Vision, culture & values

‘Aim high, achieve the best’

At Clyst heath we have a strong and accessible learning vision where we believe that a happy child is a successful one. We are committed to providing a positive safe and stimulating environment, together with an exciting broad and balanced curriculum.

We intend that all children should be at the centre of their learning to achieve their potential and become independent life-long learners.

Through our whole school shared vision and values, we aim to create a whole school culture which will develop future happiness and success and raise aspiration for all pupils.

Our aim is simple, in that we use three core principles of being, Ready, Willing and Able in ourselves, our school and our world, together with the following three components of being trauma informed in our everyday practice, by staying Kind, Calm and Safe.



Curriculum

Intent

Our curriculum is ambitious, reflecting on our local context and creating strong connections and links with the local community and reaching out into the wider world.

The curriculum has been designed to be accessible and challenging with every child in our school able to ‘aim high and achieve their best’, through learning how to be ready, willing and able - educationally, socially and emotionally and through our everyday practices of staying kind, calm and safe.

Our curriculum is based on the National Curriculum, progressively modelling, supporting, and developing pupils to acquire knowledge and skills as they move through the school. Teaching sequences use themes based in real life experiences to inspire and motivate, to progress and deliver excellent pupil outcomes, together with the explicit teaching of learning behaviours to prepare pupils for next steps.

Implementation

The curriculum at Clyst Heath is broad and balanced and it is supported by well-researched methods, systems and pedagogy to ensure we build upon what children know, can do and understand over time. Alongside this, pupils are encouraged to develop effective learning behaviours educationally, socially and emotionally. This is supported through an embedded behaviours system to ensure everyone is ready, willing and able in themselves, their school and their world and through our everyday practices of staying kind, calm and safe.

Children take part in daily opportunities to practice and recall, to ensure that prior knowledge is activated and kept accessible in the long-term memory to aide automaticity. Our curriculum progression model allows for higher performing pupils to be sufficiently stretched, but equally lower performing pupils to be effectively supported. The integrity of a teaching sequence is carefully maintained so that no pupil runs too far ahead or falls too far behind. Throughout our curriculum there are a range of carefully planned diverse and enriching experiences which include residential visits, local visits which draw on both internal and external specialists to provide context and develop the cultural capital for all pupils.

Impact

All pupils’ learning at Clyst Heath builds towards an end goal where they are given the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, where good outcomes for pupils are not just measured in data outcomes but also through broader development such as our values, together with being taught about the importance of keeping ourselves physically and mentally healthy, through staying kind, calm and safe at school. All pupils at Clyst Heath are made ready for the next step in their education by being educationally, socially, emotionally ready, willing, and able in themselves (sense of self), their school (sense of community), in their world (sense of place globally).