Morpeth Road is a very positive and forward looking school that provides a safe, secure, caring and supportive environment where the whole school community feels valued and can realise their potential. (Gained Investors in People 2008/2011) This is underpinned by a whole school commitment to community cohesion as demonstrated by the strong links with the local fire, police, care, church, allotments, SSCO, Blyth Valley Council, Sure Start and ICCQ. In partnership we are addressing health, social and academic issues. The school has gained national recognition in the following fields, Basic Skills Quality Mark (April 2006), Arts Mark (2007), Healthy Schools Award (2007)Sports Mark (2008) and International Schools Award (2008) and are working towards Anti Bullying Accreditation.
The whole school philosophy is underpinned by the SEAL programme. This has impacted greatly on children's learning and has been recognised by DFES who chose us as a case study school, as well as one of ten tracker schools. This resulted in an invitation for two staff to attend NCSL to disseminate good practice.
The school fully endorses the Every Child Matters framework. This is reflected in the school development plan and the current curriculum reorganisation to meet the specific needs of our predominantly white community, through developing international links to promote global citizenship. Currently we have a Comenius Partnership with schools from Lithuania, Czech Republic, Holland and Finland. This programme involves interactive class projects and visits. School also has strong links with Malaysia this resulted in staff visiting the school in Malaysia as part of their CPD, enhancing their practice.
In order to maximize and make learning real for our catchment, the school has now adopted a creative curriculum based on the six areas of learning. This has enabled teachers to make learning active, meaningful, enjoyable and support professional judgments on the children's learning. As a result of this, children are engaged in their learning and can relate it to real life experiences. The children learn the key skills required to operate as citizens, to become life long learners. Alongside the creative curriculum we are developing an assessment system that will track the progression of key skills. A range of strategies are used including observation which all staff have been trained in.
We have developed strong partnerships with local schools and local higher education providers to improve lifelong learning opportunities within our school. This is ably demonstrated in former pupils and community members returning to school to gain qualifications in child care related courses. School has a positive discrimination policy to employ parents and past pupils who have aspirations to improve their economic wellbeing.
One of our senior management team is a key member of a local regeneration Children and Young People's group, working together to provide the best for children in our area.
We have established a toddler group which currently runs for five mornings each week to address key 0-3 issues and raise parents' self-worth, promote parenting skills and to increase the awareness of children's learning opportunities through play.
As a forward looking and developing school the ethos has evolved through a highly committed staff who benefit from an ongoing programme of CPD and Performance Management evidenced in the Individual Learning Portfolios.
Just some of the many awards we have achieved.
