In this rapidly changing world, the role a school plays in preparing children for facing unique and complex situations, responsibilities and challenges in the future is important. It is the responsibility of Cumnor Primary School to provide rich opportunities for our children to thrive under a common set of values that inform and instil behaviours that will stay with them long after they leave us. This document outlines these values, which we believe will provide the foundation stones for our children’s future.
Passion for learning
We ensure that a love and enthusiasm for continued learning is nurtured and fostered so that learning remains exciting, stimulating and enjoyable. The key to this is to instil confidence in our own abilities, skills and attitudes so that we approach and adapt to new situations and problems positively. We encourage pupils to take an active part in their education by providing them with choices wherever possible, listening and responding positively to all they have to say and making lessons memorable through innovative planning, tailored to the individual, supplemented with external visitors and experiences.
Striving for excellence
We believe in developing a child’s intrinsic motivation to do their best, celebrate success and be resilient and overcome adversity. We develop independent thinking whilst working well with others, a sense of curiosity, an ability to approach problems from alternative angles and flexibility to achieve goals. To lead by example in striving for excellence in their work, our staff are energetic and positive, praise effort and celebrate success.
Creativity
The work we provide children with needs to reflect the diversity of children’s learning styles and allow them to develop their understanding through the most appropriate method. Fostering children’s creativity leads on to innovation of ideas and an ability and approach that ‘dares to be different’. We want our children to present themselves and their work confidently and effectively. We support this by adopting a creative approach to teaching, embracing technology and offering a learning environment where pupils are able to make discoveries and experiment with different ideas, both for themselves and with their friends and teachers.
Loving others as we love ourselves
We are all unique and valued for who we are and what we offer. We encourage our children to be well-mannered and polite, develop a social and community conscience, take care of themselves, keep safe, well, and happy so they are fit mentally and physically, and know how to deal with different, sometimes uncomfortable situations. We need to promote and foster empathy with and support for each other to recognise and deal with problems being faced, respect for our differences and diversity, and a sense of tolerance. Our children resolve conflicts through discussion and understanding, showing respect for the views, culture and feelings of one another. Our staff lead by example to teach these principles explicitly in class and through the ethos of the school.
Rights and Responsibilities
We have the right, and a responsibility for others, to be cared for, be educated and be safe at school. To support this we earn and prove our trust with each other by doing what’s been asked of us, doing it to the best of our ability, and being relied upon to do the right thing and be responsible for our actions. We also have a responsibility to contribute constructively to the wider community and environment. Responsibilities are actively taught explicitly and implicitly across the school and we provide our children with opportunities to take additional responsibility, build independence and become dependable and conscientious.
Wholeness:
We aim to recruit high performing staff to nurture our children’s skills and talents. We use the latest resources and innovative teaching styles to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, supported by a varied extra-curricular programme, to encourage fostering a broad range of skills, as well as the ability to apply these skills in different ways at appropriate times, so that we are flexible, and adaptable, ready to learn and develop our views and approaches intellectually, spiritually, physically and emotionally.
(Reviewed March 2020)