Our Ethos & Values
Our commitment to providing a world-class education for all students so that they make outstanding progress and get the life opportunities they deserve is realised in the school’s vision of ‘Excellence in all that we do.’
Every Child, No Excuses.
Guiding Principles and Core Values
Our ethos is summarised by our guiding principles and core values, which inform and guide our work each and every day.
At Heworth Grange we strive to:
- Foster compassion and respect for all cultures represented in the school and beyond.
- Foster proactive partnerships with parents, carers and the wider community.
- Ensure that students are aware of their rights and responsibilities and have respect for the rights of others.
- Provide a challenging, engaging and well-balanced curriculum that caters for the range of abilities and needs of our students, regardless of starting points.
- Provide a diverse range of co-curriculum opportunities for all of our students to maximise talents and develop creative and social skills.
- Provide a safe, happy and caring working environment in which each student is valued. A real family away from home.
- Have consistently high expectations relevant to the abilities of each student; to match these with high-quality curriculums, teaching and assessment strategies.
- Develop in each student a sense of moral values in order to help prepare them for future responsibilities and opportunities.
- Develop in all students an understanding of 'self' and enable them to become responsible, successful citizens with a social, cultural, economic and political awareness.
Core Values:
Our core values support us in realising our vision of providing a world-class education and opportunity for each and every student.
At Heworth Grange we are committed to our core values of:
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Every Child, No Excuses:
- At Heworth Grange we are committed to every single student reaching their true potential. We go the extra mile for all of our students and recognise that some may have different starting points and some may require additional support to overcome barriers to learning. We work collaboratively to remove any barriers and find the best solutions to help our students achieve and realise their ambitions. We take responsibility for ensuring that all of our students succeed. We own our own performance and do not rest on our laurels or seek to blame others.
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High Expectations:
- Heworth Grange has an unwavering focus on achievement. This is paramount so that all of our children and young people enjoy greater life chances. We expect the best from our students and strive to ensure the highest standards of behaviour so that everyone can learn in a secure and safe environment. We work tirelessly to embed the importance of attendance as a vital employability skill and work collaboratively with parents and carers to ensure all students attend school. We have the highest expectations of teaching and learning as we know this will support our students to achieve their very best. We fully commit to professional development, so we continuously improve and provide the best experiences for students through a curriculum that has our young people at its heart. High expectations guide every interaction in school, and we use positive language and behaviours when we communicate with each other.
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No Islands:
- We are 'stronger as one' and take collective responsibility for each other. We know there is strength in unity and at Heworth Grange we do not want anyone to feel like an island. We care for each other and support one another, so we can thrive. We work collaboratively and in partnership with parents, carers, agencies, governors and other Trust schools. We value relationships above all else, because we know that trust is vital to the success of our organisation. As educators, we take collective responsibility for the success of our students. To this end, accountability is rooted in an 'if one fails, we all fail' philosophy.
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Engaging Learning
- We know that great teaching and learning everyday will make a difference for our students and will support them to achieve their very best. We want to ensure all students are fully engaged and inspired by the learning experiences at Heworth Grange and, as educators, we fully commit to professional development to ensure we are continuously developing and providing the best experiences for our students.
As part of Consilium Academies, we're committed to the following Equality Objectives:
- Embed a strong data management system across the Trust, supporting each academy to monitor and analyse pupil achievement and progress by ethnicity, gender, and disability, and act on any trends or patterns in this data that identify the need for additional support for pupils with the aim of narrowing the gap for equality groups.
- Implement a Trust-wide HR information system, ensuring that this incorporates the ability to provide robust reporting on and monitoring of equalities data.
- Through the use of peer networks across the Trust, ensure that the PSHE curriculum across the Trust is broad and balanced, and provides students with a high-quality education surrounding equality and diversity.
- Plan systematically to improve our understanding and promotion of diversity, establishing an equality and diversity focus group to drive this aspect of our work and ensure that our equality and diversity practices are sector-leading.
Fundamental British Values:
Heworth Grange serves a wide and diverse community. Our students, their families, our staff and other partners represent a diverse range of home backgrounds and cultures. We aim to deliver a curriculum that is reflective of modern Britain and incorporates the interests of students to support them in becoming good local, national, and global citizens of the future.
The Department for Education states there is a need ‘to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.’
Our school reflects British values in all we do. We support and educate our students during their time with us in order to ensure they grow into caring, responsible, and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and the wider world. We encourage them to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and others in our school, our local community, and beyond.
At Heworth, we actively promote British values in the following ways:
Democracy
Students are encouraged to debate topics of interest, express their views and make a meaningful contribution to the running of the school. They are able to do this in a number of ways e.g. through student voice activities; school council; questionnaires and surveys; assemblies.
Rule of Law
We have a clear positive ‘Ready to Learn’ policy that helps students to make positive choices about their behaviour. Through our Pastoral Curriculum, students are helped to distinguish right from wrong. There is an expectation that this is reflected in the classroom, during assemblies, and in the playground. This is supported by a Restorative Justice approach. Students are encouraged to respect the law, and we actively encourage visits from services such as the Police, Fire, and Ambulance services to help reinforce the message.
Individual Liberty
At the school, students are encouraged and given the freedom to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment, e.g. challenging themselves in their learning. They are supported to develop self-knowledge, self-confidence, and a growth mindset in all areas of school life. Students are taught to understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms in a safe way, e.g. Form Time Curriculum; PSHE lessons. They have key responsibilities in school such as Peer Mentoring and Prefects.
Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Those with Different Faiths and Beliefs
Students understand that respect is expected to be shown to everyone, both adults and children. We help them to develop an understanding of, and respect for, their own and other cultures. Staff and students are encouraged to challenge prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour.
Links with local faith communities and visits to places of worship are promoted and people from different faiths are invited to school to share their experiences in assemblies and in class. Through the PSHE and RE curriculum, students are encouraged to discuss and respect differences and similarities between people. We offer a culturally rich and diverse curriculum in which all major religions are studied.
