Lyonsdown - Our Strategic Plan

LYONSDOWN SCHOOL

NEW BARNET

STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-24

THE LYONSDOWN SCHOOL STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-24 Our Strategic Plan sets out our ambitions for the next three years as we officially become an ‘all girls’ school. The Plan builds on Lyonsdown’s success to date and puts in place clear priorities as we strive for excellence in all that we do. This document will inform the detailed School Development Plans for the three year period, which are developed and implemented by the School’s Senior Leadership Team to deliver the Board’s strategy.

Our proud history As we look to the next three years, it is important to first acknowledge how far we have grown, changed and adapted during the School’s 115 year history. In 1906, our founder and first Headmistress, Miss Maud Chignell, had a vision to build a new school for girls in the fast growing suburb of New Barnet. Since then, Lyonsdown has been, and will continue to be, a family school at the heart of this community, with a dedicated staff committed to preparing girls for an ever changing world.

In 2018 Governors took the decision to go back to our founder’s vision - to focus on an all-girls’ education, as well as enhancing the School’s facilities, and enriching all aspects of the curriculum to enable girls to achieve personal success. The move towards becoming a girls’ school has been delivered a year ahead of schedule, and in the last three years, the school has updated its facilities and introduced significant improvements to the curriculum.

The global pandemic has created unprecedented challenges, for us as a community and for the wider world too.

The Lyonsdown staff have risen to this challenge, providing a full and varied remote education. However, some improvements in our education provision have, by necessity, been slowed to enable us to focus on continuity and safety during the COVID pandemic. Now that the worst of the pandemic is hopefully behind us, we plan to accelerate change and are delighted to share this Plan with you.

The Lyonsdown Board September 2021

OUR AIM

We aim to inspire and enable our girls to love learning, to achieve personal success, and to be well-equipped with the values, attitudes and skills that lay the foundations for a happy and fulfilling life.

STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-24 1.

Delivering an excellent education that supports personal success We are ambitious for each of our girls. We tailor our academic and pastoral support to meet each girl’s individual needs, and prepare her to access, and thrive at, the senior school that suits her best.

PRIORITIES: Driving academic rigour and standards by: • Embedding and consistently using pupil progress tracking and monitoring to identify and deliver academic interventions to both support and challenge every girl • Keeping our whole school curriculum under regular review to ensure it is relevant, exciting, STEAM-focused and offers a seamless progression of knowledge and skills from Pre-Reception to Year 6.

• Consistent improvement in teaching quality by enhancing, updating and consistently implementing our professional review and development system • Developing a community of learners where staff are encouraged and enabled to be at the forefront of educational thinking and to inspire, challenge and support each other to develop better teaching and learning specific to girls’ needs Establishing an early dialogue with parents about senior school options and preferences.

2.

Encouraging girls to enjoy childhood Our girls love being at school. We build their self-belief and love of learning without early pressure, in a friendly and safe environment. We encourage girls to be mindful of their own mental and physical wellbeing, to establish these good habits – to be able to enjoy life – from an early age.

PRIORITIES: • Ensuring admission to Lyonsdown is an enjoyable journey for girls and their families, we will not formally test girls for entry at Pre-Reception and Reception stages where the focus is on getting to know each child individually, so that our girls are able to thrive and grow in school both academically and emotionally • Actively promoting good mental and physical wellbeing across our school community from our pupils to our staff • Embedding the Girls on Board initiative throughout the school community • Ensuring all safeguarding procedures continue to develop in accordance with regulations and best practice

3.

Developing a Lyonsdown Learner We embed invaluable skills that are vital for our girls in an ever changing world. We encourage all our girls to be: - Intellectually curious and think creatively - Confident to take risks and persevere - Learn how to positively reflect and adapt to achieve success - developing resilience - Articulate and to work collaboratively with others - Independent, organised, resourceful and technologically adept

PRIORITIES: • Embedding, celebrating and further developing the Lyonsdown Learning behaviours across all aspects of school life; in and out of the classroom

4.

Sparking and cultivating interests We provide extensive opportunities for our girls to discover their own personal interests and talents. We balance core academic subjects alongside a broad interdisciplinary focus on STEAM, combined with extensive co-curricular provision in Art, Drama, Music and Sport.

5.

Developing strong community-minded girls We place inclusivity at the heart of all that we do in school; in our activities and the behaviour we model and expect in our girls. Our community has Christian heritage while embracing those with all faiths and none. We celebrate diversity and encourage kindness and care for all in our community and the wider world.

PRIORITIES: • Investing in a whole-school approach to STEAM; both in and out of the classroom – weaving it into the curriculum, to ensure continuity of learning themes between subjects, and extra-curricular activities • Increasing the number and variety of extra-curricular activities • Developing the school’s sporting offer further

PRIORITIES: • Continuing to create, maintain and embed our positive inclusive culture, recognising, appreciating and celebrating diversity and difference • Providing all girls with the opportunities to contribute at school and in the local and wider community • Inspiring our girls by celebrating a diversity of successful female role-models • Inspiring our community (staff and girls) to consider and improve the school’s environmental footprint • Delivering on the Department for Education’s expectation “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”

6.

Achieving personal success by collaborating as a school family We know that the best way for our girls to achieve success is for us to have a pro-active and open dialogue with parents. We encourage and enable our school family – of staff, parents, governors and alumni – to collaborate to broaden our girls’ skills, knowledge and horizons, alongside building partnerships with our wider network of schools and other organisations.

7.

Developing efficiencies and effectiveness in the professional running of the School

PRIORITIES: • Improving all aspects of our communications with parents to ensure they have a clear understanding of their daughter’s progress and learning targets and the curriculum • Maintaining and enhancing parents’ and carers’ involvement in the school community so they feel actively involved and engaged with their daughter’s schooling and a part of the wider school community • Establishing an active alumni community • Looking to work more closely in purposeful partnership with our wider communities – from feeder nurseries to senior schools, as well as other enhancing collaborations with local schools

PRIORITIES: • Further strengthening School governance, and communication between the Board and the Lyonsdown community • Maintaining sound finances to ensure that a Lyonsdown education represents good value • Maintaining the school estate and facilities to a high standard • Maintaining healthy demand for places at entry into PreReception and for places that may become available higher up the school • Implementing a regular IT audit and rolling investment programme that includes training and development for all members of the school community (pupils and staff) along with the regular renewal of software, hardware and infrastructure to ensure alignment with best practice in the education sector

LYONSDOWN SCHOOL

NEW BARNET

To find out more about life at Lyonsdown, follow @LyonsdownSchool

www.lyonsdownschool.co.uk 3 Richmond Road, New Barnet, EN5 1SA Tel: 020 8449 0225 Email: enquiries@lyonsdownschool.co.uk Registered Charity No. 312591