Darrick Wood Infant School

[EduCativ]

Visitors to Darrick Wood School frequently comment on our pupils' excellent behavior, their positive attitudes to each other, to their teachers, and their learning. They are also struck by the clean, well-presented, modern facilities and the wide range of extra-curricular opportunities offered. Our results at GCSE and A level, outstanding grading in successive Ofsted inspections, designation as a Teaching School, and numerous accolades and awards provide further evidence of the School's excellent reputation locally and nationally. Our approach is encapsulated in what we call The Darrick Wood Way, which incorporates our agreed core values of respect, responsibility, and honesty within a framework of high expectations, everyone working together to achieve the best possible outcomes in all that we do. We show reverence for life, following the School’s motto, Revere or Vitam.

Investment in the very latest technologies and the professional development of staff ensure we continue to challenge ourselves and seek new ways to prepare pupils for life in a rapidly changing world.

As a School, we have an uncompromising commitment to providing our learners with the best possible experiences of teaching and learning. As a staff, we are determined to continually strive to improve our teaching expertise so that we can enable our learners to flourish.

In pursuit of excellence in our profession, we seek to learn from best practices. We have been inspired and enthused over the years by experts in the field of teaching and learning, we have sought out what is best in the practice of fellow professionals beyond our school and we are eager to learn from each other. We work with all learners entrusted to our care to give them the best possible education we can to launch them into their journey of life as well qualified and prepared as possible. This is our moral purpose.

Imbued with this zeal, as a professional learning community we have debated and discussed what will allow this overriding goal to be achieved. We have agreed on the following pillars of learning as key to the creation of a world-class center of learning in the heart of the local community we serve. We aim to ensure that these pillars are integral to all the teaching and learning which is experienced at Darrick Wood as we believe they are central to achieving the vision for learning on which we are all agreed. Working together, we are united in helping this vision become a reality, continually striving to perfect what we do. This is the Darrick Wood Way. The descriptions for each pillar will continue to evolve as part of our journey towards a world-class school. This is not the end but just the beginning.

The School’s Curriculum Goal is “to provide all students with the appropriate qualifications, skills, and values to equip them for life”.

At the heart of the Darrick Wood School, the curriculum is the National Curriculum. This is designed to enable all students to respond positively to the opportunities and challenges of the rapidly changing world in which they live. Students should leave school having become successful learners, confident individuals, and responsible citizens. The NC establishes a coherent framework to promote the study, building on previous learning and becoming more demanding as students move through the School.

The Darrick Wood School curriculum has two broad aims:

• To provide students with the opportunities to learn and achieve.
• To prepare students for the responsibilities and experiences of life.

In achieving these aims the curriculum should provide appropriate challenges for all students in ways that satisfy the diversity of their needs (including those in the Deaf Centre) so that opportunities for their inclusion in mainstream lessons are maximized.

The Sixth Form at Darrick Wood School offers students the chance to extend and improve their academic and vocational qualifications and develop personal skills. The Sixth Form here is successful many subjects have consistently achieved 100% pass rates. In 2008 the ALPS value-added analysis of our A level results placed us in the top 5% in the country. In the Guardian newspaper, we were placed 59th in the national comprehensive school league tables. Each year under the guidance of highly qualified staff, students follow a variety of courses that prepare them for University, Further Education, or employment. This has helped our Sixth Form students achieve high standards in successive years.

For our Post 16 students we offer:

• An enviable record of A Level success
• All courses fully resourced
• A wide range of extracurricular activities
• Personal tutors trained to support individual students and to monitor their academic progress
• Excellent ICT facilities
• Extensively equipped sports center available to students
• A modern Resource Centre dedicated to Sixth Form Study
• Generously staffed courses
• Highly qualified subject teachers
• Opportunities for personal development

Sixth Form students are highly valued as positive role models for younger students and are our best ambassadors in the local community.

Sixth Form students are nominated by their fellow students each year to undertake the challenging role of Prefects, from whom 6 senior Prefects are chosen including Head Boy and Head Girl.

The Head Boy, Head Girl, and Prefects represent the School at all official functions and play an important role in supervising the younger pupils.

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