Is it that children can enjoy an education all year long?
Is it that parents can decide when to take a family holiday?
Is it a play based approach to learning?
Is it our exciting diverse curriculum?
Is it that children are given, ‘extra’ time?
Or is it our ideas, attitudes and principles?

For me, as the Headteacher it’s all of these things, there isn’t one thing alone that makes us popular or special on its own.
Yes, children can and do attend all year long because this provides us with the best opportunity to deliver the curriculum over a longer period of time. Allowing children time to think, time to play, time to consider, time to reflect and time to be.

Delivering an exciting curriculum is crucial to these active, hands-on learners.

This year pupils have enjoyed gymnastics in the autumn term, swimming in the spring term and forest school will follow in the summer term. They’ve enjoyed weekly cookery lessons and hours and hours every week is devoted to a research project of their own choosing. The project is crucial to our curriculum because it’s delivered creatively, engaging all children and their teachers in a collaborative response to research and learning.

This is NOT the teacher telling children stuff, this is exciting and real learning, sharing and working together stuff, and sometimes it’s a bit scary for teachers too as children lead and we follow.
Importantly though, it’s about attitudes too.

Teachers believe in every child, believe in the process of learning, believe that what they are doing is valuable and that they are valued and that what they’re doing is an incredible privilege. And, we do believe.