• Sam Strickland, Principal, The Duston School (4-19 Mixed)
The Duston School is a Behaviour Hub Lead School and has shared its approach to securing exemplary behaviour with over 1,000 professionals attending bi-annual open days. The school offers leadership, advice and guidance to partnership schools and runs national training for the BH scheme and DFE.
The school has ambitious goals and very high expectations for behaviour for learning; low level disruption in lessons is rare. The positive behaviour culture across the school is underpinned by robust policy, consistency, staff training and appraisal linked to 4 key drivers.
The Duston School is now the most oversubscribed school in Northampton. Their innovative Positive Impact Centre supports the most vulnerable and challenging students from Year 5 upwards. The ‘what’s next’ approach to a range of targeted support and intervention programmes ensures that they comprehensively address a range of significant needs including; EAL, SEND, SEMH, behavioural and bereavement. This ‘icing on the cake’ approach to intervention further strengthens the behaviour culture across the school, contributes to strong student outcomes and ensures students at risk of permanent exclusion are effectively supported.