Personal Development
At Brandling, we are committed to providing opportunities to enhance the personal development of every child. Staff place children’s personal development and wellbeing at the heart of everything they do.
British Values
We encourage our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others, in our local community and the wider world.The breadth and balance of our curriculum and ethos promotes life in modern Britain. We work hard to nurture our children so they grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and the world. Our PSHE, Citizenship and SMSC work adds a valuable dimension to all this work.
Please see our British Values page for more information.
Diverse Community
We are proud of our diverse school population and we celebrate our differences. Children, parents, carers and external companies support with events such as Eid celebrations, Chinese New Year celebrations and British Sign Language Week.
Staff have received training on being an LGBT+ inclusive school and our curriculum has been reviewed to ensure resources are LGBT+ inclusive. Consequently, staff are able to deliver high quality PSHE lessons which support our children in being understanding and accepting of differences within their school and wider communities.
Please see our British Values page for more information.
Wellbeing
Across school, there is a large focus on mental health and wellbeing as children need a safe space in which to learn and thrive. We recognise that highly effective pastoral care at all levels means children and their families feel safe, happy and ready to learn.
The headteacher is a trained Mental Health lead and is able to support staff in caring for children's mental health so that children feel safe talking to adults about their worries. We encourage sharing and reassure that no worry is 'silly' or 'small.' In addition, our Family Support Worker is ELSA trained and delivers 1:1 sessions to children as and when they need it and we have an on-site counsellor one day per week who offers specialist counselling to identified children.
External companies are referred to for specialist support, for example Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed counselling service. The NHS Rise team have delivered a series of workshops and assemblies to support the children with regulating their emotions. There is ongoing work throughout the curriculum and additional workshops or visitors ensure children feel safe in school. These include Child Pedestrian Training, road safety workshops, first aid training for children (Restart The Heart), termly fire drills, Anti-bullying workshops and Show Racism the Red Card workshops. Year 5 and 6 take part in the Commando Joe’s Programme to support their mental health and wellbeing. Nursery children take part in weekly yoga lessons, run by school staff or visitors.
Please see our Wellbeing page for more information.
E-safety has high priority in the school. Our computing curriculum regularly re-visits this topic. E-safety weeks are planned in every year where workshops and activities are planned. Parents are invited in for some of these workshops and the fortnightly newsletter always contains E-safety advice for parents.
Please see our E-Safety page for more information.
Pupil Voice
Pupil voice is given high priority throughout the school. Hoodie Buddies, Eco-Warriors, Young Interpreters, Bistro Buddies and our School Council give children the opportunity to carry out leadership roles in the school.
KS1 School Council Members 2024
Please see our Pupil Power page for more information.
Careers education
Our curriculum allows for a focus on careers and aspirations by linking to real-life experiences as much as possible. Annual Careers week allows the children to learn about different careers and help raise their aspirations as people with various jobs visit the school to talk to the children and put on workshops.
Alongside this, all classes take part in the Fiver Challenge each year. This allows children to learn about the financial management and the skills needed to work well in a team.
Pupil Premium
Pupil premium funding is used to ensure all children are given the best chance to reach their potential. Targeted interventions, tuition via the School led tuition grant, CPD for staff and purchasing of high quality resources enables us to plug gaps of our most vulnerable children.
A wide range of after school clubs are offered to our children which include a blend of sporting and class based clubs, including Football, Dance, Cookery and Board Games.
On-site holiday clubs are delivered during the Easter and Summer holidays.
Please see our Pupil Premium page for more information.
Extracurricular Opportunities
Our children receive a rich and varied curriculum which is complimented by visits out and visitors into school. For example, Year 6 visit Ingram Valley for their Geography rivers topic, EYFS visit Hall Hill Farm during their On The Farm topic and Captain Chemistry visited school to do workshop across many year groups. In addition, all children are given the opportunity to take part in a residential visit by the time they leave the school, which involves team building activities, self confidence boosters and challenges and excitement outside the classroom.
We also have focus weeks within school for certain subjects. During Art Week, the children are visited by local artists who explore different artistic styles and E-Safety Week includes workshops from local companies.
Children are encourages to develop their own interests and talents. Through our yearly talent show - Brandling's Got Talent - Christmas plays, activities with specialist coaches, invitations to after school clubs, Gateshead Dance Festival, sporting festivals and competitions there are many ways for children to gain confidence and show off their unique talents!
To see all the exciting extras our children participate in, please select a photo gallery below: