Stowlawn Primary School has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Centre of Excellence status.
Happy and Attentive Staff
Stowlawn Primary School is a purpose-built primary school on the same site as another school in the heart of Bilston in the Black Country. It is surrounded by housing and its local community. On arrival, our Assessor was immediately welcomed into the school having cleared all safeguarding measures which are effectively in place. The staff were happy and attentive in working with their parents while dealing with their requests – even though they were in full Christmas mode – being the last week of a long Autumn term. These positive supportive working relationships that the staff have with parents are fully reflected in the school parental surveys last academic year and the more recent Ofsted Inspection (March 2023), where Stowlawn Primary School continues to be judged as a ‘Good’ school. The school has 55% Free School Meals and approximately 30% of students have English as an Additional Language (EAL). The children arrive in school looking smart in their school uniform and ready to start the day’s learning with smiles and laughter seen and heard down the corridors.
As the day continues, it is quickly evident that staff and their children are ‘Ready, Respectful and Safe’ which are Stowlawn Primary School’s expectations and that everyone works together to achieve these expectations throughout the busy day.
The leaders were clear that Paul Dix’s training for these expectations was fundamental in empowering each child to become intrinsically motivated to want to be a part of their school. Furthermore, the children modelled by the staff, also embrace ‘Stowlawn’s Six’ attributes which encourage them to be kind, ambitious, honest, independent, resilient and creative in all aspects of their school life from Nursery to the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2). These expectations and attributes underpin and promote knowledge, learning of new skills and personal development for each child across this primary school, which is increasing in numbers. It will have reached its full capacity over the next year with the likelihood of it being over-subscribed too.
Positive Interactions
From doors being opened without hesitation for each other, positive interactions between all staff and children in and out of the classroom, helping to tidy up and help others to ensure that each staff request is completed to high standards. Children are encouraged to be as independent as possible (per stage) but also request help when they need it as seen in each of the lesson drop-ins that were part of the guided tour with the IQM Co-ordinator at Stowlawn Primary School.
Each year group, of this two-form entry, has a room to support learning, develop independent emotional regulation and year group resources. Each week two children per class are identified if they have exceeded the school’s attribute values and they are celebrated for their achievements. The Leaders and staff are fully committed to enabling each child to develop socially, emotionally, physically and academically in their own way and speed. This inclusiveness is fully embedded into the heart of the school which has a ‘positive family togetherness’ feel. The children (when needed) can access the corridor self-regulation stations to self-soothe or have time to then re-engage in their learning activities. Other children have additional staff support and follow their independent learning programme of activities that dovetail into the class planning at various points in the day and week/term, etc. Staff quickly assess students’ day-to-day needs and overtime with clear deployment of staff to achieve this.
The school is part of Wolverhampton Local Authority and has taken in many refugees. Stowlawn Primary School has supported the reintegration of children from different backgrounds and cultures. It has recently celebrated its diverse cultural backgrounds with ‘Culture Week’ in the summer term. Children and their families got involved in sharing their home country’s dress, food, music and stories. Some children taught their class their mother tongue alphabet and national dance.
The local football team supports The Wolves Foundation, who are committed to projects that help better serve their communities across the Black Country. They motivate and educate Stowlawn children through their equality, diversity and inclusion programme in assemblies and weekly sessions by ‘removing any barriers to help everyone engage regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or disability’. Children have participated in sports and non-sport-related activities during the year that they would not have had the opportunity to do without the Wolves Foundation. Stowlawn Primary School is always thinking outside the box to give their children the best access to education and life-long experiences.
Work-Life Balance
The leaders fully support a range of activities and mechanisms for staff to develop and maintain their mental health and wellbeing across the academic year. Ranging from celebrating birthdays, agreeing on a time to visit their children in school/university, those life moments of sports day, nativity plays, graduation, etc. They have also changed the marking policy to balance Stowlawn children’s progress and lesson planning as smart note plans to support a better work-life balance. This has been greatly appreciated by classroom staff and has enabled some staff to take on more responsibility in the year groups, which was not achieved before, for example, being awarded Music Mark and now working towards Arts Mark.
The school’s therapy dog, Jarvis, helps everyone to feel good about themselves when he is in school each week. Senior leaders offer informal supervision to staff and each other but staff can be signposted to other targeted support if/when needed.
The leaders are fully committed to inclusion and making Stowlawn Primary School the best that it can be. They empower each other to ensure that each child has the best holistic educational offer and skill up each child to have a set of learning tools so that they can access to the best of their abilities the extensive curriculum and enrichment offers.
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.