Every Child Matters – Every Day
Be Healthy Stay Safe Enjoy & Achieve Make a Positive Contribution Achieve Economic Well-Being
The 5 key outcomes for all of our children are part of the Government’s framework for education and they are what we want all our pupils to achieve during their time at Watercliffe Meadow and beyond. From the initial home visit before children start school to the records we pass on to Parkwood or other secondary schools, we monitor children’s progress against these underpinning outcomes. Each term staff use the information collected in school relating to these outcomes to inform progress meetings for every child in every class. It gives the staff a ‘holistic picture’ of a child’s learning and emotional and social development at any point in time. We are always looking for opportunities to celebrate children’s achievements across these outcomes and we will always share these with you as well as any concerns we may have about your child’s welfare or development. Here are some of the ways that we promote the 5 Every Child Matters outcomes at Watercliffe Meadow:
BE HEALTHY
We actively promote healthy eating throughout the curriculum; in the Meadow Cafe, through parent workshops and through our healthy eating policy. We want pupils and parents to be able to make informed decisions about their diet. We encourage pupils to be fit and active and provide the minimum entitlement of 2 hours of quality PE for every child each week through our broad PE curriculum and by providing a range of engaging additional activities from which children can choose. We also encourage healthy activity during social times and we actively promote the importance of regular exercise.We also want our pupils to be ‘emotionally healthy’ as well as physically healthy. An important part of our daily and weekly planned curriculum focuses on the development of children’s emotional and social skills. Children who feel emotionally vulnerable have access to our learning mentor and support staff team and we work closely with outside agencies to provide children and families with additional support whenever it is needed.
STAY SAFE
We want all our children to feel safe and cared for. Our ‘Golden Rules’ (see page 6) are the code by which we all live at Watercliffe Meadow. These life rules help to ensure high standards of behaviour and a respectful community. We have very clear behaviour and anti-bullying policies (see our ‘parent summary guides’) and the rewards and sanctions for all children are outlined in these. For children who feel upset or vulnerable we have a range of ‘listening systems’ and support set up to give children opportunities to talk about their concerns and feelings. Our safeguarding policy clearly states that where we have concerns about a child’s welfare, we will not hesitate to contact parents and carers and involve outside agencies if necessary.
ENJOY AND ACHIEVE
For every single child at Watercliffe Meadow, enjoying and achieving in their learning is central to everything we do. Our staff plan for creative and relevant experiences that will engage children in their learning. We want children to develop enquiring minds, become good problem solvers and be able to work well with others. The basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy underpin success in learning and we all work very hard to ensure all of our children develop these skills. Where children need additional support or an individualised programme to help them succeed, we have trained staff who provide the appropriate support and guidance. We also actively help children to discover their own unique strengths and abilities and promote success. We know that success in one aspect of the curriculum can be channelled to help in other areas where children may feel less confident. Attendance and punctuality are important factors in enjoying and achieving. We want children to come to Watercliffe Meadow because they enjoy coming, simply because it is a great place to be. Where a child’s attendance or punctuality causes us concern and falls below 90%, we will work with parents to explore the reasons why and provide the necessary support to improve it. As a school, our whole school attendance target is over 95%.
MAKE A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION
Our mission statement illustrates the value we place on the importance of our children becoming ‘global citizens’. We want our children to develop a growing awareness and appreciation of other people and know about the ever-changing world in which they live. This is something we will enable children to learn about through planned curriculum experiences and teaching that will actively develop social and community cohesion and global citizenship. In addition, there are many ways that children can make a positive contribution and share a responsibility for the welfare of our community. These include us having a community council where our children are given a real say in issues that affect them; being trained as peer mediators, play leaders, office helpers, not to mention a range of other jobs, which children can apply for to help in the day-to-day running of Watercliffe Meadow. We also want to extend the opportunities for our children to make a positive contribution to the wider local community and are actively looking for partners to develop and strengthen links with.
ACHIEVE ECONOMIC WELL-BEING
As well as developing our children as independent learners and global citizens who want to make a positive contribution to their community, we recognize that a significant part of our role is to support families so that everyone so that everyone can access learning and employment opportunities. Since opening we have maintained a commitment to promoting lifelong learning from ‘0-100’. We run a volunteer programme with the aim of raising aspirations and employment opportunities for our local community. We run a range of parent workshops and programmes to engage our families in learning and work closely with Save the Children and deliver a number of their core programmes on an annual cycle.
