Vision & Values

Duncombe supports children to learn and achieve in a supportive, high quality, aspirational environment, leading to a successful transition to secondary school. We are working together to continue to raise standards across the school, striving towards excellence. We have high expectations of all our learners. We develop our children’s sense of purpose, understanding, motivation and ability to learn.

According to Helen Ryan, Headteacher of Duncombe Primary School: 

“At Duncombe, it’s our job to help children aspire for a better future so that they can achieve more. Not only do we constantly strive to improve standards in teaching and learning, we also focus on personal development and pupil well-being. We know that by developing our children in a holistic way, we will help them achieve their goals and enable them to achieve more in their education and lives. So, we asked governors, parents, children and staff what values and behaviours they thought we should develop in our children.

We decided on six core values: ambition, self-esteem, perseverance, independence, respect, enthusiasm. As well as collectively spelling out the word ‘ASPIRE’, each value has its own symbol to help the children remember them.”

The ethos was launched in September 2020, and since then our staff have been working with the children of Duncombe to develop a deep understanding of each value and the associated behaviours so that they can achieve more in all aspects of their learning and future lives.

We created symbols for each of our core values. These can be seen around the school as a constant reminder to the children, staff and other stakeholders about our core values. Here they are with some examples of how these characteristics can be developed:

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Ambition

You can show ambition by:

• Aiming for more in a subject you find tricky
• Pushing and extending yourself
• Believing that you can reach your goal
• Knowing that there are different routes to success
• Keeping focussed on the ‘big picture’

Self-Esteem

You can show self-esteem by:

• Volunteering an answer or an opinion in class
• Not being afraid of making a mistake
• Supporting and encouraging others  
• Dealing with a setback in a positive way
• Having pride in your presentation

 Perseverance

You can show perseverance by:

• Keeping going when a question is tough  
• Practising a skill so that you get better at it  
• Not worrying if you don’t understand  
• Saying ‘I can do this’  
• Working hard in anything that you find difficult

Independence

You can show independence by:

• Working hard on your homework
• Asking questions in class
• Developing your own ideas  
• Being able to speak out if you see unfairness

Respect

You can show respect by:

• Listening  
• Accepting and understanding feedback  
• Valuing all members of society, whatever their religious beliefs, gender, ethnicity or family background
• Showing good manners
• Speaking in a calm manner

Enthusiasm

You can show enthusiasm by:

• Putting all of your energy into anything you do
• Being passionate about what you are doing
• Being keen to learn and succeed
• Showing appreciation for other people