Farnworth CE Primary School, Widnes in Cheshire, has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status for the second time.
Everyone Feels Valued
What an absolute pleasure it was to spend a day as part of this awe-inspiring school community. From the moment I stepped into the building I received the warmest of welcomes and this was replicated by every person I met throughout the day. Their values of friendship and respect were extended to me whole heartedly! Even from my one-day visit it was obvious that, since his appointment, the Headteacher has developed a school community where everyone feels valued. The warmth and sense of mutual respect is tangible as you walk around and interact with staff and pupils alike. The Headteacher and IQM Lead spoke passionately about the importance of an inclusive ethos – providing something for everyone through enrichment opportunities to give all pupils the chance to explore wider skills and talents that they may not have even realised they had. His commitment to ensuring that projects and activities are planned into the school day means they are accessible to all. He used the example of the gospel singing to describe how every year a ‘new voice’ is found, someone who they would never have known had that ‘hidden’ talent.
Courage and Perseverance
The school’s values and their pledge to be an inclusive school, are at the heart of their commitment to providing wider opportunities. They enable pupils to find courage to perform or show perseverance to learn a new skill. During my visit I had the pleasure of seeing performances of Samba Drumming, Gospel Singing, Y3 singing and performing to some of their favourite songs and Y2 working with an external artist. The skills, enthusiasm and passion demonstrated by the pupils performing gave me goose bumps! The Headteacher described their recent end of KS2 SATs results as ‘the best ever!’ which clearly demonstrates that accessing a wider, richer curriculum including the arts has many wider benefits. The Headteacher’s commitment to a holistic approach to the curriculum and pupils’ experiences is clearly having an impact.
Resident Artist
During a learning walk with members of the School Council, they showcased some of the fantastic displays around the school. They were particularly passionate about the work they do with school’s resident artist, who works throughout the school providing high quality teaching and learning resulting in high quality outcomes. I was lucky enough to catch part of one of these lessons where, over the course of a day, Year Two children had been able to work through all the stages in the creative design process from introduction to the artist, research, planning and experimenting in their sketch books, to creating their own piece of work. They were then able to take it further by critically evaluating, refining, and improving their piece. The children were proud to show off their skills and final pieces and talked articulately and enthusiastically about the process. The artist is just one of a range of highly skilled professionals who work with pupils and enrich the curriculum at Farnworth – musicians, sports coaches, singing coaches are all seen as an invaluable part of this team.
The School Council
The members of the School Council spoke passionately about their work in school and how it links clearly to their Christian values and ethos. Recently, they have raised over £1500 for people effected by the crisis in Ukraine. They were articulate and passionate about their role, and they clearly have an impact in improving the school and helping others. They showed me the ‘Quiet Garden,’ a peaceful haven at the heart of the school where children, or adults, can have a safe space to unwind and find peace – the School Council raised funds to support this project. They described how Council members who had left and moved on to high school were invited back to celebrate the opening of the garden. Their current project is to raise enough money to buy a log cabin to further enhance their outdoor learning and Forest School area. They have already raised a significant amount and are determined that they will raise all the money needed – I have no doubt that they will succeed!
Indoor and Outdoor Learning
The quality of the school environment is second to none. Displays around the main corridor and in classrooms are incredible. They highlight the excellent work across a range of topics as well as emphasising specific areas of personal development such as wellbeing. The outdoor space is vast and includes a woodland area towards the back of the field which provides the ideal setting for their Forest School provision. They have recently developed their EYFS outdoor area to provide a fantastic, enabling environment where the children can access a range of resources and activities to inspire their imaginations. This amazing space allows the children to move, collaborate, explore and risk-take – laying the foundations for embedding the Farnworth CE values.
Best of Buddies
One of the highlights of the day for me was being able to see the Y6 and Reception Buddy session. Y6 pupils are ‘buddied’ up with a Reception pupil at the start of the academic year and they collaborate regularly in activities such as reading, exploring, constructing, and playing. I observed the buddies, collaborating to make friendship bracelets and having lots of fun together during the session. There was a smile on every face, and it was clear that they have built strong relationships built on mutual respect. Some expressed how sad they were that the Year Six pupils were transitioning to secondary school and how much they would miss their buddy who had helped and supported them. Current Y5 pupils were able to meet their new buddies during Reception intake events in preparation for their sessions in September. The scheme is so beneficial to both the older and younger pupils enabling them to demonstrate those values of friendship and respect. Also, the older pupils really do encourage their younger counterparts to be courageous and to show perseverance if they are finding something a challenge.
Forest School
I discussed the impact of Forest Schools with a group of Y2 children. The children were buzzing with excitement to talk about the activities that they do, such as building shelters, woodcraft and fire making. They were also able to articulate how the Forest School sessions link with the school values, they were able to give examples such as how they work together with friends, how they sometimes must persevere with a difficult task and have courage to use tools that might be new to them or seen as dangerous. They are learning skills that will support them in various aspects of life and developing the tools to become independent learners. They described to me how the forest comes alive at Christmas and the children have a magical experience there drinking hot chocolate. For some children, working in the Forest School enables them to shine and demonstrate skills that they may not have had opportunity to before. The children are developing social and communication skills, risk awareness, confidence, resilience, creativity, environmental awareness and doing it all through experiences that they would not be able to do inside a classroom. Children in KS1 have a block of sessions each year and children in other classes can take part in experience days throughout the school year, meaning that every child at Farnworth is able to take part in Forest School sessions.
Parents in Partnership
Every person in this school community is valued. During discussion with the Parent Governor, she explained that the Headteacher has held parent workshops where they can express what they feel is working well, as well as make suggestions for change. She said they know the Headteacher truly does take these suggestions on board and has made some changes on the back of the meetings. She also informed me that parents appreciate the dedicated email address that they can use for general enquiries, suggestions and providing feedback. Each member of staff that I spoke to described how they feel valued and respected, that they are given opportunities to lead and collaborate with peers on various projects. Members of the church have close links with the school, parents give up time for sports coaching and PTFA events. There is a Link Governor for every subject, who play a key role in monitoring, supporting policy writing and attending meetings.
Wellbeing and Resilience
The school have done a lot of groundwork around Mental Health and Wellbeing and are continuing to keep this in the spotlight. The PSHE Coordinator discussed how the curriculum supports regular work around mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness. The children have regular opportunities for ‘Calm Me’ time where they are taught self-regulation skills such as medication and breathing that they can draw upon if they need to both in and out of school. Social skills are developed with ‘Connect Us’ games. A Mental Health Week, with a focus on inclusion, was held in school involving several outside agencies. She also told me that staff wellbeing is very much a focus for the SLT. Whole staff training around mental health and wellbeing has been held, a number of staff who I spoke to expressed that they felt well supported by the Headteacher.
Enthusiastically Articulate
Throughout the day I observed impeccable behaviour from the pupils. They engaged with me enthusiastically, articulately and with great passion for their school and what it offers them. It was a genuine pleasure to meet with them and witness their performances and contributions to school life. At the end of the day, I was able to participate in collective worship led by the children, the school strive to empower and inspire every child to lead acts of worship, as well as participate in them. It was the perfect end to the day; I was truly impressed with the confidence and skills the children demonstrated while leading the session and I was thankful to have been welcomed to join them for it.
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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