Our Ethos, Mission, Vision and Values
Our Motto
Achieving Success Together.
At Copleston, we are a team. We work closely with students to identify their strengths or where extra support is needed and put interventions in place to support students, enabling them to achieve both academic success and to become well-rounded individuals who are able to succeed in the wider world. We also encourage our students to support one another, to work collaboratively where appropriate and to understand that everybody has an equal part to play in making Copleston a successful and welcoming school, underpinned by mutual respect.
Our Mission
To enrich all minds and empower our community to achieve more.
We are an ambitious school that sets high academic standards and places a high emphasis on students achieving the best results they can. Staff undertake regular CPD and engage in learning conversations within and outside departments to ensure they are reflective about how they facilitate learning within lessons and enable students to make good progress. We provide additional interventions and revision opportunities for students who need these, including more formal revision and intervention sessions for our exam students.
In addition, we seek to provide cultural capital wherever possible, acknowledging that students need a greater understanding of their world than that which is obtained through the set curriculum. We do this through a number of initiatives including our bespoke tutor time programmes, The BASE (Years 7-10) and The APEX (Sixth Form), which allow students to explore a range of personal, community and world issues in the safe and supportive environment of their tutor groups. We also provide “Copleston Culture” lessons to some year groups, in which students explore issues in more depth by reading a relevant fiction book. Year 12 and 13 have designated enrichment lessons on their timetable giving them opportunities to complete online courses or explore the issues that matter to them. We also offer a range of course-based and extra-curricular trips and visits as well as inviting visiting speakers. Our WOW enrichment opportunities on Wednesday afternoons also give students opportunities to develop new hobbies or interests as well as providing opportunities for our Sixth Form students to engage in leadership.
Our Vision
A reflective organisation that delivers the best all round education in the Eastern Region.
Our consistently high exam results are testament to the determination and effort of both our staff and students and demonstrate our commitment to ensuring students are given the best opportunities possible. The numbers of students choosing to stay for Sixth Form or to join us from other schools shows that students value the education we provide. However, we offer more than just exam results, enabling students to develop as individuals through our enrichment and extra-curricular programmes.
Our Core Values
Respectful, Resilient, Aspirational, Compassionate, Resourceful
Respectful: We expect high standards of our students in their interactions with both staff and their peers. We teach tolerance and respect through our BASE and APEX programmes and within lessons. We encourage students to listen to and learn from one another in lessons.
Resilient: We have high standards of our students and help them to achieve these by giving opportunities for self-reflection via regular feedback, encouraging them to be adaptable and to identify how they can improve. We foster a classroom culture in which it is OK to get things wrong or make mistakes as reflecting on this often leads to even better outcomes.
Aspirational: We encourage all our students to aim high by setting aspirational targets and supporting students in achieving these. We also encourage students to aspire to apply to the top universities and to be ambitious in their career choices, providing visits and talks to inspire them in this.
Compassionate: We understand that students face many difficulties both within and outside school. We have strong pastoral and safeguarding teams, and we signpost students towards extra help when needed. We care about our students and we want them to feel safe and happy at Copleston. We also encourage students to show compassion to one another. Our Student Leaders put this into action when welcoming and supporting our new Year 6 students and we also reinforce the importance of respecting differences through our tutor time programmes.
Resourceful: We provide students with a wealth of physical resources to enable them to succeed such as revision guides, past papers, online resources and platforms, flashcards etc. However, we also encourage students to be resourceful themselves, learning how to effectively utilise the expertise of their teachers and other staff as well as developing independence and an ability to find things out for themselves using the resources provided, and to develop a love of learning.
