Culture & Ethos

The school aims to provide a high-quality, inclusive education to all students, and this includes high expectations of all. While our school offer opportunities to experience creativity, awe and wonder, we also have the high expectation that students will gain the well-developed knowledge and skills that come from hard work and hard thinking and will prepare them best for success in examinations and in later life. We plan for the highest aspirations and take great pride in our achievements. We aim to ensure that all students have positive attitudes to learning, and are all helpful, kind and dedicated members of the school and wider community.

We ensure that the curriculum we offer our students suits them and our aspirations for them, and that connections between curriculum areas are fostered and nurtured. While we are unashamed of the idea that a high-quality traditional classroom experience is often the best and most fruitful way to create students who will flourish in the rest of their lives, we also believe that this is a time for seminal, memorable experiences that do not fit into this pattern. They might visit the wonders of the world on a trip, they might overcome their fears and perform on stage, they might have a life-changing impact on those beyond our gates, but for many of our students, they will not have these experiences if we do not offer them. We want to offer our students some unforgettable spots of time.

When students do not know how to learn, teaching is fruitless. We aim for our students to become expert learners. They should be self-regulating, aware of their own progress and able to think about their own learning, but also able to lose themselves in tasks and experience ‘flow’. They should be willing to take risks and try a variety of approaches and be independent while they are doing it. They should feel the intrinsic buzz of learning for its own sake.

We aim to ensure that staff and students have positive attitudes to all learning experiences, and are self-respecting, generous and thoughtful members of the school community who believe in what we intend to achieve. Driven by values of pride, respect and kindness, our culture and ethos ensure that students build the habits of heart and mind that allow their learning to thrive through repeated and consistent practice. We want all stakeholders to work relentlessly together to achieve it with a specific set of routines that everyone commits to implementing inside and outside the classroom.

Horizontal tutoring

The positive ethos is underpinned by our pastoral system which promotes a proactive culture of support. Students benefit from sharing experiences with children of their own age whilst being part of a system that creates exciting opportunities to mix with other year groups. There is a clear, tutor programme which supports students’ wider development and promotes British values. Form tutors have daily contact with their tutees providing them with support, recognition of achievements and advice. They move through the years with their tutor group, watching them grow and progressing together. Strong relationships are at the heart of this system, formed between students and tutors, but also parents and tutors. Parents are encouraged to contact the form tutor whenever they have a concern. Heads of Year track and monitor behaviour and progress across the whole year group and ensure that effort and achievement are rewarded accordingly. Key Stage managers support the pastoral care of the students and play an important role in shaping students into good citizens.

British values and Equality and Anti-racism Objectives

Blythe Bridge High School & Sixth Form has an obligation under section 78 of the Education Act (2002) which requires all schools, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum, to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of students in their care. This includes actively promoting British values.

These expectations link directly to the culture & ethos that underpins Blythe Bridge High School & Sixth Form. Together with our own values of pride, respect and kindness, our aim is to ensure that all of our students develop into fully rounded and valuable citizens who value their community by treating others with tolerance and respect, regardless of their background so that may leave school fully prepared for life in a modern, diverse and every changing British society.

The Equality Act 2010

In line with section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a school we must have due regard of the need to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under that Act;
• advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and
• foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

RSHE and Citizenship

We pride ourselves on the delivery of a well-structured Relationships, Sex & Health Education and citizenship programme which teaches fundamental British values and develops students spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. Students are taught to:

• distinguish right from wrong.
• accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative and understand how they can make a positive contribution.
• to understand and respect public institutions and services.
• appreciate and show respect for their own and other cultures so that they may demonstrate tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions.
• encourage respect for others, paying particular regard to the nine protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.
• respect democratic processes.
• Think critically about individual and collective responsibility, the meaning of active citizenship, and about the structures and societal norms that can become dangerous for certain groups and society as a whole.
• Be altruistic and participate in charity work organised within year groups.

Equality and Anti–racism Objectives

Students are growing up in a wider multicultural and multiracial society where they are subject to different attitudes towards minority groups, certain images of these groups portrayed by the media, on social media and their own unconscious bias. The school’s Equality objectives should be read in conjunction with the Accessibility Plan, the Equal Opportunities Policy and the SEND Policy and SEND Information Report.

We stand against all forms of discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability or ability.

This is achieved through the following objectives:

• Promotion of cultural understanding and awareness of different religious beliefs between different ethnic groups within our school community.
• Monitoring and promotion of the involvement of all groups of students in the extra-curricular life of the school, including leadership opportunities.
• Actively closing gaps in attainment and achievement between different groups of students including those eligible for the pupil premium, those eligible for free-school meals, students with special educational needs and disabilities, looked after children and students from minority ethnic groups.
• Improving accessibility across the school for students, staff and visitors with disabilities, including access to specialist areas.
• Reducing the incidences of the use of racist, homophobic and sexist language by students in the school.
• Reviewing relevant school policies to ensure they clearly reflect the aim of inclusivity.

We also stand united in tackling racism in our community and seek to develop a culture of active anti-racism.

This is achieved through the following objectives:

• Addressing unconscious bias through training and wider reading for staff and students.
• Formally gathering BAME voice regarding their experience and acting on recommendations where possible.
• Ensuring that incidents involving racist language are dealt with swiftly and sanctioned in adherence to the culture & ethos policy.
• Offering any victims of racial comments or abuse an opportunity to take part in restorative justice practices to express their views.