At Casterton Primary Academy our mission is to ensure that every child is given every opportunity to SHINE.

Our School Vision

At Casterton Primary Academy, we believe in ambition for all.

We work collaboratively with family, friends, and members of the community to embed our SHINE charter throughout our curriculum.

We want all our pupils to achieve their best whilst here with us at primary school.  We want their desire to learn to stay with them as they progress to secondary level, further education and into employment. We recognise that for some young people in our area, this has not always been the experience of their family members and are unreservedly insistent on the highest possible standards of reading, writing, speaking and maths in order to improve their future prospects and prosperity and to reverse this trend.

We showcase the achievements of our parents, pupil’s siblings and other members of our community to inspire and promote a love of lifelong learning.

Within an environment focussed on welfare and safeguarding, we aim to create a culture of challenge, where children have the opportunity to persevere through problem solving, challenging questioning and reasoning activities across the curriculum.

We want students to emerge from school as curious, creative people with the ability to analyse the world around them and contribute to our society.

Learning to read and reading for pleasure are of the highest priority, from the first days in school, supporting learning in all subject areas.

We want our pupils to be aware of, and celebrate their cultural heritage, both in the local area and further afield, if they have roots in other countries. Living in Burnley is the fact that unites them all and is the basis for geographical and historical learning.

A focus on the diversity in the world of work in our town helps to ensure pupils develop a positive attitude to their futures.

We have designed our curriculum to meet the needs and diversity of our pupils at Casterton Primary Academy, using the National Curriculum Programmes of Study which are covered on a 2 year rolling programme.

• We recognise children’s prior learning, provide first hand learning experiences, allow the children to develop interpersonal skills, build resilience and become creative, critical thinkers.
• We celebrate and welcome differences within our school community and locality.
• We encourage children to be responsible for and respect the local community and environment.
• We give them a sense of belonging and ownership of the place in which they live.

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from the same engaging curriculum as their peers and they take a full part in after-school activities. The special educational needs coordinator works closely with teachers and teaching assistants, giving them expert advice on how they can help pupils succeed in their learning.

At Casterton Primary Academy our values and ethos are embedded in our aims:

• To ensure every child exceeds minimum expectations in English, Mathematics and Computing.
• To provide experiences which enrich a creative curriculum, motivating children to learn and inspiring them to achieve.
• To promote confident and articulate communication.
• To work in partnership, utilising the best resources available, learning from outstanding practice.

Our Trust Vision

Every child has the right to access a world-class education. We exist to empower, enable and inspire children to achieve their potential through exceptional teaching, innovative approaches to learning and a community orientated approach to meeting learners’ needs.

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British Values

Preparing Learners for Life in Modern Britain

The Department for Education has introduced a statutory duty for all UK schools to promote and teach fundamental British Values.

At Casterton Primary Academy, we take very seriously our responsibility to prepare our learners for life in modern Britain. We value and recognise the multi-cultural, multi-faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom and undertake a variety of events and lessons to celebrate and explore other cultures in our country and the wider world. Whilst promoting equal opportunities we also understand the vital role we play as a school in ensuring that groups or individuals within the school are not subjected to intimidation or radicalisation by those wishing to influence them.

We ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed and lived out through the every-day work and ethos of our school’s learning community. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for further understanding the key values. Our curriculum provides excellent opportunities to develop and deepen understanding of the ‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural education of our learners.

The Government sets out its definition of British Values in the 2011 ‘Prevent Strategy’. The five British Values are:-

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect
• Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

As a school we make considerable efforts to ensure that our learners have exposure to a wide variety of learning experiences beyond the local community, through educational visits, workshops, sporting events and visitors to the school. All these opportunities provide a purposeful platform for embracing difference and diversity.

Our curriculum overviews for each year group highlight where British Values is a key focus when teaching particular topics.

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Academy Charters

Our Academy Charters