Our Values

Springbank Academy and Nursery is a place where all our children, staff and wider school community can excel in an environment where they feel safe, happy, and cared for. We are a school that is committed to providing a high standard of education for every pupil, and pursue excellence at every opportunity.

We see ourselves at the heart of the local community, in a partnership with parents and carers, offering excellence in education and helping the children to learn the core learning skills they will need for their future.

STARFISH Values Our curriculum and values will inspire everyone in our school family to be motivated and curious learners, and offers the core skills, knowledge and enrichment to enable all to gain the foundations for a quality future and a love for life-long learning.

To the right is our STARS, showing the values important to everyone in school.

Springbank is a place where ALL of our children, staff and school community will be safe, happy and cared for. Our curriculum offers skills and enrichment so that EVERY child is able to gain the foundations for a quality future life and a love for life long learning.

Our motto "Where dreams are realised, and success is celebrated" sets out our mission for the school.

Our commitment to excellence in education and learning and our partnership with parents and the local community extends beyond the school day to include a number of extra-curricular activities before and after school. We believe learning isn't restricted to the classroom and that every child who comes to Springbank has an entitlement to a range of visits and experiences that enrich and enliven the curriculum. Outdoor learning, creative arts and being eco-friendly all form part of our teaching and learning programme.

Inviting visitors into school brings our children's learning to life. We are all learners in school and staff continue to learn too, keeping up with the latest developments in education, theory and practice, keeping their skills and knowledge up to date or developing their own potential through degree or master's degree courses.

Code of Conduct

Linked to our values and mission is our Code of Conduct. We ask all pupils, staff, and visitors in our school to:

Remember your manners
Show that you are a good listener
Respect others and their property
Be kind, calm and considerate

British Values

Springbank Primary School takes the promotion and practice of British Values seriously and recognises how they are integral to a working and self-sustaining learning environment where every opinion is considered and every voice heard; in other words a fair and free environment, a democratic environment. The principles of Democracy, the importance of the Rule of Law and the necessity of Individual Liberty and Tolerance are at the heart of all we do – they are integrated in to our curriculum,learning ethos and aligned to our own school STARFISH values. Here at Springbank, British Values are practised and thought about throughout the day.

Democracy

DEMOS + KRATOS = PEOPLE + POWER

We are proud to share that the values of democracy and the democratic process is used every day in our learning and school events. The staff team have all taken part in professionally facilitated debates and discussions about the origins of democracy, what democracy is and why it is important for themselves, the pupils and wider society. All children have taken part, alongside the staff team, in fully developed election processes in which everyone had to vote for the pupils they wanted representing them on the children’s governor committee or for the four parties nominated in the ‘mock’ general elections. The children’s committee was established as a trial in 2016 and acts as a democratically elected representative voice of all pupils in the school. Springbank Academy is a place where each and every pupil can raise their concerns and have the potential to implement change. A very similar democratic procedure is also used for distributing pupil jobs in and around the school. Democracy is practised and embodied in every classroom on a daily basis. Pupils, in talk circles at the end of every week have a chance to express their opinions, views and thoughts to their peers and the teacher. These are considered and discussed by the whole class and acted upon the following week. Democratic reasoning is used to resolve conflicts and issues, pupils are encouraged to consider and analyse all viewpoints and the motivations of the actions of others before making a corporate decision, a skill which is also reinforced through debates and discussions in the classroom. In 2017 a staff lead will be appointed to plan a programme of further debates and discussions over the year. Springbank strives to promote the ideals and principles of democracy even in the wider community through its ‘Family Holiday’ project whereover a series of months the families of pupils suggest the places they would like to go for a day-trip together at the end of the summer term. The most popular locations are chosen by members of Springbank staff and the parents are able to vote for their preferred location. The destinations chosen are decided by majority vote. Our professionally made film on democracy is used by the staff team and pupils alike as a reference point and learning tool.

Rule of Law

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW
ALL ARE EQUAL IN THE EYES OF THE LAW

Year 5 take part in an exciting full-day trip to the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham each year where pupils have the chance to be inside a courtroom and learn about the roles and laws from professionals.

Springbank is also devoted to further communicating to the students that peace, harmony and stability is ensured by understanding and ‘respect of’ the importance of rules and laws. Classroom Contracts are created at the beginning of each new academic year. The whole class sit with their teacher and take time to discuss and decide together what the rules of their classroom should be. Once the rules have been decided they are written up and displayed somewhere clear in the classroom and are available for all to see and refer to whenever they like, just like a democratic country’s constitution. The consequence snake, school code of conduct and behaviour policy are all discussed clearly and carefully with the pupils and these are readily available at all times in every classroom for the children to re-read or refer to.

Individual Liberty

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirt of brotherhood.”
Article 1 of the U.N Human rights declaration

In the spring term 17 a professional flip-learning film was produced to promote the importance of Individual Liberty. The film focuses on the U.N. declaration of human rights written in 1948 by the world’s leaders in an effort to prevent another tragedy such as WWII ever happening again. The pupils involved were empowered by knowing that every human being on this earth has the same rights, regardless of ethnicity, culture, language, gender, sexuality or religion. Everyone at Springbank now knows that all human beings are born free and equal and in turn have the right to be treated the same.
Staff and children have been involved in facilitated debates and discussions inspired by the work of Amnesty International on human rights. This was used as we were searching for a more creative and immersive way of promoting equality and freedom as a basic human right throughout the school.
Everyone within the school family is encouraged to make choices for themselves in a safely managed environment. Pupils are able to learn and understand the importance of civil liberties such as freedom of expression, decision-making and speech and information. This is integrated into the daily life of school. TIC TAC TOE learning menus are used in wider curriculum lessons to support decision making and strengthen the democratic communication between pupils and their teachers.

Tolerance

Tolerance |ˈtɒl( )r( )ns | Sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own.
Merriam-Webster official online dictionary definition

Springbank Academy prides itself on its interest and promotion of different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs. Pupils of different faiths, beliefs or cultures are encouraged to share and exchange their experiences of the world whether it be language, daily rituals or even different holidays. We at Springbank believe that this is the best way to counter any potential discrimination, not just through the curriculum and from visiting speakers but through mutual understanding and sharing of different people’s lives and cultures from different places.
In our displays and reading material we strive to show diversity and our respect is shown for all families no matter where in the world they live. Uniqueness and difference is celebrated. Our aim is to continue to work together to understand the practices and behaviours behind the British Values. We believe they are important for us all, as we grow in to caring and respectful global citizens.