St John’s Angell Town CE Primary School in Lambeth achieves Flagship School status.
Positive Relationships
The website describes that “it is not only what we teach but how we teach…and through our attitudes, our behaviours and our caring for each other…demonstrated through our relationship with each other…that enable the children’s ability to grow into happy, strong and lively members of the community.” The value of positive relationships was demonstrated during the review with comments from Governors, external professionals and parents regarding the extra support the staff team make with families. One of the comments was in relation to how the team has supported parents and families during the pandemic
“I am proud of the way the team reacted to the pandemic”.
Improved Teacher Relationships with Parents
The review certainly reflected that relationships are central to the school and that all members of the school community contribute in their own way to the development of the children. One of the positive outcomes of the review has been the improved teacher relationships with parents as they have more regular contact online. It will be interesting for the Leadership Team to consider how they can further develop the online learning and relationships as children return to full time school.
Improving Outcomes for Children
Throughout the review the importance of staff training was identified as a high priority. Leaders have recognised the importance of a highly skilled staff being in place in order to enable all children to make good progress academically as well as to develop their spiritual, moral wellbeing. The opportunity to access the Trauma Informed Training “had been mind-blowing” but has helped to support staff understanding of attachment and trauma in children. Support staff valued the opportunity to continue their “regular meetings” as well as attend training on interventions such as Word Aware. The value of external agencies and partnerships is clearly highly valued by the team at St John’s Angell Town. Representatives from the external agencies were involved in the review and all commented on the commitment of the school team to accessing support and training to improve outcomes for the children.
Good Systems and Structures
Leaders have established good systems and structures to enable pupils to make excellent progress. Leaders have developed monitoring systems that ensure teaching and learning is consistently reviewed and developed. Pupil progress is reviewed regularly which enables interventions to be identified and put in place if required. The key priority is High Quality First Teaching and the regular pupil conferencing supports that teacher knowledge of pupil gaps and how they need to be addressed. The introduction of Zones of Regulation has also enabled staff to develop a greater understanding of pupil needs and improve relationships within the classroom. A next step will be to develop parent understanding of Zones of Regulation.
Passionate about Inclusive Practice
The team at St John’s Angell Town is passionate about inclusive practice and has focused on improving the learning opportunities for all children. The team has provided online as well as hard copy learning for the children during lockdown. The team has also been focused on the families within their community and created opportunities to provide them with support both with regards to learning and the wider provision of resources and food if necessary. The school continues to promote the inclusive values of an IQM Centre of Excellence.
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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