Clear values for a school are essential and should be lived and breathed daily by staff and taught explicitly to scholars. As adults, we need to be clear what sort of values we want to instil in our young people with home and school working together to guide children. This is particularly important as we aim to support our students to be resilient and adaptable in a complex and ever changing world.

At Brook Mead, we will create a strong community with clear values. There will be an emphasis on cultivating a positive sense of self and working with resilience and dedication. We will draw from cultures and ideas from across the globe and in the local community to teach these values.

1. Individual effort to achieve collective goals.

At Brook Mead, we are Building Better Futures Together. This means that we will be striving to excel for the greater good, laying strong foundations in order to build a better community. We will do this together because we are always stronger together and can go further together. This belief in individual effort to achieve collective goals will be one which scholars will be taught explicitly so that scholars are always aware of the impact of their actions on others. The notion of service to others is found in all cultures and communities. It will be instilled in our scholars and exemplified so that they can live these values daily in small acts throughout the day and larger ones benefiting our local community and city.

2. Showing respect for ourselves and others.

Happy schools are built upon respect for all. Through our emphasis on being kind, all members of the school community will show respect in words, deeds and actions to each other. These will be actively taught to scholars and modelled by staff. As adults we will use our experience, knowledge and wisdom to guide scholars in our care to respectful conduct and virtuous habits which will stand them in good stead in later life, building the foundations for future success. Academic qualifications need to be matched by good manners, compassion and empathy for others in order to make for well-rounded individuals.

3. Gratitude and humility

Small acts of kindness and service to others are the hallmarks of happy and successful communities. We will actively teach our scholars to be kind and value acts of kindness at home, in school, in the wider community and cultivate an attitude of gratitude. This attitude will have a multiplier effect within the school community, making kindness and empathy the norm.

4. Personal responsibility

Although there are always factors which present challenges, it is valuable to cultivate a sense of personal responsibility so that we make choices and take decisions being aware of their impact on ourselves and others. We will support scholars to take responsibility, realise the impact of actions, drawing from stories and examples from across all communities.

 We will ensure our values are a lived reality through

  1. Explaining the purpose behind each rule and routine;
  2. Using a common language so we have a shared understanding of our values;
  3. Detailing the small behaviours we need to see from each other to enact our values;
  4. Narrating, highlighting and praising conduct which illustrates our values;
  5. Hearing stories and examples from across the ages and all communities to show how others have enacted these values so we can learn from them.

The Mead Educational Trust Values

The Mead Educational Trust and all its schools have developed the 7Cs as guiding principles: Challenge; Collaboration; Culture; Creativity; Community; Courage and Character.

At Brook Mead Academy this means:

  • We will have high expectations of achievement so that pupil attainment and progress are among the best in Britain.
  • We will work with the best educational knowledge – nationally and internationally – in order to create a world-class curriculum.
  • We will provide a respectful and orderly environment, where teachers can focus on teaching and pupils can focus on learning. We will teach, recognise and reinforce excellent behaviour.

  • We will encourage our pupils to work both collaboratively and independently.
  • We will benefit from the shared best practice and challenge of The Mead Educational Trust academies and national organisations.
  • We will provide strong and flexible shared central services enabling schools to focus time and resources on teaching.

  • We will ensure that our teaching is excellent and that our pupils benefit from traditional, high-quality learning experiences
  • We will inspire a passion for lifelong learning.
  • We will deliver a knowledge-rich curriculum, structured by an emphasis on traditional EBacc subjects: English; maths, science; languages; and humanities

  • We will work with our community to ensure that we have a common set of values that unite and bring us together to work towards developing a community of excellence.
  • We will ensure that the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff underpin our community.
  • We will build strong links with businesses to support the development of enterprise skills and to ensure our pupils are highly employable.

  • We will instil a strong moral and ethical code, incorporating British values and enabling our pupils to safely navigate the world and make the right decisions.

  • We will generate and define new and innovative standards of educational excellence.
  • We will ensure that all pupils will be able to access a wide range of curricular and extracurricular experiences in creative arts, sport, computing and design technology.
  • We will actively counter disadvantage in order to increase social mobility through engagement in a curriculum which improves artistic, social and cultural capital.

  • We will have a clear focus on developing key characteristics – honesty, integrity, compassion, kindness, self-belief, resilience and mutual respect in all our pupils.
  • We ensure out pupils are highly employable by developing key skills, attributes and habits through our whole curriculum so that they gain and sustain a rewarding career.