Values & Ethos

Values and Ethos

At Oakdene we seek to improve the life chances of all our children, young people and staff. Our ethos is governed by the Rights Respecting Schools Sustaining Gold Framework, the Framework for Excellence and Core values.

Rights Respecting Sustaining Gold School:

Our school continues to explicitly adopt a child rights approach based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and sustainably embeds it in school policy, practice and culture.
Children’s, young people’s and adults’ level of understanding of rights remains high, and there are processes in place to ensure new members of our school community have this understanding as well. Rights Respecting attitudes and language are embedded across the school.
The RRSA continues to have a positive impact on children and young people’s learning and wellbeing in a sustainable way.
Pupils continue to see themselves as Rights Respecting global citizens and advocate for social justice and children’s rights at home and abroad.
Children and young people continue to play a leading role in driving progress through our RRSA Steering Group

Framework for Excellence

‘Mankind owes to children the best it has to give.
Many things can wait, but not the children.
Now is the time that their bones are being formed, their blood composed, and their senses developed.
We cannot answer them tomorrow.
Their name is today.’

Gabriella Mistrel.

The Framework for Excellence is at the heart of everything we do. The framework is five key principles that we believe are vital to an excellent education for our children and young people.

Education with character – young people are expected to contribute to our school and to society; to try things which they think they cannot, to persist in the face of difficulty; to become resilient in overcoming obstacles; to manage themselves; to work independently on things which challenge them; to work with others and in teams; to be courageous and caring; to lead.
Leadership in every role – Our children are leaders of the future. We expect them to start today- taking advantage of structured opportunities to lead and take responsibility for themselves and others.
Best from everyone - Every child is a special individual, capable of extraordinary things. Staff and pupils at Oakdene act with the utmost love, care and good faith – the highest standards come with the greatest attention to the wellbeing of all.
Continuous Improvement – ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing which has.’ Margaret Mead. We can be better, we constantly look to make improvements, we observe one another and collaborate, we steal good ideas with pride, we look at the evidence and evaluate, we stop things which don’t work, we improve things we do, we look to have high impact at low cost, making it better matters to us.
Powerful knowledge - ‘Knowledge is power’ Francis Bacon. Our utmost important purpose is to teach young people the things they would not learn outside of school, this frees them to think and act more powerfully in their lives. We aim to prepare young people to make a success of their lives; a core entitlement to subject-based learning; the development of talent; and understanding of work and society.

Our core values:

Ambition – to achieve the best for ourselves and others
Confidence – to have the courage of our convictions and to take risks in the right cause
Creativity – to imagine possibilities and make them real
Respect – for ourselves and others in all that we do
Enthusiasm – to seek opportunity, find what is good and pursue talents and interests
Determination – to overcome obstacles and reach success

Oakdene Primary Academy is proud to be a part of the Enquire Learning Trust.

Values and Ambitions of the Enquire Learning Trust

We believe that all learners can be powerful learners given access to good learning experiences. We want children and the academies they attend to be confident, successful and ambitious.

We envisage a Trust where well led, highly skilled and committed professionals collaborate, learn and innovate together to ensure that all academies are successful and where all learners have access to effective and innovative provision that meets their needs and aspirations.

We want to add value to achievement and raise standards. We also want to change lives. We know this requires our provision and our practice to be world class – because of the distance we have to travel, we understand that good will not be good enough and that we need to develop a shared appreciation of excellence and then strive to enact this every day.

We need to show that we take learning seriously and work together to create a vibrant culture in which this can happen. We know that it’s what we do that counts and that our thinking must be visible in classrooms if it is to have leverage. Children are at the forefront of all that we do and aspire to do. We need to take serious steps to engage them, to hear their voice in authentic ways and then to use their insight and expertise to develop radical pedagogies that taps into their passions and interests and use the potential of emergent technologies.

http://enquirelearningtrust.org/

Vision/Mission

So, what can you expect when you visit our school?