Freshfield Primary School

Committed to Excellence; We inspire, grow and thrive together

Our mission is to achieve personal and academic excellence; everyone, every day.

Ensuring the Child is at the Centre of all we do.

We Inspire together.

We Grow together.

We Thrive together.

In doing so we model in ourselves and encourage our children to become:

• confident people who have a strong sense of right and wrong, are adaptable and resilient, knows him/herself, is discerning in  judgement, thinks independently and critically, and communicates effectively;
• self-directed learners who take responsibility for their own learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of learning;
• active contributors who are able to work effectively in teams, exercise initiative, take calculated risks, are innovative and strive for excellence; and,
• concerned citizens who have a strong civic consciousness, are informed and take an active role in bettering the lives of others around them.

Values:

Our six core values drive and shape every aspect of school life. We believe excellence is a habit and not an act and through our acronym ‘REPEAT’ we consider the repetition of these values as our ‘curriculum’ for personal excellence.

The core values are:

Respect

Empathy

Perseverance

Enjoyment

Achievement

Togetherness

As a School of Sanctuary we value our children’s rights, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This ethos is woven through our curriculum, and we seek opportunities across different subjects to explore what it means to be caring, thoughtful and respectful citizens. Our goal is that a child with Freshfield roots, goes out into the world both with a sense of their rights and their responsibilities towards their community and the planet. We know it is important that our children understand the challenges that shape the modern world and the power they have to make positive change, be it environmental, political or social.

Our children experience a democratic process through the election of the School Council.  Each class democratically votes for two members to represent their year group on the School Council. These council meetings are facilitated by the Head teacher. The Councillors are responsible for sharing pupils’ views and driving initiatives, which are linked to improving the school and its community.

Our Year 5 and 6 children nominate themselves for positions of responsibility such as Reading Ambassadors, Sports Captains, ‘Team Captains and Vice Team Captains’. These are then voted for by children and staff.

Our planned curriculum covers various aspects of democracy and how events have shaped society today such as Ancient Greece.

The Rule Of Law

The school has a clearly defined Behaviour Policy. We follow the behaviour expectations of Ready, Respect and Safe. This sets clear boundaries and expectations and engages parents when necessary to further reinforce the school’s rules. Behaviour is monitored closely. As a result, incidents of poor behaviour and racial incidents are incredibly rare and dealt with and reflected upon robustly, in partnership with parents and carers. Our curriculum includes specific teaching points about British laws, including those related to behaviours both online and offline, and those related to coercion and control. In teaching children about these laws, we ensure that they have a secure understanding of the protections British law affords them, and the responsibilities they have within it.

Individual Liberty

Alongside rules and laws, we promote freedom of choice and the right to respectfully express views and beliefs. Through the provision of a safe, supportive environment, we provide boundaries for our pupils to exercise choice safely; for example, choices about how they can improve or deepen their learning at school or at home and actively making decisions about their writing, musical compositions and artistic designs. Our curriculum is planned to expose children to look at periods of history where people have fought for individual liberty e.g. the abolition of slavery. Through our wider curriculum, children can make choices about the different clubs and activities they attend.

Mutual Respect

Our school ethos is underpinned by our respect for one another. Every member of our school community – our children, our families and our staff – are highly valued and respected. We celebrate our differences and ensure that everyone is treated equally.

The curriculum also embodies values of mutual respect, particularly in PSHE where we teach units such as Relationships and Celebrating Differences and in RE where we learn about a range of different religions and other belief systems.

Through our planned programme of collective worship, children are encouraged to show respect for others e.g. Diversity Week’.  Planned visits and visitors expose children to people of different religions e.g. Iman visit.  Texts around school expose children to different figures or beliefs e.g. reading spine and school library includes texts about how families are all different.

Our partnership working across Formby actively promotes attitudes of equality and fairness through competitive sports and tournaments.

Tolerance Of Those With Differing Faiths And Beliefs

Our Religious Education curriculum follows Sefton SACRE Agreed Syllabus, which provides a broad, varied education on a range of faiths, religions, belief systems and cultures. This is supported by a varied collective worship plan for our daily assemblies. Within these, our pupils are introduced to faiths such as Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism and Islam. In addition to this, belief systems such as Humanism are explored, as well as what it means to be atheist or agnostic.

Our Geography curriculum has been designed so that our children learn their place in their locality and within the wider world. Throughout all phases, children are taught about cultures and communities in different countries and continents and to understand both similarities and differences in ways of life around the world.

In our Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) curriculum, our children learn Spanish. An important component of our rich MFL curriculum is the development of an understanding and appreciation of Hispanic culture.

Coming together as a Community – Values through Assemblies and Collective Worship

Weekly assemblies are used to both explore and support the school’s values. By teaching the children how to manage and understand emotions they will be motivated and equipped to:

• Understand and value the differences and commonalities between people, respecting the rights of others to have beliefs and values different to their own
• To respect and value our world, and the things, both material and alive that exist within it
• Recognise and stand up for their rights and the rights of others
• Deal with and resolve conflict respectfully and fairly
• Be effective and successful learners
• Make and sustain friendships
• Solve problems with others by themselves
• Manage strong feelings such as frustration, anger or anxiety
• Recover from setbacks and persist in the face of difficulties
• Work and play cooperatively
• Compete fairly and win or lose with dignity and respect for all competitors