Park End Primary School in Middlesbrough has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.
Passionate And Proud
Park End Primary School is an inclusive school with the children at the centre of all they do. The school has an aim:
‘to foster a love of lifelong learning, from Acorns to Oaks. We strive to create a stimulating and happy learning environment, where confident pupils will have the skills and capacity to think and learn for themselves. Achievement will be at the heart of everything we do.’
This aim has been achieved and surpassed. Children enjoy being part of this school and the whole school community are passionate and proud of their school and the work they do. This is a school with love at the very core of it.
An Ambitious Culture
Leaders have worked hard to create an ambitious culture within the school. All staff have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. Senior Leaders are focused on raising pupils’ aspirations and ensuring their future employability. Displays reflect positive attitudes, are of high standard, purposeful and demonstrate extended work. Staff have been successful in ensuring that pupils have a strong work ethic and, as a result, they show consistently positive attitudes to learning. Lessons are productive and purposeful. Pupils’ shared the view that they love coming to their school because they want to learn, and their teachers ensure they do and make it fun.
Strong Leadership
The strong leadership of the Headteacher, her accessibility and her commitment to inclusion and improving the opportunities for all children, is a strength of the school. A further strength is the leadership of the IQM Lead in ensuring that the IQM process is articulated and lived and breathed by everyone. The school has many innovative and embedded strategies to involve and excite all who attend. Subject leadership is strong, and all staff have a common aim based on the School Development Plan. Leaders talked about how they ‘talent spot’ and ‘grow their staff and offer career progression routes’ This means that staff are happy at this school and staff retention is strong.
An Engaging Curriculum
The curriculum, as stated earlier, is broad and balanced. It has been thoughtfully designed to engage and interest all pupils and ensure that students skills and knowledge are developed in a progressive way. Opportunities are provided to study a wide range of subjects. Learning is enriched with a range of visitors, educational trips, and after-school clubs. Reading and literacy opportunities are embedded throughout subject areas, as are the development of subject-specific skills, knowledge, and understanding. Pupils talked, during the review day, about their many opportunities to learn. One child talked about their love of reading ‘We develop our skills of reading, in English lessons, and I love to read.’ Another pupil talked about their interest in the Geography curriculum, stating: ‘It is really interesting – we learn about different countries and their cultures.’ Pupils are encouraged to make meaningful links between subjects to deepen their understanding and their context and knowledge of the world around them.
Students Are Challenged
Students of every level are challenged and given the support and opportunities to achieve highly and make progress. This can be through extra-curricular activities as well as personalised programmes. As a result of the curriculum work completed so far, this is a school community of respectful, tolerant pupils who understand that prejudice and discrimination is wrong. The school prepare pupils for life outside of Park End, in modern-day, multicultural Britain. There is a clear focus on preparing pupils for their next stage of education and to encourage them to be aspirational, lifelong learners. Pupils’ behaviour is of a high standard. Each class is calm and purposeful and the pupils were engaged in learning activities. Children present as polite, happy, and hardworking.
Excellent Relationships
There are no fixed-term suspensions as there is no need for them. Staff work hard to understand the behaviours of their children and ensure that they have strategies in place to allow children to regulate. The close working relationships with families also support this. The children are respected, and the staff have built excellent relationships with pupils and parents. Staff are extremely focused on pupils’ wellbeing and make all decisions which have their best interests at heart. At Park End Primary, relationships matter. The relationships which exist between staff and pupils are exemplary and are a strength of the school. Relationships across the whole school community are embedded and nurtured. Leaders realise that relationships are key to successful outcomes.
The School Is Like A Family
A real strength of the school is the work with parents. Parents value the package of support, in particular the programme they can access, describing how it allows them to gain a better understanding of their children and gives clear strategies of support. Parents and carers speak highly of Park End Primary School. One parent talked with enthusiasm and passion about how ‘staff are just brilliant.’ She went on to describe how staff have supported not only her child but also her. She feels they have developed her confidence so that she is now able to fully support her child in all areas of his life. Another parent talked about how the school is ‘like a family.’ She articulated how staff across the school get to know children and use their interests to engage them and ensure they make progress. At Park End, leaders are clear about the vision and next steps for the school. They are a reflective team who ensures all staff are included and valued and buy into the school vision.
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.
Want more information on the IQM Award? Click here to request your free IQM information pack