CLAPHAM
5 YEAR STRATEGIC VISION
2022-2027
5 YEAR STRATEGIC VISION
Thomas ’ s Clapham 5 Year Strategic Vision
Introduction
Thomas’s Clapham has long been committed to living our values, being kind, and being creative. From the school’s origins in 1993, we have been renowned for our intellectual rigour and high academic standards, whilst never losing the ability to embrace the joy of childhood in all that we do.
I am pleased to share with you the updated Thomas’s Clapham 5 Year Strategic Vision that has been created to complement our ongoing improvement journey. Combined with comprehensive feedback from the community, and the school’s previous Strategic Manifesto (2018), this new document forms the major strategic response for Thomas’s Clapham for 2022-2027.
In sharing it with you, we aim to communicate our commitment to developing a culture of thinking whereby pupils are safe, kind, calm, and ready to engage with their world. It is grounded in our belief that learning is a consequence of thinking, and that the best schools draw upon evidence-based innovation, the latest cognitive and wellbeing research, and global trends in education to build a 21st Century ecology.
Nathan Boller Head Thomas’s Clapham
Thomas ’ s Vision
Our vision is of a childhood filled with kindness
Our vision is of a childhood filled with kindness, a childhood in which students are known and valued for who they are, in which they learn to trust themselves and each other, in which they find and express their voice, discover the difference they can make for themselves, learn to think for themselves, to question, to collaborate, to be independent, to be optimistic, realistic and positive, to own and take charge of their learning and their lives. We believe that pupils can be their best selves and secure the best possible outcomes if we are committed to an educational process which is inclusive, innovative and inspiring.
We believe that this should continue, in age appropriate ways, throughout the important years a young person spends at school.
We recognise the need for our pupils to develop as selfaware, independent and sensitive learners who are curious and reflective listeners. We believe it is our job to inspire them to become adaptable, lifelong learners who show initiative and courage to enquire in depth, whilst collaborating and using appropriate and new technologies to research answers to their questions, and ours. It is our job to ensure that they are willing and able to discern what is true, and what isn’t, and to reach sound, objective and balanced view-points.
Our pupils are encouraged to become ambitious and courageous thinkers who are unafraid to aspire to leadership by questioning, challenging, collaborating and serving.
We are committed to rebalancing the pursuit of academic success, wellbeing and character, placing a keen emphasis on entrepreneurship, digital literacy, expressive arts, sport, outdoor and adventurous learning, developing life-long skills, and instilling social responsibility, service learning and citizenship.
Our vision is of young adults who are able finally to step out into a rapidly changing world, equipped both to capitalise on opportunity and to face the extensive challenges that lie ahead in higher education and work, in life and in society. Our students will be armoured for uncertainty and change not only with academic success, but also with optimism and compassion, self-awareness, a can-do attitude and critical 21st century work and life skills.
We provide environments for our pupils to develop good judgement, and to demonstrate direction and initiative by being responsive, critical and responsible thinkers.
Thomas and Tobyn Thomas Principals
Thomas’s London Day Schools
Ben
Thomas ’ s Aims
We aim to provide an outstanding education
We aim to provide an outstanding education for young people aged 4 to 18 which is forward-thinking and outward-looking, with values at its heart.
We believe in kindness at the core. We are a Christian school, open to families of all faiths. We aim to instil a strong set of values, first by example and also through exceptional pastoral care. We believe that individual wellbeing is of primary importance, with a corresponding commitment to service, leadership and community.
We take a four-dimensional approach to education, developing knowledge, skills, character and meta-learning. We offer a curriculum that fosters an enquiry mindset, is inspiring, relevant and contemporary and ensures both breadth and depth of educational experience.
We aim to prepare pupils not only to remember, but also to think creatively; to analyse age-appropriate, complex issues and to be ready for life as well as work in a globalised, digital and connected world.
Operations Supported & Engaged Community
E x pert Teaching Teams Intelligent Teams
Sustai nab l e Resourci n g & Investment
THOMAS ’ S CLAPHAM
KEY D O MAINS
Thomas ’ s Clapham Objectives
Thomas’s Clapham will be a truly world-class educational community
To ensure Thomas’s Clapham is truly a world-class educational community, we are focusing on four key interrelated domains that will help us achieve growth for every pupil. They will be the means by which we strategically plan and annually review our educational priorities.
