Following discussions with governors staff, parents and children we have agreed that this simple statement encapsulates our school ethos and commitment.  The phrase was suggested by one of our parents following a parent forum at the start of the year.  We are very grateful for our parental contributions and are excited to ensure that our school reflects these opportunities for all pupils to succeed.

“To nurture and inspire, compassionate and motivated pupils who achieve more through an exciting and rich school experience delivered by highly skilled and knowledgeable staff.”

A new curriculum for a new generation

We value learning in all subjects.  We want to support pupils to become valued members of their community reflecting enjoyment and engagement in a rich and detailed curriculum and ensuring high standards of attainment and attitude.

As a school we are determined to ensure that all pupils achieve what is expected of them.  This means that we set challenging targets for our pupils and staff and provide specific interventions, boosters and support to ensure that we achieve them.  This begins with our assessment of pupils in the Early years, recognising their strengths and areas for development.  We then track this attainment across all subjects in all years.  Where pupils are identified as falling behind they will work with members of staff to fill these gaps.  Where we identify that pupils need additional challenge they will work with identified staff to ensure that they are reaching their potential.  Our expectation is that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, will achieve age related expectation by the end of each year.  Those with special educational needs may require a slightly different approach or tailored curriculum but will still be expected to make good progress and attain their best.

We value the wider curriculum as much as our core curriculum offer.  The curriculum is based on an EBACC style offer meaning that we have based our theme teaching around science, history and geography with English and mathematics skills being developed and applied in these subjects alongside their discrete teaching.  On other days, we offer pupils a varied and in-depth curriculum based around the arts.  This includes detailed music, art and DT teaching.  There are specific opportunities for the application of ICT skills as well as a computing curriculum.  We have incorporated understanding of social media, drama, enterprise and community engagement and self-study as part of our wider curriculum offer.  The curriculum reflects the expectations we have for pupils to be able to explore different subjects and find elements of the curriculum that they love and are good at.

Teachers are best placed to ensure that pupils achieve the best outcomes but in order to do this they need the chance to develop their own subject knowledge, teaching skills and share good practice.  As a school we value learning at all levels.  We are therefore committed to staff development as we know that it is this that increases outcomes for pupils more than anything else.  We offer staff the chance to work together during the working week to involve themselves in coaching programmes, action research, school development plans, planning, moderation and assessment.  This time is so valuable and ensures that staff are continually learning and implementing new and improved teaching and learning skills from each other and external providers.

Our commitment extends further than the academic and the arts.  We know that most pupils at some point in their school career will need additional support to understand and develop coping strategies for various external influences.  We have therefore set up a well-being team who run programmes for specific children and specific needs.  This could be mental health, play therapy, bereavement counselling, ADHD support or just support with confidence and self-esteem.  This is a new team and the programmes on offer are developing but will, we believe, have a significant impact in the long term.  We also offer tutoring to identified pupils and a number of after school clubs run by our own staff and external providers.

Burwell Village College has been through a significant transformation in the past eighteen months and we continue to develop our curriculum offer and improve the quality of teaching and learning.  We are committed to providing the highest possible standards in everything we do.

Children should come to school excited about learning, eager to achieve and prepared to work hard. We are determined to ensure that our school culture reflects this and that this is provided in a supportive, caring and nurturing environment.  We believe that this will develop pupils into engaged, active members of society having developed resilience and tenacity and ready for the next stage of their school journey.