Vision, Values and Curriculum Drivers

Our Vision

‘Individual Growth. Empowerment for All’

At Huntingdon Academy we believe in creating an enabling working environment which allows all of the school community to grow and be the best version of themselves; including pupils, staff, parents, governors – everyone. Empowerment is central to our academy vision. As soon as our children step through our doors, they are taught that their voice matters. This happens through a carefully designed curriculum and through well planned lessons but more than this, it is part of our ethos and can be found in every interaction between colleagues and children.

Our Values

As a school, we have identified four key values that run through all aspects of our school like golden threads. Our values are linked to our behaviour system and children are recognised for developing skills in line with the academy’s values. Huntingdon Academy’s values are: listening, thinking, communication and collaboration.

Applying these values to our behaviours will enable people to have the emotional intelligence needed to be a well functioning human being. To understand how to communicate and collaborate with others enables people to be responsible members of society and be successful at work as well as in their personal life. For more detail about the ethos behind our values, please continue reading.

Listening

We believe that listening is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships. We understand that when people feel listened to, they are often able to gain a deeper understanding of who they are. We believe in teaching our children the active, disciplined kind of listening that helps us as humans to examine and challenge the information we hear in order to improve its quality and quantity and thereby improve our decision making. Litening to other people’s point of view and perspective helps to create citizens that understand that we all don’t share the same beliefs and values and that we respect the values, ideas and beliefs of others whilst not imposing our own others.

Thinking

We value thinking as we believe it is the most important thing that people can do. It is our capacity for thinking that defines us as humans and sets us apart from other animals, plants and living organisms. Specifically, it is our capacity for conceptual thought, which is our ability to discern similarities and differences between real-life things and create mental categories in our mind. Thinking is the way we figure things out and make sense of the world and is a necessary step before establishing goals, values and strategies for achieving. Thinking is the only way to achieve knowledge and therefore know what to do and how to live. Developing skills in thinking, is necessary to adapt in situations and think critically about how to overcome obstacles. Developing skills in thinking helps us to have initiative and develop resilience.

Communicating

We value communication and believe that being able to effectively communicate is perhaps one of the most important of all life skills. It is what enables us to pass information to other people, and to understand what is said to us. By teaching our pupils to become more effective speakers, we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Good communication is an essential tool in achieving productivity and maintaining strong relationships at all levels. Developing effective speaking skills is a route to social mobility and empowers people to find their voice to succeed in life. We teach our children how to talk so people listen.

Collaborating

We value collaboration as when a group of people come together and contribute their expertise it is for the benefit of a shared objective, project or mission. We believe that collaborative learning develops higher-level thinking skills and boosts confidence and self-esteem. Through collaborative working, our pupils will learn how to work with various types of learners and develop their leadership skills.

Our Curriculum Drivers

Our curriculum drivers are based on the seven survival skills from The Global Achievement Gap by Wagner, T. (2008). Our curriculum drivers are:

• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Collaboration
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analysing information
• Curiosity and imagination.

Our school values compliment our curriculum drivers and combining the two, enable our children to develop the skills necessary to be succesful in the 21st century.