BE KIND TO YOURSELF, OTHERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
 

Our caring community 'Be Kind' ethos underpins everything that we do at Desford Community Primary School.  It runs as a thread through our school's curriculum, can be seen in the characteristics of our staff and pupils and is evident in the way in which we interact with our local community.  The Desford Curriculum includes anything that the children experience in their time at school including assemblies, clubs/activities, break/lunch times, before and after school clubs and much more.  We therefore go to great effort in ensuring our school ethos is developed through these aspects of our curriculum.  We believe that by being kind to yourself, others and the environment children who attend our school will:

Develop a clear understanding of how to look after yourself physically, mentally and educationally.

Learn how to display a positive attitude towards others by showing inclusive, respectful behaviours.

Nurture a responsibility for caring for our environment locally, nationally and across the whole planet. 

SCHOOL BEHAVIOUR PRINCIPLES

Our Behaviour Principles – the guidelines on which we make decisions about how to behave and treat ourselves and others – can be grouped under four headings.

1) BE KIND

As our school’s overarching ethos, Be Kind is also the core driver for our behaviour principles.  Kindness can be described as the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.  Affection, gentleness, warmth, concern and care are other words also associated with kindness.  Being Kind often requires courage and strength.  We believe in encouraging all children to display the courage to be kind so that they and others can benefit from all these qualities.

2) BE READY

We want our children to thrive at Desford Community Primary School and achieve their full potential.  To do this, they need to be ready to listen and learn throughout the school day.  Whether it be in lessons or assemblies, at breaktime or lunchtime, on trips and residentials, at clubs and events, every experience at our school forms part of the curriculum experience.  Success at Desford Primary stems from developing the whole child through showing pride and commitment to all of these experiences.  Being ready is essential for every child to experience this success and reach their potential.

3) BE RESPECTFUL

As children weave their way through Desford Community Primary School, we place great emphasis on developing a mutual respect and admiration for the different cultures, beliefs, qualities and personalities of the children and adults that they meet on this journey, as well as for their environment and equipment.  By developing exemplary manners and respectful attitudes, we believe that children will continue their journey through education and into the adult world, equipped with the attributes for positively influencing and affecting the communities they live and work within.

4) BE SAFE

We know that when delivering learning experiences that encourage and develop curiosity and the confidence to explore, teaching children how to keep themselves and others safe must also be at the very core of our curriculum.  Behaving in a way that considers the mental and physical health of themselves and others, is something we believe in reinforcing and rewarding in all of our children.  The modern world presents ever changing risks for our young people both in person and through their online behaviours.  It is our aim to equip every child with the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for behaving sensibly and safely online, and for making the right choices when faced with other risks.

By having principles, rather than endless lists of rules, children develop the critical thinking skills to be able to independently make good decisions about their behaviours.  These principles are based upon what we value most in people, and what we believe will help them to succeed in life.

Our School Curriculum

To ensure that our school curriculum embeds our Be Kind ethos and wider school values, we have 4 curriculum drivers that connect much of the content.  These are Relationships and Wellbeing, Community and Equity, Planet and Sustainability and Safety and Risks.   You can find more out about our curriculum by clicking below or going to the 'CHILDREN' heading on our website.

Our School Values

In summary, our core values in school focus around the following areas:

1) Growing Respectful Citizens: Understanding and applying our caring community ethos

2) Fostering a Lifelong Love of Reading & Learning: Through curriculum and enrichment activities

3) Physical Activity, Health & Wellbeing: Giving the knowledge and skills for how to stay healthy

4) Inclusion & Equality: Ensuring all children have equal access to everything our school provides

5) Understanding & Respecting Other Cultures: Through a broad & rich History and RE Curriculum

6) Caring for our Environment & Local Community: So that children continue this in future

1) Growing Respectful Citizens

Central to everything that we do at Desford is our school rule and caring community ethos of Be Kind to Yourself, Others and the Environment.  This principle forms the spine of our school values that have been developed in collaboration with all pupils and staff, whilst also driving the core values of our school curriculum.  It also links closely with the promotion of the British Values, something that we believe are crucial for promoting an understanding of equality, diversity and the importance of respecting the values and beliefs of others.  All of these things together mean that our pupils learn how to grow into kind, confident and respectful citizens that we are proud of.

2) Love Reading

We believe that fostering a love of reading is crucial for children to be able to access all areas of the curriculum, whilst also helping them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence they need for the next stage of their education and for later life.  Reading is prioritised in our curriculum.  For early readers in EYFS, children become familiar with carefully selected stories from the traditional to the modern, whilst focussing on learning and embedding early reading and phonics skills in a language rich environment.  As children progress through the primary phases, reading continues to be prioritised with a variety of engaging books being used in a range of subjects so that our pupils' language skills continue to be enriched.  A program of events to further enhance the children's love of reading is planned across the year.  Children's author visits, an annual Love Reading event, two mobile book shop visits from Roving Books, World Book Day events and activities and local library visits all add further to enriching the whole reading experience that our pupils receive at Desford.  Our pupils show an enthusiasm for, and a love of, all sorts of reading.  We are very proud of this and we aim to harness this positive energy further and use it as a spark for securing a long term love of reading for all pupils. 

3) Physical Activity, Health and Wellbeing

The importance of sport, physical activity and engendering a self-awareness and appreciation of mental health and wellbeing is something we place a high emphasis on at Desford.  For the past two years we have been involved with the www.rethinkyourmind.co.uk national initiative for empowering wellbeing through creative expression and mindful practice.  The ‘I feel better when’ theme celebrates and encourages individual choice of activities that make you feel good.  This is something we actively promote in our curriculum and our extra-curricular activities.  Sports and PE provision is a particular strength of the school, pupils get the chance to learn a wide range of different sports as well as represent the school in local, regional and national competitions.

Many of our pupils learn to play a musical instrument and we believe in giving these children the opportunity to perform and showcase their talents whilst also encouraging all children to develop an appreciation for this and other activities that make them feel good about themselves.

We have excellent foundations on which to build further enhancements to our curriculum in terms of wellbeing.  This is something that we want all staff and children to contribute to so that it is ensuring our children develop into independent and confident citizens.  At the bottom of the page you can view the video our pupils made for children's mental health week, promoting the message of talking to people you trust when you need support.  Also, the song used to promote the 'I feel better when...' message as part of the www.rethinkyourmind.co.uk project.  We are very proud to be involved in such important aspects of child wellbeing and development.

4) Inclusion and the Pupil Premium

Our Inclusion philosophy encapsulates valuing each child as an individual, as well as part of a wider community. Unlocking potential and facilitating personal progress is at the forefront of all that we do. We believe that if children’s barriers to learning are broken down then they will be better prepared for future life and achieve greater progress in all areas.  Our SEND and Pupil Premium provision is entering a period of remodelling in order to ensure further enhancements to this provision.  Pupil Premium provides us with additional funding for disadvantaged pupils to ensure they benefit from the same educational opportunities as all other children.  In most cases the Pupil Premium is passed directly to schools and is clearly identifiable.  It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium allocated to each pupil is spent, and we are currently exploring new and innovative ways of doing this that further enhance the support in the classroom and equal access to opportunities for all pupils in our school.

5) Understanding and Respecting Other Cultures

We aim to ensure that all pupils gain a broad knowledge of cultures and faiths throughout history and across the world, in order to be able to show respect and understanding towards the beliefs and traditions of others.  In Leicestershire, we are blessed to have a wide range of faiths and cultures on our doorstep.  We believe that it is important for our pupil's to know more about them.  We do this in a number of different ways.  Assemblies take place every week that often link to the British Values and/or different faiths and cultures.  Our RE curriculum includes visits to the various places of worship from different religions (Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Budhist, Jain and much more).  At school we aim to cover significant festivals and celebrations from a range of religions and cultures, making the effort to include festivals that link to the range of faiths and cultures of the pupils and families that attend our school for a more personalised approach.  Our History curriculum explores how different faiths and cultures have developed in different countries over thousands of years, particularly in Great Britain, and how many of them celebrate and believe in the same events and times of the year in a way that is particular to their faith.  Covering faith and culture from the Neolithic period 3000BC, all the way through to modern day, we aim to give our pupils the full and broad picture that our world has painted.

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    3000BCE (Before Common Era) Stone Henge                      160 CE (Common Era) Roman Jewry Wall                                   1485 CE (Common Era) The Tudors
                                                                                                                                           Leicester City Centre                                                     Bosworth Battlefield - Leicestershire

6) Our Environment and the Importance of Community

Ensuring that all of our pupils grow up in a school and community that places a high level of importance on caring for our environment, is core to much of what we do, and something that we want to further embed in our developing curriculum.  A fantastic group of parent volunteers run a gardening club and community garden at the front of the school, with plans to develop an allotment plot to teach the children about the importance of sustainability already underway. This year, children and parents have planted over 200 trees across the school grounds for our current pupils to nurture and grow for the benefit of our future generations. 

Pupils at Desford experience many other examples of being kind to themselves, others and the environment.  The Sports Relief mile, Halloween Harvest Soup Giveaway, Bonnie the Reading Dog and many more examples help to foster an appreciation of community spirit and what it means to be a good citizen.  We are incredibly proud of all that our pupils, families and staff contribute towards this.