At Moorgate Primary Academy we are determined to create an inclusive culture of learning where all children will be challenged in their thinking, to achieve to the best of their abilities and strive to become lifelong learners.
We will empower our children to become respected citizens to enable them to make valuable contributions locally, globally and to contribute to our world’s sustainable future.
Democracy
We have an Academy Council which consists of two members from each class who are nominated and voted for by their classmates. They meet every few weeks to discuss a range of issues with the aim of making our community a better place through democratically mandated action. These issues include social and moral elements of school life, such creating codes of conduct for playtimes and modelling positive behaviours for their peers. The areas for discussion are then fed back to the rest of the class where they can all share their views and thoughts. Where decisions need to be made, each class member has a vote to ensure their opinion is heard. We also had a whole school vote to decide what a pot of funding was to be spent on and the children decided to spend it on table tennis equipment.
The Rule of Law
Our Academy Values are clearly outlined in our Behaviour Policy, which is also shared with parents and carers. On daily basis teachers discuss these Values with their pupils and ensure that the children live our Values. These Values are revisited regularly through lessons, whole school assemblies and celebration assemblies. We ensure that children understand that an ordered community requires core values that knit the people together in harmony.
Our current values are: respect, kindness, honesty, fairness and creativity.
Individual Liberty
We encourage our children to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment to enable them to do this. Through our PSHE lessons along with our restorative ethos we discuss different choices they may make and the consequences of those choices. Children are continually encouraged to make “good choices” by all adults working in school and this theme is revisited throughout PSHE and assemblies. We encourage responsible independence by developing leadership qualities from an early age. Children in KS2 are given the responsibility of being play leaders on the playground while children in Year 5/6 have the responsibility of helping to run clubs and as pupil ambassadors leading tours of visitors around the school. The importance of making safe choices when using the Internet is explored regularly through the computing curriculum and shared with the whole school as part of our annual E-Safety/Anti-Bullying Week.
Mutual Respect
Our whole academy ethos is built around mutual respect – indeed, one of our Core Values is Respect. We are an inclusive academy where everyone is valued and has a contribution to make to the academy. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others. We routinely challenge the popular notion that people need to earn respect by ensuring that all people deserve respect simply because they are people in our community. In order to ensure this respect takes place in and out of the classroom, we train all colleagues, including our mid-day supervisors, in our restorative approach which aims to restore our values in times of conflict or relationship break-down. We also have children-led organisations such as play leaders who ensure that the children respect each other.
Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs
One of our stated Core Values is respectfulness and this we seek to live every day at academy. Currently 20% of our children have languages spoken at home other than English and this we see as a great strength of the academy. All different faiths and beliefs are explored and celebrated through assemblies, RE sessions and a variety of visitors into the academy. The children are taught that people have different faiths and beliefs and that these should be accepted. Children within our academy with different faiths are encouraged to share their practices and special celebrations. Parents are invited to share celebrations from a range of faiths with us, including taking part in school assemblies.
