Vision and Values
We believe that children should develop respect for themselves, value the contributions of others and acquire the skills to succeed, in our ever changing society. We understand children’s well-being is at the centre of everything that we do and is fundamental to achieving success.
Woodlands provides an environment in which everyone (within the school and wider community) has equal opportunity and are valued as individuals. We have the highest expectations and recognise and celebrate the pupils’ similarities and their diversity as individuals and as groups. We recognise they have an intrinsic right to be nurtured in such a way so they are able to reach their full potential and achieve the highest of standards.
We provide a secure and stimulating environment, that enables us to tailor learning, to provide children with opportunities to develop skills, critical thinking and explore concepts. This allows children to build their knowledge and understanding through learning that captures their interests and stimulates their imagination. Children that attend Woodlands extend their experience, knowledge, imagination and understanding so that they are able to realise their potential for learning and capacity for enjoyment, and achieve their full potential; gaining the best possible start to their educational life, leading to lifelong learning.
Woodlands Values
We know it is important that we have the highest academic aspirations for our children and that they learn, make excellent progress and achieve well. We also understand that children need much more than this to become responsible, kind, tolerant citizens, confident decision makers and creative thinkers.
At Woodlands we know our children learn best through practical hands on learning opportunities; which enable them to experience learning in a meaningful way, a way that reflects their interests and needs. We want our learners to be sensitive to the needs of others, to have a sense of fairness and justice and an ability to value the contribution of each individual. We endeavour to encourage in every child, attitudes of acceptance, co-operation, perseverance, independence, respect and responsibility. Each child that attends Woodlands is valued as an individual and we aim to encourage and foster their development intellectually, physically, spiritually, socially and emotionally within a caring atmosphere. We aim to develop lively and inquiring minds with the ability to question, to think and to apply themselves to tasks. We believe that this makes the school a caring community, with a high standard of behaviour in every area of school life and supports the development of a thoughtful, considerate attitude to others and a respect and tolerance of cultural diversity.
Our Culture and Ethos
Woodlands community:
- Believes passionately in Restorative Behaviour Management.
- Understands that wellbeing is central to all that we do and is fundamental to success.
- Will not accept that disadvantage and adverse experiences justify poor attainment and as such, advocate Attachment and Trauma Informed Practice as part of the ARC
- Celebrates diversity and similarities and ensures equity and equality for all.
- Recognises everyone has rights and responsibilities.
Our children understand our Vision, Values and Wellbeing are promoted and developed through The Secrets of Success.
The Secrets of Success are an idea developed by Chris Quigley. Woodlands Primary and Nursery School has embraced and adapted these ideas to promote personal development and positive attitudes to learning. We are committed to developing the ability of children to learn effectively, so they are equipped to fully embrace and succeed in our ever changing society.
We are working hard to ensure our children have excellent attitudes and behavior towards their own learning. We want them to be highly motivated and engaged, to have high expectations of themselves and be ambitious wanting, to achieve success.
We want to remove any barriers to their learning and develop their brain power. Learning brains make smarter decisions and happier societies!
There are 8 Secrets to Success…… Success isn’t just about money!
What is success?
Success is about happiness, choices and feeling good about yourself. Successful people feel good about:
- How hard they have tried
- Who they are
- What they spend their time doing
- The choices they have made in their lives.
Here are some things our children know…
- You are not born successful.
- Everyone has setbacks and failures
- The first step to success is choosing…. asking do you want to be successful?
1 Try New Things
If you never try- you might never find things you are successful at. If you love what you are doing you get energy and are motivated. We all need to ensure children try new things, take risks, give things a go!
2 Work Hard
We need to teach our children that whatever they choose to do in life – they do it to the very best of their ability. Success is not easy- there is no overnight success just hours and hours of work.
The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. Work is GOOD. HARD work is even better!!
Successful people don’t make fun of work because they know it leads to success.
They have a good attitude to work. In fact successful people have fun working.
3 Concentrate
Children need to tune out distractions -day dreaming, peer pressure etc. They need to learn to focus their attention on all the right things. Zero tolerance to temptations. They need to be clear about what they are doing and why. Once you are really clear about what you are doing, it is much easier to concentrate. If you really concentrate you can become an expert. Concentration that leads to success isn’t just about getting on with something- it is about doing the right things well!
4 Push Yourself
Life isn’t easy. There will always be self doubts and barriers- we need to teach our children to push past them and never give up. Parents and teachers need to push the children- nudging them every step of the way. Children also need to take responsibility for their own choices and actions and have the determination to ‘push past’ barriers and set backs.
5 Imagine
We all need new ideas to help us to move on and progress. Inventions have revolutionised the world!
Children need to try out, investigate and explore. Improve and get better. They need to have confidence to voice their ideas. Children need to know that they can get better and can imagine how they will feel, what things will be like when they taste success.
If you visualise something so strongly – your brain will work hard to make it happen. Getting the Vision right can be very powerful. However, some children are put off because the distance to cover can look too great- and so just give up. What we need to do is to help them imagine small steps and aspire to get a bit better each week.
6 Improve
Opportunities to try things out and get better. This needs to be built in consistently over time. ‘Use the new knowledge or lose it.’ We are ensuring our children get lots of opportunities to reinforce their knowledge-‘recall for retention.’ Children need to be given lots of opportunities to improve their skills across the curriculum. Learning is not just about being taught something it’s about using it again and again, getting better at it each time.
7 Understand Others
To be successful you need to communicate and cooperate with others. Successful people don’t just think about themselves. They are good at listening to others, sharing ideas and making compromises. They can reflect on their work and actions. We need to teach our children about group dynamics, how to communicate and work with others productively.
8 Don’t Give up
Even successful people suffer rejection and criticism. Children need to bounce back- they need to have self worth and self belief. We are teaching our children that ‘the barrier’ is not going to stop them- they just need to think of ways to get around it. We need to teach children resilience- it is a tough world but they need to be tested-to see where they went wrong, how to improve and bounce back!