From September 2022, the annual school development plan will incorporate this framework for school self evaluation and strategic planning. The timing, sequence and focus of these interrelated domains will change based on the needs of our school and the wider community at any point in time.
We are committed to this long-term plan for improvement and will update it periodically as we reflect on our own performance, community voice, and changes in our world.
Expert Teaching Teams
We will employ effective pedagogical practices that are evidence-based, build a culture of thinking in all learning environments, and enable learners to explore and build on their individual abilities and interests.
Thomas’s Clapham recognises the importance of teaching for understanding, especially through an enquiry mindset, where knowledge and information is connected to the lives of our pupils. We believe that learning is driven by surprise, and that learning is a consequence of thinking.
It is our belief that high quality learning experiences are facilitated through effective teaching teams who carefully design relevant and intellectually creative learning opportunities. These teams will be filled with teachers with extensive subject knowledge and a deep appreciation that every learning opportunity allows pupils to refine their thinking through exploration, investigation and discussion.
Thomas’s Clapham’s curriculum will be broad and creative, and grounded in an instructional framework that allows for critical, creative and reflective thinking. By doing so, our pupils will become strategic, they will view knowledge as problematic, be open minded and curious, value metacognition and become truth seekers.
This includes our commitment to:
1. Establishing literacy and numeracy, especially in the Early Years and Lower School, as the foundations for all learning.
2. Implementing a broad and balanced curriculum that enables pupils to develop understanding and knowledge in the learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Language and Culture, PE and Physical Health, Performing Arts, Information and Communication Technology, Art, Design and Digital Technology.
3. Delivering a coherent, sequenced and flexible curriculum that ensures consistent teaching and learning across year levels, increasing in specialisation as pupils progress through school.
4. Embedding high-impact instructional models, frameworks and teaching strategies that improve the quality of pupil learning, achievement, wellbeing and personal growth.
5. Constructing learning experiences that are accessible, engaging, and challenging for all pupils, including those who are neurodiverse and those with protected characteristics.
6. Providing an extensive range of pathways and programmes that are challenging and stimulating, and that enable all pupils to explore and build on their interests, gifts and talents.
7. Demonstrating evidence informed practice, whereby we continually evaluate the impact on learning through contextualised assessment and rich data that helps teachers, pupils and parents make informed decisions about the next steps in learning and in life.
8. Upholding a whole school teacher-learning programme that is targeted towards strategic objectives, enabling teachers to be experts in their fields, providing opportunities for professional collaboration and ensuring that more can teach like the best.
This includes our commitment to:
1. Building a diverse, supportive, inclusive, and contemporary school community that contributes to social cohesion and everyone feeling valued.
2. Sustaining meaningful pupil, family, and colleague support services and wellbeing programmes.
3. Recognising parents and families as integral members of the school community and partners in their child’s education.
4. Strength-based pastoral care and positive behaviour management approaches that build relationships, pupil agency and belonging.
5. Developing global citizens who contribute to our community through charity and community outreach programmes.
6. Nourishing healthy emotional, mental, cultural, spiritual and physical wellbeing in our community.
7. Creating high quality professional networks with schools, educational associations and research organisations.
8. Establishing a rich teacher Personal Professional Development (PPD) programme that incorporates induction of new colleagues, and builds a learning community.
Supported & Engaged Community
We will create a supportive environment for all, where interactions and relationships are based on mutual respect and are sensitive to the individual needs, emotions, culture and belief of others.
A supported and engaged community builds emotionally literate and resilient pupils who are self-aware, selfreferential, and who understand the importance of choices in their life. We are determined to nourish a community of pupils with an ‘attitude of awareness’ who engage with others, with ideas, and with action.
Our community will be welcoming, sustainable and supportive where the educational needs of all are met. Our connection with each pupil and their family is paramount in supporting each pupil being known and having a deep sense of belonging. Our wellbeing programmes will contribute to a pupil’s sense of belonging and engagement, their development of healthy socialemotional, cognitive, and behavioural skills, and their engagement in exercise for relaxation and enjoyment.
We are a school with values at our core. All in our community believe it is our responsibility to be positive global citizens, not simply to ensure we are a respected community, but at a deeper level to appreciate we are custodians of our place in it. By having a large circle of moral regard, we deeply believe we can contribute to a more harmonious, compassionate and ethical world.
