a voice that is listened to, and demonstrate how democracy works by actively promoting democratic processes in class, with Class Behaviour Charters, votes and shared decision making. The School Forum is a group whose members are voted for by the Year 2 pupils. Democracy is promoted through participation in PSHCE activities in class. Pupils also have the opportunity to learn about different models of democracy and take part in other pupil voice questionnaires and surveys.
The rule of law Links to school values: Respect	An understanding of right and wrong is a key thread that runs through school life and links the Behaviour Policy to our school values. Children are actively taught about choice and consequences. It is supported by our PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) and the ‘Jigsaw’ materials which allow children to explore and discuss their understanding of these concepts. Pupils are encouraged to follow the school rules and respect the law and we enjoy visits from members of the local community to help reinforce this message. The school does not tolerate any form of aggression, abuse or violence, and this is equally true of pupils, staff and parents and carers. This is set out in our Behaviour Policy and Anti Bullying Statement and Staff Code of Conduct.
Individual liberty Links to school values: Respect Responsiblity Aspiration	Fundamental to our school values and culture is the importance of enabling children to make good choices independently. We provide opportunities for children to make their own choices with consideration for their own and others’ safety and well-being. Our Behaviour Policy encourages children to consider their choices and the subsequent consequences through the ‘remind, warn and sanction’ steps. PSHCE teaching through ‘Jigsaw’ also supports this. Pupils are encouraged to understand their rights and are advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our e-safety teaching and PSHCE lessons. Children are encouraged to take opportunities to follow their interests in art, music, sport etc.
Mutual respect Links to school values: Respect Resilience	Respect is one of our core values that is explicitly taught and celebrated throughout school. All members of the school community treat each other with respect, and adults model appropriate interactions with children and each other. In our PSHCE work, children are taught how to respectfully debate and disagree with others’ points of view. Through the PSHCE and RE curriculums pupils are encouraged to discuss and respect differences between people, such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and differences of family situations.
Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs and those without faith Links to school values: Respect	We have high expectations of pupil conduct and this is reflected in our Behaviour Policy. As part of our RE curriculum, we actively teach about other religions and faiths. Visitors and community members from other countries and/or other faiths are invited to share their language and culture with pupils. We use the language of the term to celebrate one of the languages of our community. We regularly celebrate festivals and celebrations and provide the children with an understanding of the main festivals and key dates of significance to British culture e.g. Remembrance Day, Harvest and major political events such as elections. We reinforce messages of tolerance and respect for others. Children have the opportunity to visits places of worship that are important to different to faiths.

Through our provision of SMSC, we also seek to:

enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence;
encourage them to be creative, unique, open-minded individuals who are independent, respectful and resilient
encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and understand how they can participate fully and contribute positively to the local and wider community;
enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England; and
develop further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures.