On 26th January 2022, Ainslie Wood Primary School hosted a virtual event as part of our Leading a Whole Education at Primary (LAWEP) programme.
This event was a chance to showcase the provision of a high quality whole education at one of our member schools.
Over the day, the staff and students of Ainslie Wood Primary School shared their journey to best practice in three key areas:
- Leadership culture
- Curriculum design
- Teaching and learning
Here are some of the key takeaways from the event:
- Vision setting: When creating the school’s vision, headteacher Kerry Scott asked the governors and her staff to write down beliefs about what the school, the students, the classroom, the staff and the curriculum should be, and what these things should look like in five years time. By establishing the school’s core beliefs, she created the school’s vision and how to get there. In 2017, Kerry repeated this process asking the staff and governors what a world class school should look like, which has been used to form the school vision for 2017-2022.
Great to hear the journey that the team at @AinslieWood have been on to set their vision for being a world class school @WholeEducation #inspirationalleadersaspirationallearners https://t.co/1Uq9zaOd5J
— Joanne Corrigan (@MrsJoCorrigan) January 26, 2022
- Subject leads: Subject leads at Ainslie Wood Primary School were asked to think about famous/fictional people who embody individual subjects. For example, David Attenborough and Tony Stark (Iron Man) were examples of figures that embodied science. By thinking about these people, subject leads were then able to identify what was exciting and engaging about their subjects, which then informed their subject vision and action plan.
- Leadership support: All staff at Ainslie Wood Primary School are leaders and given personalised, responsive and flexible leadership support. They are provided with coaching and mentoring, opportunities for 1:1 dialogue and collaboration, external leadership professional development opportunities and access to external leadership coaches.
- Project based learning: All non-core learning is ‘project based learning’ with collaboration between staff across subjects. One example of this was a drama project, where children had the opportunity to visit a theatre and then went away to put on their own production. The children were involved in all aspects of the show including casting, catering and budgeting. The purpose of this project based learning is that their children learn ‘Real Life Skills in Real Life Contexts’.
Thankyou to @AinslieWood for sharing their curriculum development journey with @WholeEducation leaders. Using the “WE ARE” approach for the development of “real life skills for real life contexts.” pic.twitter.com/Asp6bECXv1
— Joanne Corrigan (@MrsJoCorrigan) January 26, 2022
- Leading adult development: CPD across Ainslie Wood Primary School is responsive, personalised and purposeful. The school is currently trialling self-directed CPD where staff are encouraged to lead on their own development.
- Pupil leadership: There are many opportunities for children across Ainslie Wood Primary School to be involved in leadership opportunities. There is an elected head boy and head girl for each house in the school and there is an established school council where the class voice can be heard. There are also further pupil leadership roles associated with the environment, digital, sport, pupil mentorship, community and inclusion.
Pupil leaders from @AinslieWood challenged @WholeEducation leaders to think about: the qualities that make a good leader & child-led opportunities they could create in their schools #leadersofthefuture pic.twitter.com/FqsvxIdpbd
— Joanne Corrigan (@MrsJoCorrigan) January 26, 2022
- Anti-racism: As a responses to Black Lives Matter in 2020, the school has been working on recognising unconscious bias within the school and developing an anti-racist culture. They have so far been working on recrutiting to an anti-racist structure, auditing their pay structure, reevaluating the content of the curriculum and opening up conversation with staff and students about race and race-related issues. The school’s openness to these conversations has created more dialogues between the school and parents and the school and children around these issues. You can read more about their anti-racism work here.
Thank you @kerrylou99 and the team at Ainslee Wood Primary School for sharing such inspiring insights into your amazing school. Your @WholeEducation virtual school visit has provoked some great thinking.
— Emma Adams (@PrimaryEAdams) January 26, 2022
Thank you to Ainslie Wood Primary School for hosting such a fantastic and inspiring day.
Read about our virtual visit to St John’s Church of England Academy >>
This event was part of our Leading Our Whole Education at Primary programme. Click here to find out more >>
Click here to read more about the benefits of WE Primary Membership >>
