Becket Primary School has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Inclusive Ethos Oozing Out of Every Area
Our Assessor said it was delightful to visit and assess this very inclusive primary school. It is situated in the busy culturally diverse city of Derby – surrounded by housing and its local community. From the start of the visit, our Assessor was greeted with a very warm welcome from parking their car and throughout the day in this mainstream primary school.
The inclusive ethos and culture are oozing out of every area of this small school and its leaders have the capacity to ensure that it will continue to flourish in its new build, where it will have the space to fill its walls to celebrate its children’s achievements – however small. Every child matters in this family community school and the staff know that they are at the heart of this school where everyone works closely together to support and extend its high expectations; challenge (when needed). This was evident on walking around the school, meeting the parents/carers on the gate and at one of the termly parents’ consultation afternoons; during break times and lunchtimes when the children have independent and supervised play when needed; in each and every small classroom and the excitement of having school photographs taken!
‘Challenge, Engage and Motivate’
Becket Primary School’s mission is to ‘challenge, engage and motivate’ all children and develop them to be resilient and to be independent thinkers with a ‘can do’ attitude. Empowering them to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning – as well as their conduct and behaviour.’
This is truly embedded in its core values of ‘Honest, Hardworking, Kind and Respectful’. All of the external agencies that were a part of this assessment/celebration day were equally clear that they felt this too when they work at this school – ‘the school is so lovely – nothing is too much trouble for them to sort out – which makes my job so much easier’, ‘ they go the extra five miles to support their children and families into making it a fun, creative and relaxed setting for everyone to flourish’, ‘staff and students have high expectations of each other, but the staff at this school are tenacious for all the children to achieve – it will be so wonderful when it has extra space to really create an Oasis.’
Positive Relationships
Each day starts with a ‘soft start’ allowing parents/carers to drop off their child/ children. This first lesson allows children to regulate themselves with breakfast, talk to their friends and enable them to be ready for more formal learning. It helps all the staff on duty in the playgrounds to meet and greet their families – establish positive relationships, make connections and know what has happened overnight, which is vital information to making the day work for each child.
All of the parents/carers shared the following points about Becket. ‘My English is not very good – but the school has helped me to help my child to read,’ ‘This is a good school,’ ‘all of my seven children have come to this school and they all do well,’ ‘This school is safe, caring and friendly’. It was during the start to the school day that the individual approach in meeting the children’s needs was first seen in action. One child helps with the meet and greet also checking that the gates are safe and secure etc – this responsibility helps the child transition from home life into school life. Other children want to have responsibility to help with breakfast and tidy up afterwards as part of their transition into getting ready for school, work and formal education.
During the visit, our Assessor observed a range of activities that demonstrated children achieving academic and social successes through a range of well-planned lessons that were adapted to meet a full range of children’s needs. The nurture room has a very homely feel to it with lots of resources to meet everyone’s needs and stages of development. It is from this room that bespoke packages of learning are carefully designed and delivered with great attention to detail – making sure that each child is listened too, building wonderful positive connections which in turn extrinsically motivates the children to want to adapt/change and move on.
For more complex needs the school has created their own SEND base – where each child has 1-1 learning within a group setting. It is a safe space for each child to express themselves, with high levels of trust, respect and nurture. The staff are extremely knowledgeable about each child and very skilful in adapting work to enable them to access their SEND bespoke work and develop their knowledge, understanding and skillset. The staff work closely together to support each child and each other. Any SEND school would be proud to have The Den as part of their school. The new build will give this base greater space and more static equipment that the children would enjoy and develop even quicker. The LA SEND link described Becket as ‘wonderful – all staff members are advocates for the students, they go above and beyond demonstrating the best for the child – they are getting it right.’
‘I Wish All My Schools Were Like Becket’
Becket works very closely with external agencies to offer their children different experiences – such as music and dance or specific support such as Speech and Language and the School Counsellor – who said Becket Primary School is ‘very welcoming, staff have very clear communications with her and they want to manage risk so that everyone in the child’s network knows and understands that child, to make things better’. During the visit the music from the hall was enchanting to hear – over 20 children from different year groups playing stringed instruments as an orchestra – with lovely smiles and laughter. Music is embedded into the curriculum from Year 3 with Handbells, Year 4 Strings and Year 5 and 6 Brass and Woodwind. They also cover singing and song composition. The NHS school nurse loves working with Becket because ‘they are about the holistic approach putting each referral into context, they know their children and families and just want to do their best by them and for them – I wish all my schools were like Becket.’
The children are at the heart of this school. They have established routines throughout the day, they know what is expected of them and what they need to do to meet these quality expectations. From putting coats into lockers, playing outside to quickly lining up to enter their class. They are mindful of each other in such a small space – the children and staff have to work respectfully together.
Calm, Happy Working Atmosphere
There is a calm, happy working atmosphere – even when a child is having difficulties in self-regulation – staff are on hand to support, guide and soothe to prevent or de-escalate situations. During the lessons observed, the children were on task and working independently or in small groups. They want to learn and know that their teachers and classroom staff want the very best for them to succeed and have a successful secondary school experience and beyond. A parent was very clear ‘Becket is a very good school and all my children want to attend.’
The leadership of the school of the Senior Leadership Team and the Governors are fully committed to inclusion and making their multicultural school the best that it can be. They have their vision that is going to be turned into reality with the new build and with that the space to further develop and enable their children to flourish. They have a committed staff who are empowered to make positive changes and make every day a good fun learning day for each child.
Find out more about the IQM Inclusive School Award
If your school is interested in obtaining the IQM Inclusive School Award or you wish to talk to a member of the IQM team please telephone:
028 7127 7857 (9.00 am to 5.00 pm)
or email: [email protected] for further details.
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