Our Vision and Values

Our vision statement is:

Grow Learn Persevere Succeed

Our Vision

Grow • Learn • Persevere • Succeed

At Great Leighs Primary School, our vision unites and inspires our whole school community. We want every child to feel welcomed, supported and encouraged so that they can flourish and achieve their best.

We recognise that learning takes time, patience and effort. By working in partnership with families, we provide a caring, positive and purposeful environment in which children can develop academically, socially and emotionally.

Our vision has four important elements:

  • Grow: We support children’s academic, social, emotional, creative and physical development, helping them become confident and well-rounded individuals.
  • Learn: We encourage children to be curious, acquire knowledge and skills, ask questions and develop a lifelong love of learning.
  • Persevere: We teach children to approach challenges positively, learn from mistakes and keep trying when something is difficult.
  • Succeed: We celebrate effort, progress and achievement, enabling every child to take pride in their accomplishments and fulfil their potential.

Everyone in our school community shares responsibility for bringing this vision to life and creating an environment in which all children can thrive.

Our Values

Our school values were developed by pupils, staff and governors. They guide our choices, relationships and behaviour and help us achieve our vision to Grow, Learn, Persevere and Succeed.

Courage

We are willing to try new things, face challenges and make the right choices—even when this feels difficult.

Respect

We value ourselves, other people and the world around us. We listen to different opinions and treat everyone with kindness and consideration.

Friendship

We care for and support one another. We work together, include others and help everyone feel that they belong.

Positivity

We approach learning and school life with enthusiasm and optimism. We recognise what is going well and believe that we can continue to improve.

Excellence

We aim high and take pride in our work. We give our best effort and celebrate progress, achievement and success in all their forms.

Resilience

We keep going when we encounter difficulties. We learn from mistakes, respond positively to feedback and understand that improvement takes time and perseverance.

Living Our Vision and Values

Our vision and values are woven throughout school life. They are explored in assemblies, lessons, stories and discussions and are reflected in the way children and adults treat one another.

We bring our vision and values to life by:

  • creating a safe, welcoming and supportive environment;
  • setting high expectations while recognising individual needs;
  • encouraging curiosity, questioning and thoughtful discussion;
  • giving children opportunities to work independently and collaboratively;
  • using visits, visitors, practical activities and first-hand experiences to enrich learning;
  • helping children take increasing responsibility for their learning;
  • giving children opportunities to reflect on their work, respond to feedback and understand their next steps;
  • celebrating effort, enthusiasm, progress and achievement; and
  • making meaningful connections between learning, our local community and the wider world.

Please refer to the curriculum overview.

Great Leighs is a small village school with a largely white British intake, although the school greatly values the contribution from its small ethnic minority groups. School values underpin the way in which the whole school works; respect, understanding and working together enable our community to facilitate the best possible learning environment. In all that we do, we aim to establish an understanding of democracy, the need to follow rules in society, respect and tolerance for all through learning about different cultures and traditions and an understanding of the importance of individuality and liberty within a safe environment and structure.

The importance of pupils’ thoughts and opinions are recognised and valued within the school. Classes vote annually for their School Learning Council representatives and work fortnightly with their representatives in discussing areas for improvement in terms of opportunities, learning and healthy living. The School Learning Council is responsible for selecting charities which the school supports, leading initiatives including PTA events, promoting a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet, making good use of the school grounds and monitoring with staff different aspects of school life to help identify where improvements can be made.

The school is divided into 5 ‘families’ (Ash, Birch, Elm, Hazel and Oak) and Family captains are elected annually. These captains are responsible for leading half- termly family assemblies, activities for family creative and sports sessions and encouraging members of their family to earn family points in order to win the weekly Family Points competition.

Year 5 children work as sports captains, looking after the play equipment and organising activities for children during lunchtime.  They also take an active role in promoting sport and sporting competitions during the year.

Through assemblies, class discussions and PSHE sessions, pupils at Great Leighs are clear about expected behaviours. In addition, there are 6 very simple rules for behaviour:

  • Kind hands
  • Kind words
  • Kind feet
  • Listen to all members of staff
  • Walk quietly through the school
  • Line up silently

Staff use positive behaviour reinforcement to create a calm and focused learning environment. Discussion with pupils regarding unacceptable behaviours takes place when appropriate and children are aware of consequences used in their class. Across the school, the Zones of Regulation are used to help children understand, describe and manage their emotions. Visitors such as our local PCSO and the Fire Brigade and visits such as Year 6 to Crucial Crew, enable our pupils to see the need for rules in society and the consequences of breaking these rules.

