NSN Blog: free school voice

School mission and pedagogy

The school’s Executive Lead, Trystan Williams, spoke to us about the school’s personalised curriculum, tailored approach and use of student and parent/carer feedback to adapt practices. When the school opened in 2016, a Five Year Plan was developed to meet the mission statement of the school: ‘Where Everything’s Possible’. The purpose of this plan has been to provide an ambitious and achievable framework which ensures that all pupils achieved more than they ever thought possible.

School is more than just a place to learn. It’s a community of peers and potential role models, a microcosmic society within which children spend an extraordinary amount of their childhood. What happens here affects not just their academic performance, but also the development of their social skills and self-esteem. For good or bad, the environment the school provides can also have a significant impact on their stress levels, especially for those whose stress response is already on high alert.

Believe it or not, Harmonize Academy, Bedford Free School and Callywith College were inspected on the same day in January 2020, despite their different locations across the country. Whilst their experiences weren’t identical, all agreed that the process had been positive and fair. When they spoke with us a several key themes from the inspection process emerged:

You can’t prepare for Ofsted in a day…

This week, Ofsted released SEND: old issues, new issues, next steps – an analysis which mapped the experiences of children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) over the course of the pandemic. The findings outlined what the sector was already aware of: en masse children have not only missed vital education during COVID-19, but have failed to receive language and physical support which is critical to their needs.

As they do every year, this September schools will welcome new and existing pupils back into the classroom after the Summer holidays.

Many schools will also be welcoming new teachers with an induction programme that has been designed to give them the best possible start to their teaching careers.

From September 2021 every early career teacher undergoing statutory induction will be entitled to a two-year programme of high-quality professional development support, based on the very best evidence as set out in the Early Career Framework (ECF).

Our Trailblazers are completing their GCSEs. We are a school that likes to look forward, and we do so with optimism and excitement. The future is bright. When you like to do things for the first time it becomes infectious and it's the enthusiasm that is catching. When we first opened, our first GCSE results were out there on the horizon, almost as far as the eye could see. They have hurtled into view. No one can quite tell me where the last five years have gone.

During the first lockdown the vast majority of four year olds were kept at home and “managed” while parents and carers worked, leading to a substantial disparity in how children spent their time. While some children read books with parents and experienced enrichment activities outdoors, the development gap between disadvantaged children and their peers widened. A wide range of factors caused the gap to grow: access to basic resources and technology, parents’ attitudes and knowledge of early development, flexibility of parent employers and sibling presence.

This week the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) released its report Speak for Change, highlighting nearly two thirds of primary and nearly half of secondary teachers say school closures have had a negative effect on the language development of pupils eligible for free school meals. Findings like these have huge implications for social mobility.