Mission Statement

We will make our school a place where children are happy and where they have fun.

Ivanhoe will be a safe, secure school where great teaching inspires children to reach their potential and achieve their ambitions.

In this place, imagination will be as important as knowledge; children will enjoy a creative, enriching curriculum with school trips they will never forget.

No child can learn and attain academic excellence unless they love their school; we will do all that is possible to help each of our children to believe, to achieve and to succeed.

School Aims

• We will ensure that there is a nurturing environment in school in which all children feel happy, safe and secure.
• We will promote excellent attendance through making school an exciting place for children.
• We will provide a broad, balanced and stimulating curriculum.
• We will ensure that children have at least three educational visits each year.
• We will offer children a range of extra curricular activities supported by all teachers as well as outside agencies.
• We will promote self-respect as well as respect for others.
• We will have high expectations of behaviour and consult with children to produce golden rules and guidelines.
• We will enable children to reach their learning potential through encouraging academic excellence whilst at the same time meeting the special educational needs of all children.
• We will encourage children to understand how they can contribute to their own health and we will promote healthy lifestyles in all aspects of school life.
• We will ensure that children have the opportunity to make a positive contribution within the school, local and wider community and that they gain the benefits of a school committed to community cohesion.
• We will ensure that children have a voice in day-to-day issues within the school and that they have their say when important changes are made.
• We will ensure that parents/carers know what their children are engaged in doing at school through carefully considered weekly homework and though other regular communication.
• We will consult with parents/carers regularly to ensure that their voices are heard when decisions are made.
• We will ensure that parents/carers know that they are welcome in school and that their views are important.

British Values & Cultural Capital

British Values

At Conisbrough Ivanhoe Primary Academy, we believe in the promotion of British Values as part of our overall commitment to preparing children for their adult lives by teaching them to understand how to engage with society and providing them with plentiful opportunities to do so. We believe that the following list encapsulates British Values and although not every aspect of the list is strictly relevant to the school, it all may become as our school population diversifies and society changes (for example, as of 2019, we know that there is an increasing gang presence in Conisbrough but we need to be aware of this as well as any other changes in society that might affect our children.)

• developing responsible, respectful and active citizens who are able to play their part and become actively involved in public life as adults
• developing and deepening pupils' understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance
• promoting equality of opportunity so that all pupils can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique
• promoting an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all pupils, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation
• developing pupils' character, which we define as a set of positive personal traits, dispositions and virtues that informs their motivation and guides their conduct so that they reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well with others. This gives pupils the qualities they need to flourish in our society
• developing pupils' confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy
• enabling pupils to recognise online and offline risks to their well-being - for example, risks from criminal and sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, substance misuse, gang activity, radicalisation and extremism - and making them aware of the support available to them
• enabling pupils to recognise the dangers of inappropriate use of mobile technology and social media
• developing pupils' understanding of how to keep physically healthy, eat healthily and maintain an active lifestyle, including giving ample opportunities for pupils to be active during the school day and through extra-curricular activities
• developing pupils' age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships through appropriate relationship and sex education
• supporting readiness for the next phase of education so that pupils are equipped to make the transition successfully.

Cultural Capital

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty; that is all you know on earth, and all you need to know."

(Keats)

This school is committed to ensuring that children are given every opportunity to taste the best cultural experiences that we can offer in the hope that by gaining access to the best, children will understand that the most beautiful experiences are accessible and that they are their birth right. We see this as just as important as their understanding of British Values.

We are delighted that in the new Ofsted Framework, Cultural Capital heads the Curriculum Content section with the quotation:

It is the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.

With this in mind, we have decided to support our new curriculum with a series of school trips that will be set in stone so that by the time a child goes from Reception through to the end of Y6, they will have had the opportunity to have twenty-one experiences that, added, together, should show them some of what the world has to offer. The list was compiled by children, parents and staff - and these will not be the only school trips, but they will be the ones that are guaranteed to every child. We were constrained by distance from school and to some extent by expense, but we believe we have a very good selection.

In addition to these set visits (or linked to), from Y3 to Y6 children will have a residential each year. 

Reception, Y1 and Y2.

A stately home, the Railway Museum, Conisbrough Castle and one other castle, a zoo, a theatre (for a play, music or dance) Eureka Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Deep (and the Humber Bridge) and a windmill and wind turbine.

Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6.

National Space Centre, a coal pit, a visit to the Peak District (Iron Age forts) a lighthouse and Flamborough Head, a cathedral, Castle Museum (York), Whitby, Beamish, the Derbyshire Caves, the theatre to see a Shakespeare play, a residential, and art museum (possibly the Lowry or Hockney museum).

Schools can endeavour to use the curriculum to introduce children to the best that has been thought and said, and a glance at our English curriculum will demonstrate that clearly with our commitment to sharing classic children's literature and the best of poetry - but the curriculum needs to be supported by an exciting range of school visits in order to give a more complete range of experiences, which is our aim.