Four words: Gratitude, Respect, Integrity, Teamwork. Together they spell GRIT, which is also what it takes.
Plenty of schools have values on a wall. Ofsted inspectors could see ours in how staff and students behave in school.
Gratitude
Noticing what is going well. Many of our students arrive after a long run of things going badly, and have got out of the habit of spotting anything else. Gratitude is not about being told to cheer up – it is a skill, and it can be practised. It also supports good mental health.
Respect
It goes both ways here. Students are spoken to as people, not as problems, and they are expected to do the same in return. Staff are held to the same standard. Nobody is shouted at.
Integrity
Doing the right thing when it is difficult, and telling the truth when it is easier not to. That applies to us as much as to our students – when something goes wrong here, we say so.
Teamwork
Learning to be part of something. For a young person who has spent months on their own at home, sitting in a room with other people and taking part is a significant achievement. Sport helps; so does cooking a meal together.
Why GRIT
The word GRIT has two aspects to it. Our students need resilience, and so do the adults around them. Progress at school and in life is rarely a straight line. It is full of small returns after setbacks, which is exactly what grit means.
What inspectors found
Ofsted inspected the school in January 2025 and judged it Good. Inspectors recorded that these four values run through the school, and described a caring ethos and a personalised approach to learning.
There is more on the inspection — including the two things we were asked to improve, and what we have done since — on our Ofsted page.