Centrally, we aim to teach our pupils the importance of respect and tolerance for each other and for members of their local, national and world-wide community; through teaching of different cultures, traditions and religions pupils understand difference. Assemblies, RE teaching, cultural days, a variety of musical, art and dance experiences, visitors from other faiths and visits to a variety of places of worship as well as the study of life in other countries throughout our curriculum enable our pupils to have a broad understanding and tolerance of diversity. Regular multicultural assemblies teach important celebration and festival days; visits to our local church, to the Hindu temple at Neasden and Sikh Gurdwara in Ilford, broaden our pupils’ understanding of a variety of faiths.

Each year, pupils take part in the Chelmsford Junior Music Festival, the Infant Music Festival, the Barnardo’s massed choir event service and regular enrichment days with children from our local cluster of schools enabling them to integrate with children from other places and cultures. Within our local community, our pupils have the opportunity to take part in the church’s Christingle service and village carol celebrations. In school, our School Learning Council selects charities to support which have included: Chelmsford Homeless and Braintree Food Bank (Harvest time), MIND, Farleigh Hospice, the RNLI, Comic Relief and Red Nose Day.

As a British village school, certain traditional aspects continue within our school: annual recognition and understanding of Remembrance Day, Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter (through productions or school assemblies), celebration of our ‘Special People’, traditional maypole dancing in the summer term along with a celebration of music, dance and gymnastics in our Proms afternoon. Fundamentally, as a school, we promote the value of kindness to all regardless of background, culture or faith and encourage all to draw out the best from each other.

How We Promote British Values at Great Leighs Primary School

British_Values_Policy_2026-29

At Great Leighs Primary school we are organised into five very special families.  Each child and member of staff is in a family, which is the name of a tree.

We meet twice per term in our family to share ideas and fun activities.  We collect family points each week for excellent work, being respectful and good behaviour. A cup is awarded in Achievement Assembly each week for the family that has collected the most points.

Check the foyer display for this week’s winner.

In each family group, the Year 6 children gave a presentation on why they wanted to lead the family and the skills they had to do this.  Following the presentations the other family members voted for their leaders.

Positive reinforcement of good behaviours and positive attitudes towards learning are very important at Great Leighs. As part of our marking process positive comments regarding children’s learning are made either by staff or pupils themselves, either verbally or written. Stickers, smiley faces and family points may be given for effort, attainment or progress by members of staff. Family points are also given to pupils for care, kindness, helpfulness or solving friendship issues. Children collect family points in their classes and these are added together weekly and a trophy is awarded to the school family with the highest number of family points.

Many classes also award a ‘Star of the Day’ within their class, again for the person who has either shown an excellent attitude to their learning or put in a great deal of effort or been helpful or kind. Sometimes classes may be offered ‘Golden Time’ as a reward for effort or progress.

In Achievement Assembly on Fridays each class teacher will nominate three members of their class for the following awards:

  • School Values Award: for being a shining example of our school values
  • Maths Award: for improvement in or excellent work in maths
  • Reader of the week: for reading a wide range of literature during the week

Click here to see this week’s stars.

During Achievement Assembly children may also be given certificates for mental maths, musical achievements, sporting competitions and anything achieved in extracurricular activities.

We have high expectations of the behaviour of our pupils both in conduct and in learning. We promote courtesy, respect and manners. We discuss our expectations at the beginning of the academic year so pupils are clear about how they should behave both in school and on the playground. We also discuss with our pupils the learning behaviours they need in order to learn most effectively e.g. looking at adults and children when they are speaking, listening carefully to instructions given so they know what to do and how to work well in group situations.

Through assemblies, class discussions and PSHE sessions, pupils at Great Leighs are clear about expected behaviours. In addition, there are 6 very simple rules for behaviour:

  • Kind hands
  • Kind words
  • Kind feet
  • Listen to all members of staff
  • Walk quietly through the school
  • Line up silently

We reinforce good behaviour and praise pupils who show good behaviours by awarding family points or stickers. Time out is given to those children who need to reflect on their behaviour and we expect apologies to be given where appropriate. Children may be kept in for poor behaviour or poor learning behaviours.

Behaviour Curriculum

School Learning Council

The Learning Council are an integral part of our school. They work with staff, governors and their peers in a variety of ways to help continually improve the school. Each class has two Learning Council representatives who speak to their class regularly and report back to the Council with any issues and ideas. The Council representatives then speak to the necessary adults to resolve any problems and put forward new ideas. The Learning Council promote and organise events for different charities throughout the year, for example the Braintree Food Bank, The Poppy Appeal and Children in Need. They are also responsible for promoting healthy lifestyles through assemblies, newsletter articles and displays.

Peer Mentors

Peer Mentors have completed their training and are now qualified to help their peers and fellow schoolmates resolve issues.

Sports Captains

They have taken over the role of ‘play leaders’ and their duties will include helping to organise and run family sports competitions, develop games and activities at break times and encouraging physical activity across all year groups.