The Edisford Ethos

Here at Edisford, we believe that education is powerful and can change lives.  We spend our time doing what makes a measurable difference to children – the quality of our teaching and the feedback we give to children.  We take time as a staff team to reflect on the best way to teach and learn using innovative methods to optimise how something is remembered.

The Five Personal Characteristics

Central to our vision is that children acquire strong personal characteristics for success: the skill to bounce back and be resilient, how to be persistent and keep trying at challenges, the power to be organised and ready to learn, the ability to get along well with others and the capacity to be confident and have a go at new things.  It is proven that these five qualities result in a child that is well-rounded, but also successful academically, too.  We call this the Edisford ethos.

Endeavours and Flairs

We organise activities for pupils to practise these successful characteristics through our pioneeringEndeavour and Flairs badges – these are unique to our school and you won't find them anywhere else!  Children actively learn the five key skills of persistence, organisation, getting along, resilience and confidence through practical activities.  They then take this learning with them to their academic subjects.

Empowerment

Fundamental to our vision is that we forge strong relationships with our children.  We use an empowerment model for managing behaviour, to enable children to manage themselves.  We give children a choice of consequence if they make a mistake, so that they can feel empowered.  Mistakes may happen yet we do not fear them, because this is how children learn.  A warm and forgiving style allows children to make a fresh start. 

Expeditions English and Maths

Our curriculum organisation is unique to us.  We organise English and Maths into smaller teaching groups because we employ extra teachers in the morning.  This means that each group has greater support and are of similar ability, so that they can be taught in a highly focused way.  We call this our Expeditions English and Maths groups and they are named after stars and mountain ranges.  We tell our children that this harks back to the time of the early humans, who first navigated the world by looking up to the stars, then they traversed the mountain ranges.  They explored their world and settled in different places to thrive.  We undertake a similar journey in our Maths and English lessons, hence our ‘Expeditions’.

First-hand Experiences and New Vocabulary

But our dynamic curriculum design doesn’t end there!  Many of our subjects are designed by our own subject leaders, utilising their expertise and drawing from a belief that children learn best by doing.  We therefore teach many of our subjects through first-hand experience – Writing, History, Geography, Science – we interweave experiential learning so that children glean new vocabulary and build an elaborated code.  Children enjoy this first-hand aspect and are more likely to remember what they have actually done themselves.  For example, dissecting real flowers or lamb’s hearts in Science, interviewing a soldier in History and listening to a real opera singer for our English writing.  We broaden children’s experiences so that their vocabulary widens, making a measurable impact on their work.  We foster excitement and forge strong memories through this kind of work.

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We believe in what we do! We want to see that children are excited by new learning, who love reading, who work hard and apply themselves - we want them to become lovely, accomplished young people with the world at their feet.  Come and see us for yourself – we would love to show you our wonderful school!