Values Driven Education

At Oakdene Primary Academy, we are proud to be a values-driven school, where our core values are at the heart of everything we do. Our values — responsibility, respect, friendship, honesty, determination and pride — are not simply words displayed around the school; they are our golden threads, woven through our curriculum, our relationships, and our everyday practice.

These values shape our ethos and guide how we teach, how our children learn, and how we interact as a school community. They are embedded across the curriculum, ensuring that alongside academic achievement, we nurture pupils who demonstrate strong character, positive attitudes, and a deep sense of belonging. Each value is explicitly taught, modelled and revisited, enabling children to understand what it means to live these values both in school and beyond.

We actively promote and celebrate our values throughout the year. Each term, we hold themed assemblies focused on our individual values, helping children to explore what these look like in action and how they can demonstrate them in their daily lives. These assemblies provide valuable opportunities for reflection, discussion and shared understanding across the school.

Recognition and celebration are central to embedding our values. Staff consistently reward positive examples of children demonstrating responsibility, respect, friendship, honesty, determination and pride in their classrooms and around school.

In addition, each half term we hold special celebratory assemblies, where children are formally recognised for embodying our values. During these assemblies, pupils are awarded a Values Certificate — a significant achievement that reflects their commitment to our school ethos. Each class selects one child per value, and this process is particularly meaningful as it includes both a staff vote and a pupil vote, ensuring that recognition reflects both adult judgement and peer respect.

Parents are invited to join us for these special celebration assemblies, allowing them to share in these proud moments and reinforcing the importance of our values beyond school. Their involvement strengthens our partnership with families and highlights the shared commitment to developing well-rounded, respectful and resilient children.

Through this consistent and collective approach, our values truly define who we are at Oakdene Primary Academy. They guide our decisions, influence our actions, and ensure that every child is supported to grow into a confident, responsible and caring individual.