Values-based Education

Copthall School received the Values-based Quality Kitemark Award in 2022.

Our school values were introduced in 2017, which include Respect, Responsibility, Equality for All, Aspiration and Support and Safety. The values are underpinned by our mission statement of ‘Excellent education for all’. We also have statements for each value which indicate what our values mean to us.

https://www.copthallschool.org.uk/224/our-mission-values-and-vision  

We have a focus on ‘all students’ at Copthall through our Teaching and Learning vision: To create a positive learning environment that inspires a passion for learning so that every student progresses and thrives. This vision is displayed on all classroom and office doors around the school and staff and students commit to this in their lessons and learning. 

Well-being is at the heart of our school and front and centre of our School development plan, in 2018 we introduced a well-being day, which a day bookable by staff during the academic year.

We are currently recruiting a staff well-being team. In the previous years the well-being team, who meet with the Headteacher regularly and discuss well-being opportunities and workload matters. The well-being team put together the well-being room, which is a space within the school building where staff can take some time out to relax. At the start of each week, we have Head teachers briefing where we thank colleagues for their contributions, initiatives and hard work. We publish Copthall Connects, a weekly newsletter for staff where we have a shout out section, pre-covid we had a shout-out board where staff can share their messages visually for each other. There have been other initiatives including thank a colleague. Students also wrote postcards to their teachers to thank them and acknowledge what they are proud of in lessons.  

At the end of each term, we celebrate all successes and thank staff. 

During the summer term of 2021, our Chair of Governors worked on a project with staff and students and created a well-being garden. The garden enthuses our school values and is a tranquil space for our staff to relax in addition to our staffroom/well-being room. 

Our pastoral programme incorporates student well-being opportunities. There is great emphasis on the role of the form tutor.  

Students have the opportunity to meet with their form tutors on a 1:1 basis during form time. As part of our Rewards policy we encourage tutors to make ‘Feel Good Friday’ phone calls, this is where a positive phone call will go home from the form tutor or Director of Learning. 

WOW stickers initiative

Our Headteacher, SLT and middle leaders have an open door policy, so that all colleagues can also reach out.  

We continuously address the importance of well-being and mental health, through virtual assemblies, 1:1 session, pastoral programme and PSHE. 

In PSHE we draw on a range of external facilitators to ensure a holistic provision for wellbeing, mental and physical.

Last year the Student Senate team put together a webinar on mental health and the importance of looking after yourself, including self-help techniques which were shared by our guest speaker. There are further plans of a mental health conference with our partner school, Mill Hill School this academic year. 

https://www.copthallschool.org.uk/1979/mental-health-wellbeing  

Our recruitment process emphasises the importance of values. The application form is anonymised during selection. We are particularly interested to see how personal statements are referenced to the values. 

Parent newsletter – we celebrate student successes, our Head teacher shares a message with all parents, celebrating school successes, sharing news etc. the newsletter is built around our school values and staff are encouraged to contribute articles. 

We take pride in our learning environment around the school, we believe our displays speak for themselves. Displays are regularly updated by our display technician. We have displayed quotes that mean a lot to us as a school and our values are displayed on boards around the school. The values have been translated in different languages to represent our diverse school.