Vision and Values
We are committed to preparing children to be healthy, resilient learners and citizens who are able to communicate sensitively and effectively in a range of contexts, respect others and to work hard to achieve their highest standards both individually and collectively. We want our children to be able to embrace challenges and opportunities and to develop a lifelong love of learning. “The focus upon development of effective learning behaviours and positive, solution-focused response to challenge is explicitly celebrated in school assemblies and directly integrated into all lessons as children are encouraged to recognise that their mistakes, personal struggles and capacity to take risks are fundamental to success.” (Inclusion Quality Mark Award)
Our vision is underpinned by the values of collaboration, effort, excellence and respect. These values lie at the heart of our work and are embedded in our curriculum and approaches. The values are promoted through our Value Stories and characters (Cornelius Collaboration, Ethel Effort, Eberhardt Excellence and Radmilla Respect) and examples are celebrated in children’s work and in our celebration assemblies. Iris the butterfly supports our value characters and represents all things ‘wellbeing’. Iris can be seen on the school website, teaching our children ‘rainbow breathing’.
We aim to achieve our vision through:
- Highly supportive and inclusive approaches, in a nurturing environment and a commitment to personalised learning
- Creating collaborative opportunities and encouraging children to recognise each other’s strengths and needs, as well as contributing to our supportive ethos
- A strong sense of collective identity and pride in being a Banks Lane Infant
- Holding high expectations for all children, which through strong teacher pupil relationships result in children holding high expectations for themselves and pursuit of personal excellence
- Growth mindset approaches, whereby children embrace the ‘struggle’ of learning, are confident to take risks and recognise the value of hard work
- Teaching metacognition and self-regulated learning, encouraging children to develop strategies to support their own learning and increase working memory
- Firmly embedded wellbeing approaches, including mindfulness, yoga, mindful or ‘rainbow’ breathing and use of our ‘calm garden’
- Exciting curriculum opportunities based on broad themes, philosophical questions, high quality texts and enriching experiences.
- Active learning approaches to enhance engagement and optimise learning and memory, such as drama to support work in writing, maths concepts taught through PE, Forest Schools and practical hands on opportunities
- Supporting children in the development of healthy relationships, including conflict resolution through Restorative Approaches
- Wider curriculum opportunities which broaden children’s experiences, promote our aims and develop tolerance and understanding of others such as visiting artists, multicultural opportunities and a range of clubs