School Information

Empower, Aspire & Achieve 

Hawkswood Primary Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) & Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Provision provides opportunities for children who have struggled to cope in the London Borough of Waltham Forest’s (LBWF) mainstream schools, to re-engage in education. The majority of pupils have significant barriers to their learning. We have high aspirations and provide a ‘fresh start’ for pupils who are struggling in their mainstream settings. We offer the full National Curriculum, a robust assessment cycle, good or better progress against baseline entry levels, and a behaviour modification programme, all within an inclusive, nurturing environment. During the time that they spend in the PRU, our pupils learn to better engage in, and enjoy more of school life by acquiring the necessary attitude, skills and understanding to sustain their reintegration back into mainstream school.

”We learn about British values because it keeps us safe and we learn to respect each other.”  – Year 3 Pupil

British Values are: 

            Democracy      The Rule of Law      Liberty      Mutual        Respect        Tolerance 

Every school in England must promote British Values within pupil’s spiritual, moral social & cultural (SMSC) development. All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. This ensures young people understand the importance of respect and leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain. 

At Hawkswood primary PRU we are aiming to ensure all of our Pupils receive a well rounded and comprehensive approach to British Values in the following ways; 

• Enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence
• Enable students to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England
• Encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely
• Enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England
• Further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation for and respect for their own and other cultures
• Encourage respect for other people
• Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England.
• Encourage respect for other people, paying particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010.

By following our annual outline of how we plan to address each of the 5 areas of British Values, we aim to have a sustained impact for all of our pupils. 

Tolerance – Children can articulate why respect is important; how they show respect to others and how they feel about it for themselves.Children’s behaviour demonstrates their good understanding of this value for action. Children are able to talk about the different faiths and cultures they learn about, ask questions and show tolerance and respect for others of different faiths and religions.

Democracy – Children are able to work co-operatively in pairs and groups as well as in whole class   situations. They understand about turn taking and respecting the views of   others. Children in Yr 6 in particular are able to use the language of   respect, e.g. I agree with / I don’t agree with…’

Rule of Law – Children are able to articulate how and why we need to behave in school and   demonstrate they understand and can abide by these.

Mutual Respect – Children understand about the importance of accepting responsibility and of their   right to be heard in the Academy. They are consulted on many aspects of school life and demonstrate independence of   thought and action.

Individual Liberty – We believe that each of us, as individuals, are of equal worth and value.  Therefore we should be free to make wise choices for the common good.  Sometimes this will bring us into disagreement with each other and we regularly reflect on how our actions impact on others. Throughout the curriculum and school day we  offer the appropriate choices for the children and they learn to make better choices about their behaviour because of this.  This can be as simple as choosing their meal at lunchtime, which club they would like to participate in or which method to use in a Maths calculation. 

”It’s the power of yet”  – Year 3 Pupil

We are currently developing Growth Mindset at Hawkswood. 

We are relentless in our drive to support children to develop a growth mindset and 100% of pupils will develop a growth mindset during their intervention at Hawkswood. This is evident in the pupil voice feedback as well as in the day to day conversations with the pupils. We teach our pupils the importance of ‘yet’. This encompasses embracing challenges and understanding that, ‘I can’t do it’ can be turned into ‘I can’t do it yet’. Building a Growth Mindset shows all of our pupils that they will succeed with effort, support and determination. 

We do not place any limitations on children’s learning journeys at Hawkswood. Pupils aspire to work in greater depth within their lessons, evident in daily drop ins and conversations with the pupils. In Spring Term 1 2017/18 we introduced Headteacher half termly tea parties. Pupils are invited via invitation from the Headteacher to the tea party and pupils are extremely eager to be picked and constantly ask the Headteacher when the next tea party will be. The criteria to be picked are pupils who have demonstrated a growth mindset and British Values in their learning and their behaviour.

 We know that in order to fulfil the potential of our pupils and encourage them to become confident and resilient learners we must model the mindset of a learner who is not afraid of making mistakes but who thrives upon them, knowing that this is all part of the learning process.  The growth mindset language is embedded across the whole school. At Hawkswood, we celebrate making mistakes – we can learn from them; we never give up – perseverance is the key if we are to succeed; we learn from each other; we don’t compare ourselves with others; we challenge ourselves and take risks; we remember that our brains are making new connections and growing all the time.