Village Schools Partnership Vision
As you might guess, our schools are both small and based within our thriving village communities. The Village Schools Partnership will bring the very best of rural, village school primary education to our three sites through better opportunities for our children, smart working, better use of resources and a shared vision. We look forward to sharing that journey with you!
Across our three schools of Buckland Brewer, Parkham and Woolsery Primaries we are responsibile for the education of around 270 children, drawing from the communities of Clovelly, Bucks Mills, Bucks Cross, Woolsery, Parkham, Horns Cross, Buckland Brewer and their surrounding farms and hamlets.
Small Schools - Big Futures
The Village Schools Partnership vision is to provide excellent, exciting education for the children in our three schools. Rooted in our communities, our schools are proud of our rurality and ensure our rich Devonian heritage is reflected in our curriculum approach wherever we can. First-hand learning is at the heart of what we do, whether that's through our Forest School programme or through learning about how our locality is influenced by farming, tourism and coastline.
We're also an outward looking Partnership: by working together across our three school, we provide our children with a world view through cultural experiences and a broad curriculum, embedding knowledge of world history, global geography and religions and project work with our friends at Edukid through whom we sponsor children in both Cambodia and Uganda.
The Partnership provides excellent opportunities for teachers and other staff to develop their professional expertise which directly impacts on the quality of teaching and learning for the children. Staff are able to share their best practice within a professional learning community developing an exciting and purposeful curriculum for all our children.
All of our work and development is driven by making each of our schools exciting, vibrant, inclusive learning organisations which always put children first.
The Village Schools Partnership: Small Schools - Big Futures
Matt Cole
Headteacher, the Village Schools Partnership
The schools within the Village Schools Partnership are all foundation schools within the ACCT. We work with our Foundation and Partner Schools : Appledore Primary, Instow Primary, Northam Federation, (St George's Infant Northam, St Margaret's Junior Northam), St Mary’s Primary Bideford and Hartland Primary to deliver the best outcomes possible for our young people.
Children regularly have the chance to work together across the Trust in things like PE festivals and anti-bullying workshops and although our programme has been affected by the pandemic, we're very much enjoying getting back together and enriching the lives of the children we represent.
Our teachers have been able to spend time with other trust teachers moderating and sharing literacy and numeracy work, early years expertise and continued professional development in foundation subjects.
Our headteachers meet together regularly to plan strategy and offer mutual support.
Our Trust partners are the Atlantic Racquet Centre, the Northam Care Trust and the Braunton Learning Co-operative Trust. These organisations support our work and bring opportunities to our children which might not otherwise be available.
As a member of a Co-operative Trust, our work is underpinned by the Co-operative Values and Ethics:
Values: Democracy, Equality, Equity, Solidarity, Self- help & self – responsibility
Ethics: Openness Honesty Social responsibility Caring for Others
If you want find out more that take a look at the ACCT website
