Walworth Primary School

Vision & Aims

“Supporting everyone’s emotional wellbeing and mental health, so that they can be listened to, are happy together and ready to learn”.

At Walworth we believe that all children are entitled to develop to their fullest potential academically, socially, emotionally and into healthy well-beings, enabling each child to grow in confidence and be able to fully participate in everything that goes on in the wider community with confidence.

We are an enthusiastic and professional staff team who keep the progress and development of children at the centre of our thinking. We believe strongly in creating new and exciting opportunities and making sure that learning is fun, engaging and relevant. Working happily together inspiring a desire to learn underpins all that we do and reflects the beliefs of pupils, staff and governors here at our school. Collectively we build on pupils’ aspirations and give them the knowledge, skills and learning experiences to achieve them. We are fortunate to receive tremendous support from parents and carers and believe that they understand they are a vital part of the team. The home, school partnership is one of exceptional importance to us as we firmly believe that this is the key to ensuring positive successful learning for children.

We recognise that pupils learn at different rates and that there are many factors affecting achievement, including ability, emotional wellbeing, age and maturity. We are particularly aware of the need of a nurturing, calm and safe environment, for which maturity is a crucial factor in terms of readiness to learn. We believe that many pupils, at some time in their school career, may experience difficulties which affect their learning, and we recognise that these may be long or short-term difficulties. We have a positive ethos of promoting good Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health by providing interventions that builds on resilience, self and co regulation enabling children to be happy within themselves (Relax Kids, play therapy, 1 to 1 CAMHS intervention, Future Steps – Occupational Therapy - school and home regulation programmes, Nurture focused support).

At Walworth School we aim to address and meet the Education, Health and Care Plan outcomes and provision by providing teaching and learning contexts which enable every pupil to achieve their full potential. We value our role as part of a wider professional community for children and young people with special educational needs and thrive to work alongside them to help reduce barriers children may face within the school community. We are very proud that we are the only primary specialist provision in County Durham and we hope to further continue our work by supporting other schools on aspects of relational and supporting behaviour approaches.

Walworth School at a glance.

To get a flavour for what our school is about, click on the link below to see our school leaflet.

Walworth School leaflet

School Aims

To embed our VISION we have devised a set of AIMS that we consistently review. You can view our School Aims on our website.

School Aims

Learning, Progress and Achievements

Our main intention is for our pupils to be fully prepared for the next stages in education and for future life by having:

An awareness of how to be a successful learner.
The appropriate knowledge and skills to develop independence.
A good understanding of being a responsible citizen.

We intend to create a school in which children:

become independent, responsible, life-long learners equipped with creative thinking skills to enable them to respond to the challenges of the world they live in.
become confident individuals with a positive self-esteem, who have a thirst for knowledge and high expectations of themselves.
create a positive attitude to learning, by encouraging confident and caring relationships which motivate and inspire them to do their best.
become confident in making decisions, be able to take risks and persevere to allow them to challenge their learning and maximise their potential.
foster an environment of politeness and good manners in which each child is able to communicate and collaborate effectively.
celebrate their individuality and that of others, with a respect of all and the world we live in, and an understanding of their place in modern Britain and the world.
have opportunities for collaborative learning where parents / carers are fully aware of their child’s learning and the ways in which they can support this.
demonstrate high expectations as learners and members of the school/ wider community.

Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health. We aim to promote positive mental health and emotional well-being for every child, parent/carer and staff by using both universal, whole-school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at identified vulnerable pupils and families.

We want to create a school in which children, staff and families can:

Feel Good – experiencing positive emotions like happiness, contentment and enjoyment. Including feelings like curiosity, engagement and security.
Function Well – how a person is able to function in the world. This includes positive relationships and social connections, as well as feeling in control of your life and having a sense of purpose. We aim to support children in making ‘good choices’ as well as fostering self -regulation.
Learn strategies to establish and maintain positive and healthy relationships
Show increased tolerance and build resilience.
Recognise their own feelings/ triggers and those presented by others.
Have the confidence to share worries, concerns and problems and a way forward is approached together.
Are clear about boundaries and respond to them appropriately.
Develop ownership of their choices and the skills to reflect in order to move forward.
Have opportunities to manage challenge appropriately.
Regularly participate in contextualised learning opportunities and reflection.
Have a recognised voice to contribute to the running of the school.

Resource Management – Quality of Provision

We aim to create a school:

That supports all children’s needs by providing the provision and support needed.
That is colourful, clean, spacious and organised that allows children and visitors to feel welcome.
That embrace in all aspects of technological skills in relation to 21st Century.
Which uses the local community as partners to enhance learning opportunities.
Where staff are committed to their own professional development and share their skills and knowledge in practice and to each other and other providers.
Which helps children to achieve value added outcomes.
Where all staff are responsible for positive role modelling.
Which provides a parent support advisor that, supports the emotional well-being and mental health of parents/carers and families.

Leadership & Management

We aim to create a school:

Which has an outstanding Leadership Team & Governing Body.
Which leaders engage in recognised professional development such as National Professional Qualification of Headship (NPQH), National Professional Qualification of Senior Leadership (NPQSL) and Master Degree programmes.
Which communicates effectively with all stakeholders.
Where all staff are supportive of both each other and children.
Where Governors provide challenge to staff and take accountability to school life.

What Makes Walworth – The X Factor?

We aim to create a school which will:

Focus on positive meaningful relationships at the heart of all that we do.
Place the emphasis on enjoying attending school and having fun.
Place a strong emphasis on sport, outdoor learning opportunities and an enriched curriculum.
Learners have access to small teaching groups with high levels of adult support.
Social and Educare support of residential schooling is available for those children with this specifically identified need.
Extended Day opportunities which enable children to explore new experiences are included.
Learners have access to specifically identified interventions.
Provide a Nurture Group provision enabling opportunities for some of our most vulnerable learners to develop secure attachments while enhancing relationships and supporting them in being in a ready to learn state.
Allow all children to be involved in their own individual support plans and give them a voice to express how best to support them.
Allow all pupils to make collaborate decisions about the development of the school by using pupil voice and the school council to influence change within the school.