How does the school’s theologi­cally rooted Christian vision create a culture in which pupils and adults are treated well?

Adults manage behaviour consistently and fairly. The story of ‘The Good Samaritan’ is threaded through much of the school’s pastoral work. Pupils are well behaved and supportive of each other. They value friendship.

OFSTED Report 2022

The Church of England's 'Valuing all of God's Children' document, released in 2019 states that "schools [should] offer the Christian message of love, joy and the celebration of our humanity without exception or exclusion".  This resonates clearly with the work within our school, building from our vision and parable, which says that we accept everyone as a unique individual, supported and aided by one another as a family.

We work hard at Nash Mills to ensure that this happens in practice.  From the way that we build positive relationships with our parents, by ensuring that staff are present at the start and end of each day to building a curriculum which promotes and engenders the ideas of equality and acceptance of difference (more on this can be found in our justice and responsibility page).  We also provide support to pupils at this time; every class has a soft start, with calming activities for pupils to do when they come in each morning, pupils are encouraged to share how they are feeling so that help can be provided if needed and breakfast is offered within classes every morning (through the National School Breakfast Programme).  This results in classes which are generally very calm and purposeful and a community which is settled and happy. 

The school uses the STEPs therapeutic approach of behaviour in which staff are trained to promote prosocial behaviours, noticing and developing the things that pupils do well, rather than focusing on the negative.  This helps to create an environment where pupils are willing to seek and accept support and where any issues can be dealt with quickly and sensitively.  The school's INCO and Pastoral Support Assistant work together to provide more specific support to pupils who still find this difficult.  We also have Peer Mediators who help pupils to solve problems when they occur.  The school's Anti-bullying strategy is within our Positive Behaviour Policy and has been drawn up through work with staff, parents, pupils and governors.  Again, it focuses on the idea of support and understanding.  Both of these strategies work on the basis of restorative justice, fixing issues when they go wrong and being able to forgive those around us.

Our PSHE Curriculum (which can be viewed here) exploits opportunities to consider how we can live well together.  In addition to this, other subject areas provide opportunities for pupils to learn about other people who come from different backgrounds, cultures or have different beliefs and to discuss and consider these.  The children have opportunities to discuss and, following staff training, show good skills of being able to 'disagree well'.  The PSHE curriculum also plans our approach to teaching SRE (Sex and Relationship Education) across the school.

In addition to this, pupils are encouraged to consider ways in which we can support and work with the local and wider community.  Our Early Years pupils regularly visit the local Retirement Home to engage with the residents, we perform in the community and have welcomed other groups to access some of our school resources.  At Harvest, pupils gather food for the local foodbanks and at Christmas, the Year 6 House Captains run a project to take 'thank you' parcels into the local community.

We share the understanding we have of this with other schools and organisations; our Reflections Councillors have met to share good practice with those from other local Diocese schools.  We have also joined the Diocese Harvest Celebration at St Albans Abbey and the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey for the past three years.  

Staff report to be happy working at Nash Mills.  There is a close relationship between all staff members and this helps everyone to feel valued.  There has been very little staff movement in the past three years, which has helped to maintain stability and continue our offer.  The school has developed a comprehensive wellbeing package.

"Staff are proud to work at the school. They appreciate leaders’ consideration for their well-being and the support they receive to develop professionally. This includes those staff at the very start of their careers." OFSTED 2022

What is the impact of this work?

Incidents of bullying or unkindness are rare. In our last parent survey, 95% parents felt that the school would deal effectively with bullying (the remaining 5% did not know).  Pupils report that bullying is rare and that they would know how to get help if they felt that that they were being bullied.  

99% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that the school makes sure that pupils are well behaved and OFSTED found that "Adults manage behaviour consistently and fairly."  Little learning is lost through disruption or poor behaviour.

These outcomes are parative for all groups within school.  Incidents of unkindness or discrimination are extremely rare and all feel safe and welcome.  This comes through the work we do to expose all pupils to those who may live differently to them, and to appreciate and celebrate the mix of people who make our community special.