Visions and Values

Our Shared Vision is what makes Yattendon School such a unique place. It drives what we do and ensures we remain focused on what we believe matters. The shared vision poster above can be seen around our school and sets out five aims that make up the school's vision.

1. Basic Skills

Learning basic skills in reading, writing, maths, science and computing is an essential aspect of your child’s time at Yattendon. We are committed to ensuring that all learners are confident and competent in these critical areas of primary education. 

2. Rich Learning Experiences

This is about giving children a really broad and balanced curriculum with lots of opportunities for relating learning to the real world. Children learn best when they are motivated and interested in their learning. At Yattendon, we aim to provide rich learning experiences in the following ways:

• Children learning a wide range of subjects, using the expertise of specialists where appropriate
• Exploiting the use of the outdoor environment to make learning more vibrant and meaningful
• Inviting visitors, holding special days in school, taking children on trips, holding special curriculum weeks and using drama to help make learning more meaningful
• Encouraging the children’s own interests and ideas to shape their learning
• Striving to ensure lessons are varied and interesting
• Help children ‘link up’ their learning by planning exciting cross-curricular projects
• Giving children a chance to communicate their learning in a variety of ways, including video, books, pamphlets, posters and PowerPoint presentations

3. Values

Yattendon is a ‘Values School’. At Yattendon, we recognise the importance of children developing a strong moral construct through British Values. We feel this is fundamental to children’s relationships with themselves - their self-esteem - and their relationship with others, with their community and with the environment. From our experience, if children have a solid foundation of core values it is likely that they will be far better prepared to meet life in modern Britain. From lessons and assemblies, to the way we treat each other on a daily basis in the school community, we emphasise the following values:

Thoughtfulness              Love               Honesty                       Happiness
Courage               Simplicity       Respect                       Peace
Responsibility           Tolerance       Co-operation                 Humility

In relation to ‘respect’, we feel that it is essential that this works four ways:

• Children respect each other
• Children respect adults
• Adults respect children (this is an important one to us)
• Adults respect adults

As a school we also place great emphasis on 'tolerance'. Talking with children about differences allows them to feel good about who they are and appreciate diversity in themselves and others. It is therefore crucial that children understand the importance of democracy and the rule of law and how these concepts underpin effective and meaningful membership to society in modern Britain.

5. ‘Y’ Factor

Last, but by no means least, the 'Y Factor' is about children having a mindset (or attitude) that enables them to tackle the hard things and see setbacks as necessary steps towards success. We teach children about  the importance of perseverance, determination, relentless practice and picking themselves back up after a ‘fall’. In this way, we hope to equip children with a thirst for lifelong learning and the proactive capability to both seize opportunities, and make opportunities for themselves. Children at Yattendon understand that hard work is the key in whatever they choose to do.

Living Vision

We celebrate children’s achievements in each of the five areas of our shared vision. To this end, every half term, we award a trophy to a girl and a boy in every year group in each of the areas of our shared vision; a total of forty trophies. Having extended the school hall in, we were able to invite parents to our special trophy assemblies for the first time from October 2016.