Our Ethos & Values
Heworth Grange School is truly ‘A family away from home’. We want to inspire your child to realise their ambitions while developing a determined and resilient attitude to their learning, and rest assured, Team HG will be beside them every step of the way. We know there might be bumps in the road, but our core purpose is to support our students to overcome any barriers that life puts in the way, and we want every student to reach for the stars!
Our shared vision
At Heworth Grange our vision is:
“To provide the opportunity for a world-class education for all”
We realise that to reach our long-term goal we need to embody our mission statement day in and day out. We know we need to work together as Team HG with students, staff, governors, and parents, alongside Consilium Trust and our community partners.
Our shared mission
Heworth Grange School endeavours to create a positive, encouraging, and respectful environment that embraces our community diversity and puts our young people at the heart of everything we do. Through the continued development and skillful delivery of an exceptional academic, vocational, and personal curriculum, we will empower our young people to reach their goals; so that they, in turn, become active, responsible, and culturally aware citizens in our ever-changing world.
Our shared values
Our values will support us through this mission, they will guide our decisions, our interactions with each other, and the curriculum choices we make:
Every child — No Excuses
At Heworth Grange, we want every single student to achieve their potential. We go the extra mile for our students and understand that some of them will require more support to overcome barriers to learning than others. We work collaboratively to problem-solve and find the best therapeutic and academic solutions for our students to achieve the best possible outcomes.
High Expectations
We know that expecting the best from all our students is integral to them achieving a world-class education. We strive day in and day out to ensure the highest standards of behaviour, so everyone can learn in a safe and secure environment. We work tirelessly to embed the importance of attendance as a vital employability skill and work collaboratively with parents and carers to ensure all students attend school. High expectations guide our conversations and interactions with each other, and we use positive language and behaviours when we communicate with each other.
Engaging Learning
We know great teaching and learning every day will make a difference for our students and will support them to achieve their very best. We want to ensure all students are fully engaged and inspired by learning experiences and as educators, we fully commit to professional development, so we continuously develop and provide the best experiences for students through a curriculum that has our young people at its heart.
No Islands
We know there is strength in unity and at Heworth Grange we do not want anyone to feel like an island. We care for each other, support each other, and know this means we learn better. Our No Islands culture means we work collaboratively with parents, carers, outside agencies, governors, and other Trust schools. We value relationships above all else because we know that trust is vital to the success of our organisation.
Mottos
- A family away from Home
- Reach for the stars
- Feedback is a gift
- Work hard and be kind
As part of Consilium Academies, we're committed to the following Equality Objectives:
- Embed a strong data management system across the Trust, supporting each academy to monitor and analyse pupil achievement and progress by ethnicity, gender, and disability, and act on any trends or patterns in this data that identify the need for additional support for pupils with the aim of narrowing the gap for equality groups.
- Implement a Trust-wide HR information system, ensuring that this incorporates the ability to provide robust reporting on and monitoring of equalities data.
- Through the use of peer networks across the Trust, ensure that the PSHE curriculum across the Trust is broad and balanced, and provides students with a high-quality education surrounding equality and diversity.
- Plan systematically to improve our understanding and promotion of diversity, establishing an equality and diversity focus group to drive this aspect of our work and ensure that our equality and diversity practices are sector-leading.
Fundamental British Values:
Heworth Grange serves a wide and diverse community. Our students, their families, our staff and other partners represent a diverse range of home backgrounds and cultures. We aim to deliver a curriculum that is reflective of modern Britain and incorporates the interests of students to support them in becoming good local, national, and global citizens of the future.
The Department for Education states there is a need ‘to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.’
Our school reflects British values in all we do. We support and educate our students during their time with us in order to ensure they grow into caring, responsible, and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and the wider world. We encourage them to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and others in our school, our local community, and beyond.
At Heworth, we actively promote British values in the following ways:
Democracy
Students are encouraged to debate topics of interest, express their views and make a meaningful contribution to the running of the school. They are able to do this in a number of ways e.g. through student voice activities; school council; questionnaires and surveys; assemblies.
Rule of Law
We have a clear positive ‘Ready to Learn’ policy that helps students to make positive choices about their behaviour. Through our Pastoral Curriculum, students are helped to distinguish right from wrong. There is an expectation that this is reflected in the classroom, during assemblies, and in the playground. This is supported by a Restorative Justice approach. Students are encouraged to respect the law, and we actively encourage visits from services such as the Police, Fire, and Ambulance services to help reinforce the message.
Individual Liberty
At the school, students are encouraged and given the freedom to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment, e.g. challenging themselves in their learning. They are supported to develop self-knowledge, self-confidence, and a growth mindset in all areas of school life. Students are taught to understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms in a safe way, e.g. Form Time Curriculum; PSHE lessons. They have key responsibilities in school such as Peer Mentoring and Prefects.
Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Those with Different Faiths and Beliefs
Students understand that respect is expected to be shown to everyone, both adults and children. We help them to develop an understanding of, and respect for, their own and other cultures. Staff and students are encouraged to challenge prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour.
Links with local faith communities and visits to places of worship are promoted and people from different faiths are invited to school to share their experiences in assemblies and in class. Through the PSHE and RE curriculum, students are encouraged to discuss and respect differences and similarities between people. We offer a culturally rich and diverse curriculum in which all major religions are studied.
