3 August 2020
We are absolutely delighted to announce that, following a review in the last week of the summer term, Walton-le-Dale has been re-accredited with Flagship status for the Inclusion Quality Mark. Inclusion is fundamental to our ethos and it was wonderful to have that recognised in the quotation from the review used as the heading of this article - we have a "superb, naturally ingrained inclusive ethos".
Given the pandemic the review was conducted online via Zoom with extensive meetings with staff and written input from parents and students. The report can be found on our website here and is well worth a read as it captures the essence of our school. A few quotations are:
"WLD continues to be a school that is in a constant state of review evolving its educational and inclusive practice for the benefit of everyone in the school community. A place that provides a happy, stimulating and vibrant learning environment that focusses on helping students to develop as effective independent learners and positive members of their community and society."
"The meetings with key staff demonstrated their professionalism, enthusiasm and passion for teaching and for the fundamental inclusive principles that naturally occur in the way that they educate, care about and for and nurture their pupils. It is clear from these conversations that the staff at Walton Le Dale High School are extremely invested in what they do and view what they do as a vocation and this has an enormously positive effect on their peers and their students and is something they should be proud of."
"I was able to look at Teaching & Learning in terms of what progress had been made in the last twelve months, including the superb way they had supported and engaged with their students and families to deliver the best education possible during lockdown and the school’s partial re-opening in the summer term and their comprehensive plans for re-opening fully in September, effectively supporting student and staff re-integration with access to a full curriculum offer that should allow students to make significant progress in regaining lost ground as rapidly as possible in a superbly inclusive environment."
Congratulations to the whole school community! It is lovely to have our ethos supported by such a positive external review.
