Values and Ethos
Welcome to the Village Primary School website and thank you for showing an interest in our caring school. We are very proud to be at the centre of the Thornaby community and within the larger family of Stockton, the North East and England. We seek to produce caring, well-educated, well-behaved and law-abiding citizens who show respect for others, for people’s property, for the environment and our heritage. The school provides a secure, inclusive, family atmosphere that takes a pride in having British Values.
Our school motto is ‘Explore, Dream, Discover’. This demonstrates our love of learning and our belief that children should explore new concepts, objects, ideas in a variety of hands on ways. We also have high aspirations and encourage our children to work towards any career goal that they set their mind towards. This motto runs throughout our curriculum and delivery of subjects. Our challenge is to achieve awe and wonder through new learning with a passion for lifelong development.
Village Primary School takes great pride in being an evidence-informed school with regards to teaching, learning and pedagogy. Our approaches are rooted in established methods of teaching mixed with a confidence to personalise and adapt the curriculum for the community that we serve.
As part of The Prince Regent Street Trust, we work collaboratively with the schools within the trust to ensure the best outcomes for all our children. This team work and collaboration ensures that pedagogy is current, reflective and high-quality. Everything that we do revolves around the safety, wellbeing and education of our pupils.
At Village Primary School, we have the very highest expectations of progress, behaviour and learning behaviour. We take pride in everything that we do and challenge ourselves to be the very best within a nurturing environment. Our pupils are shining examples of our school ethos; their conduct is exemplary and they demonstrate impeccable manners on a daily basis. Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility and to show initiative so that they become active participants in their own learning.
Our children enjoy an engaging curriculum filled with real-life experiences which foster independence, collaboration and a determination to succeed. It is our job to help children become ready for the next phase in their education, equipped for the 21st century and the global world that we occupy. The staff have an in-depth understanding of the needs of the pupils and work co-operatively towards shared goals that always have children at their heart.
We actively promote a culture of resilience where children feel safe and encouraged to problem solve, question, debate and express opinions. They
are encouraged to try new things, make mistakes and learn from experience. Through our broad curriculum, pupils debate current hot topics and analyse ‘fake’ news. We feel it is vital to equip them with the skills they need for the digital age and the world of employment.
We take pride in our consistent teaching approaches across school from Nursery to Year 6 and make it our key business to help develop and teach the whole child.
Learning is hands on across the age phases so that all learning styles and backgrounds are catered for. Indeed, through listening, hard work and sequential pedagogy, we feel that children of all ages and backgrounds can make rapid progress. Learning is well sequenced with high-quality teaching and learning.
Our classes enjoy learning through themed topics, which includes rich experiences to bring the curriculum to life. All children throughout school learn inside and outside of the classroom. We also take the children on a diverse range of educational visits in our local community and further afield. Last year, our classes enjoyed meeting an array of wild animals, visited the theatre and even scaled Roseberry Topping. Indeed, we are so proud of our local heritage and the rich history that it has provided us with. We love to invite authors in to inspire English as well as engineers or motivational speakers to enthuse children about the world of employment.
Our Village Values are at the heart of creating the model citizens of tomorrow. These are actively promoted and celebrated through our Explore, Dream, Discover (EDD) cards. Staff use these to model healthy relationships and approaches to learning alongside valuing each individual child.