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:
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:
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.
4. Learnacy
Teaching the children about the skills they need to be more effective learners, what we call ‘Learnacy’ (A word we made up, but we think it works best!). It is crucial that children develop skills that they will need to adapt to new situations and understand that learning does not end when they leave school, college or university. We focus on four ‘Learning Powers’ in school and these are:
By making these skills explicit to the children and teaching them techniques to help them improve these skills, we can help children unlock some of the mysteries of ‘what is means to learn effectively’. These transferable skills will help equip them in an ever-changing World.
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. Parents of these children are invited in to watch.