The 21st Century must undoubtedly be the most exciting era for the human race with the rapid and often unpredictability of change occurring at exponential speeds. Our modes of communication, transportation and accommodation are like we have never seen them before. Many jobs which exist today did not exist just under a decade ago. We are preparing a generation of the human race who for the first time we are unable to make real predications about their careers, development and life paths. This therefore means that we must ensure that when they leave us they are ready to enter this world and not just survive it but thrive in it.
We must ensure that they have a strong sense of self, are confident and most importantly happy. We must ensure that neither they nor we, set limits on learning, ambition, ability, aspiration and dreams. We must ensure they are highly skilled and educated, having progressed well through school and attained the best qualifications they need to open any door they want to enter into. We must make them truly competitive. We must ensure they know their worth but also that of others and respect the choices, opinions and values of others.
Our vision for our Academy therefore is:
This is a happy community where everyone is valued and respects each other. We achieve well, believe in ourselves and have limitless aspirations.
Core Values
Our values are those attributes that we hold dearest to us. For the realisation of our vision it is inevitable that our core values are perfectly aligned with that which we aim to become. Our values therefore are:
Happiness Our community members must be in a state of wellness and contentment to achieve the very best outcomes. Therefore for us a state of happiness is key to the success of all. We strive to ensure we quickly address those things which may affect the wellness of our students and staff through strong systems of support.
Achievement Achievement is our core business. We must ensure we add real educational value to our young people by making sure they make good progress in all they do and attain the very best grades and qualifications whilst with us. We do not however just celebrate academic achievement but are developing a culture based on celebrating all strengths and successes of both students and staff.
Limitless As the future becomes even more unpredictable and pathways become blurred we believe that we must never put limits and ceilings on the dreams, ambitions and learning of our community members.
Aspiration Our ability to dream and imagine is what makes us uniquely human. As an Academy we create opportunities for our young people to dream big and strive to open up the world of opportunity to every single one of them.
Value Human life, gifting, talent and potential is precious therefore as an Academy we see it as priceless and as a great asset to our community. We strive to recognise that value through our daily interactions and opportunities given, to add even greater value, by each individual, to our community.
Respect We are diverse and unique and differ in values, opinions and experiences. Our combined cultures are rich. We ensure that our strong pastoral and personal wellbeing systems makes it possible that everyone feels they can express themselves responsibly and in a safe environment.
Self-belief We strive to develop a strong sense of self amongst our students and staff. It is therefore important that our community is made up of happy individuals who are confident, believe in themselves and understand their value and worth to the Academy as well as local, national and international community.
Community Finally community is at the heart of who we are. We have strong community links as a Trust and work not only within the Trust but also the local community of Tidworth to realise our vision.
Ethos
At the Wellington Academy our students created a RESPECT pledge, a mnemonic which they believed embodied the culture of the school. As a result our ethos has been derived from this pledge. An ethos is the ‘characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its attitudes and aspirations’.
RESPECT is:
- Resilience – keeping 100% focused on a task, learning through making mistakes (short term)
- Equality – learning from peers, respecting the opinions of others
- Success – excellence in attainment, excellent improvement in academic progress
- Perseverance – overcoming barriers (long term), coping well with persistent challenge
- Enterprise – using initiative, excellence in decision making
- Creativity – asking excellent questions, solving problems effectively
- Teamwork – excellence in working in a group, excellent support of others and peers