FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC VISION
2024 - 2029
PLANNING IS BRINGING THE FUTURE INTO THE PRESENT
ALAN LAKEIN
5 YEAR STRATEGIC VISION
Introduction
I am pleased to share with you the Thomas’s Battersea Five-Year Strategic Vision that has been created to complement our ongoing commitment to whole school improvement. Based on the comprehensive feedback from the community, this new document forms the major strategic response for Thomas’s Battersea for 2024-2029.
In sharing it with you, we aim to communicate our commitment to being a school of excellence, whereby every member of the community is challenged to be the best they can be. It is grounded in our belief that learning must be a potent combination of enjoyment and appropriate challenge, and that every member of the community must feel safe, happy and included. In order to function at the highest level and maintain an offering that is both academically stimulating and broad, we look to be proactive and organised in the way we operate.
Rupert Hawkins Head of Thomas’s Battersea
Our Five-Year Strategic Vision
To ensure Thomas’s Battersea is a truly 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 2024, the annual school development plan will incorporate this framework for school selfevaluation 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 and community voice, as well as the ongoing changes in our world.
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4 Expert Teaching Teams Beacon of Wellbeing Intelligent Operations Proactive Sustainability & Budgeting
Expert Teaching Teams
Thomas’s Battersea recognises the importance of teaching for enjoyment and understanding, where the combination of knowledge and skills are connected to the lives of our pupils. We believe that learning is driven by genuine happiness in the child’s working environment, and that learning is a consequence of thinking.
It is our belief that high quality learning experiences are facilitated through effective teaching teams, who work together to thoughtfully design relevant and intellectually creative learning opportunities. These teams will be filled with teachers with extensive subject knowledge and a deep appreciation that knowing every pupil matters, and that every learning opportunity allows pupils to refine their thinking through exploration, investigation and discussion.
Thomas’s Battersea’s curriculum will be broad and creative, and will be embedded in high impact, simple-to-use models, frameworks and teaching strategies that improve the quality of pupil learning and achievement, and whereby every pupil is challenged and prepared for the next steps.
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 cross-curricular links which enriches the learning experience in areas of English, Maths, Science, Humanities (Understanding The World), Modern Foreign Languages, Latin (from Year 5), PE, Dance, Information and Communications Technology ICT, Music, Drama and Art.
3. Delivering a coherent, sequenced and yet flexible curriculum that ensures consistent teaching and learning across Year levels, with teacher specialisation throughout a pupil’s journey through the school.
4. Constructing learning experiences that are accessible, engaging, and challenging for all pupils, including those who are neurodiverse and those with protected characteristics.
5. Demonstrating evidence informed practice, whereby we continually evaluate the impact on learning through contextualised assessments and rich data that helps teachers, pupils and parents make informed decisions about the next steps in learning and in life.
6. Learning from a whole school teaching and learning jigsaw that is implemented in every lesson, and ensuring we collaborate as a team and learn from one another’s best practice.
Beacon of Wellbeing
The happiness, health and wellbeing of our entire community is central to all we do at Thomas’s Battersea. We believe passionately in creating an environment that is caring, safe and, above all, kind. Happy pupils flourish and through our shared school values we encourage everyone to model these every day.
Thomas’s has a multi-layered approach to pastoral care. Form Teachers, Heads of Year, School Nurses, Counsellors and the Deputy Head for Safeguarding and Wellbeing provide guidance and understanding, whilst class time, assemblies and PSHE lessons create opportunities to connect with, understand and support our pupils.
The curriculum covers life skills, strategies and knowledge to help our pupils make a positive contribution to the world whilst supporting their physical and mental health and wellbeing. We work with agencies and professionals supporting our pupils and their parents through an extensive programme of talks and workshops about many aspects of wellbeing.
The ethos of the whole school is one which continues to promote and protect emotional wellbeing and good mental health. A focus on spending quality time in nature - through our extensive Thomas’s Outdoors programme helps to provide time for reflection and a genuine connection with the natural world. This in turn promotes emotional wellbeing and resilience.
Aligned with our focus on wellbeing is a commitment to our local community and to the concept of service learning. Pupils at Thomas’s Battersea seek to make a meaningful contribution to our local community and to society as a whole whilst applying knowledge, skills and character in real-world situations. The final school value is Givers, Not Takers, and we are constantly asking ourselves: what is it all for if not to give back to our local community, and have the awareness and understanding of the immense privilege that we have?
This includes our commitment to:
1. Wellbeing Programmes from The Wellbeing Hub, Nip in the Bud to Headspace. We use a variety of highly acclaimed, accredited wellbeing programmes. From mindfulness to meditation, self-regulation to social responsibility, our staff ensure that pupils understand and embrace useful and relevant strategies to support their mental health and wellbeing.
2. A Wellbeing Curriculum which ensures bespoke programmes cover our spiritual, moral, social and cultural curriculum and are tailored to suit different age groups. These timetabled lessons are part of Thomas’s commitment to educating the whole child.
3. Outdoor Education, pupils participate in regular, frequent, challenging, enjoyable and safe opportunities to learn outdoors, which have a positive impact on every individual who takes part, making Thomas’s a happier and stronger community.
4. Learning Enrichment, we celebrate neurodiversity. We support children with special educational needs, those who use English as an additional language and those gifted in a specific area.
5. Counselling and Family Support, where we offer support and guidance for pupils, parents, families and staff. Each school has a dedicated, highly trained counsellor, as well as very experienced pastoral leaders for every age group.
At Thomas’s Battersea, we are dedicated to the wellbeing of our entire community, including pupils, teachers and staff. Creating a safe and nurturing atmosphere is imperative, ensuring that everyone feels secure and protected. Wellbeing has become a cornerstone of education here and we recognise
the need for early intervention. We can provide tailored support for anyone in our community who needs it, working closely with our borough, Wandsworth. We have a dedicated Safeguarding team who work closely with all school leaders to ensure all children are able to thrive.
Intelligent Operations
A typical school day at Thomas’s Battersea is extremely exciting and busy - with a constant buzz of activity. We strive to operate with excellence, and our aim is to be organised and proactive in our approach, always looking ahead.
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. Smooth, proactive and robust support services and systems to help initiate and improve the learning outcomes for all pupils.
4. A digital strategy that leads to purposeful digital learning.
5. Effective communication platforms that ensure pupils, parents and staff have access to timely and easily accessible information, and whereby we tell the Thomas’s Battersea story.
Proactive Sustainability & Budgeting
Sustainability
Thomas’s Battersea is a school that is passionate about the future of our planet, and we want to maintain a sustainable approach to all recruitment, retention and resourcing, and incorporate sustainability into the curriculum.
Budgeting
Our goal is to create and implement a robust and effective budgeting system that ensures accountability among all budget holders. We aim to meet set requirements and make sound investments that benefit the community.
Recruitment & Retention:
Thomas’s Battersea is deeply committed to the future of our planet, embracing a sustainable approach in all aspects of recruitment, retention, and resourcing. We are dedicated to integrating sustainability into our curriculum, ensuring that our values are reflected in every facet of school life.
Resourcing:
We aim to adopt strategic resourcemanagement practices, optimising the use of available resources. Additionally, we strive to create and maintain attractive, stimulating and well-resourced learning environments that foster and encourage thinking and learning.
Curriculum:
As part of our curriculum, we endeavour to achieve two goals:
1. Apply the 5 Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle) to all our teaching and learning, incorporating sustainability across the timetable. 2. Educate the pupils about the environment and how to protect it.
Action:
Add line space between heading and body text like on the pages before. We have a group of Green Unicorns - the name given to our sustainability ambassadors. Each week, we hold Green Unicorn meetings, and together we plan and implement initiatives for our school community - initiatives that incorporate the 5 Rs and that reflect what they are learning in the classroom.
The Thomas’s Battersea Identity
Thomas’s Battersea provides an outstanding education for young people aged 4 to 13 with a strong set of values at its heart, as well as an emphasis on the broad curriculum, and a focus on academic success.
We aim to prepare pupils superbly not only for the next phase of their education, but also for their lives that lie beyond. Restlessly innovative, we strive to equip our pupils with our four-dimensional approach to education - developing knowledge, skills, character and meta-learning, all of which will empower them not merely to survive, but to flourish and to thrive as the adults of tomorrow. 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.
We believe in kindness at the core. We are a Christian school, open to families of all faiths and none. 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 leadership and community.
It is our aim that every pupil leaves Thomas’s with core values and a strong sense of social responsibility, inner strength and positive physical and mental health, academic success and a love of learning. We strive to ensure that a Thomas’s education equips all of our students with optimism about and preparedness for the future, setting them on a path to become net contributors to society and to flourish as successful, conscientious and caring citizens of the world.
Telling the Thomas’s Battersea Story
We are immensely proud of what we offer at Thomas’s Battersea, and we are excited to share our story with you. Our main platform for storytelling is our bespoke app, TomCom, where we bring our community to life every week through our Weekly News, released every Friday. We also post highlights from the week, offering a vibrant glimpse into the bustling life of a typical school day.
Thomas’s Battersea is often described as hive of activity. We take great pride in recognising the amazing work of our community members, and also celebrate the success of the pupils, the passions of our teachers and our landmark moments.
It is for this reason that we are stepping up our efforts to tell our story. We hope you enjoy it.
Get Involved
We would be thrilled to hear from you if you would like to contribute something to our school offering. Whether it be a talk to pupils, your expertise in a particular field or your time, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team.
We run World of Work lectures for our Upper School pupils once a week, providing them with invaluable insights into various professions and industries. We are always eager to find new opportunities for our pupils to learn from the diverse talents and experiences within our community. If you are able to offer up some of your time, please get in touch with us. Your contribution could inspire and guide our pupils into launching their own successful future careers.
Additionally, we welcome volunteers and fundraisers for our many community and charity programmes, channelled via our thriving PTA community and Thomas’s Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomas’s London Day Schools. By engaging with our school, you can make a meaningful impact on not only our pupils’ education and personal development, but also many other children.