Welcome message from Sarah Whalley and Ian Moore, Co-headteachers
On behalf of all the children, staff and governors, we warmly welcome you to our school website.
We hope that it gives you a flavour of our EPICentre of Learning and Rainbow Values here at Exminster Community Primary School.
It is a huge privilege to be the Headteacher of such an inclusive school where you can just feel the buzz of motivation and engagement in the learning.
Every child is unique and their wellbeing and learning is at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to a nurturing environment where we understand and develop the whole child, where children are happy, have enquiring minds and develop a love of life-long learning. Working in partnership with parents and carers is an essential partnership on this journey.
Community is particularly important to us here learning about our school community, about differences and similarities and understanding and celebrating these, also, appreciating and learning about our local, national and global community.
Our school is located in the heart of a thriving and friendly village community. It has gradually grown over the last 160 years to 418 pupils. We have 15 classes, two classes for every year group and one larger year group where we have three classes. We have a strong, pro-active and dedicated governing body and School Association; their combined influence provides excellent strategic and practical support for the school. Our school has become renowned for our successful approach to inclusion, which not only enabled children with a wide spectrum of special educational needs to make remarkable progress. This benefits all children by recognising, developing and celebrating our individuality.
We celebrate the strong links with our local pre-school and our Cygnet group. This currently starts one term before the children are due to start Reception. The children join our reception unit playing alongside our Reception children. This has proven to aid children’s transition into school in September as they become familiar with the environment, the staff and the routines.
Over the last couple of years, we have been developing our Nature School area which our Reception children use on a weekly basis. This space is also used for our extra-curricular nature clubs.
We think our school is EPIC! Don’t just take our word for it though. Choosing a school for your child is an important decision. To help you in that decision making, we welcome families to come and see it for yourselves. Please contact the school office to arrange a visit.
Rainbow Values
Thank you for your interest in our school. The children, staff, parents and governors have created our Rainbow Values at Exminster Community Primary School.
What are our Rainbow Values? Our Rainbow Values are a set of school-wide list of positive characteristics that are desirable goals for children’s and adult behaviour. It is an intrinsically valuable aspect of our school wide-life that we relate to both home and school. These values are made explicit by teaching, modelling, scaffolding and discussing. Our values convey the beliefs that positively influence our behaviour and the way we interact with individuals, groups and communities. They represent the deepest beliefs and sentiments to which we can aspire, and they shape our School community.
How did they come about? A few years ago, we had lots of things we talked about in school – our Rainbow rules, our characteristics of learning and our EPIC vision. They were all great parts of school but because there were so many, they were not embedded across the school and not a real focus throughout the school. So, we got together with all of our stakeholders (children, staff, parents, governors) and asked everyone about how they wanted themselves or their child to be at the end of their primary school career. We pulled everything people said together and came up with our vision ‘The EPICentre of Learning’ alongside our values. Our EPIC stands for the first 4 values of Enjoyment, Potential, Inclusion and Community. The last 3 values, Thinking, Motivation and Engagement, link to the characteristics of learning that start as soon as children enter into our Reception unit and they continue right through the school. Below are the values written for our children, they are simplified for our younger children.
When do we talk about them in school? We talk about them within our learning, on the playground, when we have noticed them outside of school, in assemblies, on our School Learning Team, within governor meetings, in our weekly staff SHOUT OUT and bulletin. They underpin our school decision making, bringing everything back to our values and the learning.
Why are they NOT a reward system? Our values are not used as a reward for positive behavior. We expect everyone to behave well. We believe in intrinsic motivation; doing something for your own personal satisfaction where the primary motivator is internal – you do not expect anything in return. We want children to be intrinsically motivated because it feels good to them, it gives them personal challenge and/or a sense of achievement.
We asked our children, ‘Which is your favourite Rainbow Value and why?’
‘Enjoyment because it encourages people to have fun.’
‘Potential because I can always reach my goals.’
‘Potential because it shows that you have gone above and beyond in your learning.’
‘Inclusion because I want everyone to feel respected.’
‘Inclusion because you get to play with other people and be nice to new people to feel really nice and make the other person happy.’
‘Community because we work as a team.’
‘Community because I have lovely friends and I`m happy. To be honest I`ve got too many friends.’
‘Thinking because it pushes me to my maximum.’
‘Motivation because it helps you carry on no matter if there is a distraction.’
‘I like engagement because it encourages people to get involved.’
Staff
Co-headteacher | Sarah Whalley
Co-headteacher | Ian Moore
Deputy Headteacher | Paul Herring
SENDCo | Claire Norman | senco@exminsterschool.co.uk
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Learning Support Assistants
School Staff
School Development Plan
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Equality
Staff shared understanding: Equality in our school means that personal and/or social circumstances are not obstacles to achievement and that all children and young people are well supported where individual needs are understood and responded to fairly giving everyone the opportunities to succeed.
FS+KS1: everyone having what they need to be the best that they can be
KS2: recognising and responding fairly to the individual needs of people. Equality/equity provides everyone with an opportunity to reach and exceed their full potential and have an equal chance to live their life as they choose.
Diversity
Staff shared understanding: Promoting and encouraging diversity means to actively respect, appreciate and empower people for who they are. We believe that diversity is about embracing differences and including people from all walks of life. Diversity can include race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social and economic backgrounds, religious beliefs, disability, gender reassignment and much more.
FS+KS1: Diversity is about accepting and celebrating our differences and similarities
KS2: Diversity is about accepting and celebrating the many ways people are different from and similar to one another. This could be a person’s race, gender, age, religion, beliefs, disability.
Inclusion
Staff shared understanding: We believe that inclusion is a basic right for all members of our community. Our inclusive school is one where everyone is different and can participate, achieve, is respected, and feels safe and valued. Our inclusive school will champion all children and feel they ‘belong’ where we promote respect and compassion and celebrate similarities and differences.
FS+KS1: everyone is special/unique
KS2: we understand and promote democracy, respect others, show compassion and celebrate similarities and differences