Intelligent Operations
We will build a 21st Century ecology that enables the Thomas’s London Day Schools strategic vision, maximises opportunities to learn and builds the concept of ‘one school’.
A 21st Century ecology ensures alignment between the pedagogical and technological aspects of school life so that pupils, colleagues, and families have a consistent, high quality, and rewarding experience at Thomas’s Clapham.
Intelligent operations are not simply about having access to technology, they need to be integrated into the fabric of our school culture through programmes, classroom characteristics, flexible learning environments and technology based communication systems. Technology will be an integral part of a Thomas’s experience and ubiquitous and purposeful in its use.
New innovation at Thomas’s Clapham will be disciplined, evidence-based, and only adopted if it supports thinking and learning. By creating a 21st Century ecology, we will ensure creativity, communication, collaboration and problem solving are manifested in and out of the classroom, as they become the thread that connects every pupil, family, class, and year group within our school. Moreover, due to these intelligent operations, we will benefit from being connected to the family of Thomas’s Schools, schools from which we will learn and become a more sustainable community.
This includes our commitment to:
1. A continuous school improvement agenda that drives achievement, improving professional practice for all leaders and colleagues.
2. The highest standards in safeguarding and educational compliance.
3. Robust, school-wide support-services and systems to respond to and improve the learning outcomes for all pupils.
4. A disciplined digital strategy that leads to purposeful digital innovation and growth in our learning, community, and organisational capacity.
5. Interactive communication platforms that ensure pupils, parents and colleagues have access to timely, accurate and easilyaccessible information.
6. Professional infrastructures that lead to effective, efficient and useful school services.
This includes our commitment to:
1. Creating a 10 year master plan of building development and improvement.
2. Creating attractive, engaging, stimulating and well resourced learning environments that support and encourage thinking and learning.
3. A talent management plan that ensures we attract, retain and maintain sustainable allocations of staff that makes best use of available expertise and interest.
4. Environmental sustainability and improving the natural environments in our local, national and global communities.
5. Continually pursuing improved site security and safety.
6. Strategic resource management that ensures a sustainable annual operating budget, making targeted use of resources available.
Sustainable Resourcing & Investment
We will design a resourcing and investment plan that ensures a safe and compliant environment, benefits all pupils, improves learning opportunities, and meets future capacity and educational needs.
Thomas’s Clapham has a deep appreciation that our Earth has finite resources and an understanding that we must commit to a local response that is commensurate with this moment in history. Through the lens of education for sustainable development, we will ensure our footprint on this school, this community, and our world will only be taken after considerable, considered, and careful thought.
We are committed to improving our learning and school facilities through sensible and environmentally friendly design processes. We want the decisions and investments we make today to be regenerative so that what we develop and build remains adaptive to future societal changes. Where possible, we want to contribute to reclaiming, repurposing, and rewilding our school and surrounding environments to the betterment of all.
We have a deep understanding that sustainable investment means valuing working with ideas, people, and systems as much as it does with physical things. Our investment in people, curriculum and the environment will rely less on financial resources, and more on pooling the thinking and skills of those in our community.
Our action-oriented curriculum, combined with our culture of thinking, will provide our community with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to collaborate towards sustainable development, ensuring we do not continue with unsustainable consumption patterns.
Wellbeing & Health
Thomas’s Clapham believes that all members of the community should Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Calm, and Be Ready
Thomas’s Clapham has a strong and supportive wellbeing structure. Class teachers and form tutors take a close interest in their pupils’ wellbeing, and at the heart of this are the positive relationships which we tirelessly foster at every level. Pupils are supported by Year Leaders who have broad responsibilities for the wellbeing of pupils in each year group.
Wellbeing is actively taught and our assembly programme is central to pupils being happy at Thomas’s Clapham. We are a listening school and through teaching about choices and personal responsibility, pupils build balanced social relationships and control their behaviour by avoiding thoughts and actions that get in the way of them achieving their goals and reaching their potential.
Student agency and voice is a crucial part of how we reflect on and improve our school. Pupils of all ages form our many representative committees and volunteer groups. It is their action and energy that propels our school forward.
Thomas’s Clapham believes that all members of the community should Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Calm, and Be Ready. A shared understanding of these four rules, and a focus on school values, underpin our positive behaviour management approach.
Be Safe
Be Kind
Be Calm
Be Ready
Thomas ’ s Values
