What is a Parklands Person?

Our ethos is centred around the aim of ensuring that every child becomes a Parklands Person. A Parklands Person is always positive, kind, safe, polite, important and respectful. These are six words which are very important to our children and which were chosen by our pupil council. They sum up everything that we want our children to be and underpin everything that we do here at Parklands. Our children know that if they are a Parklands Person, they are ready to be good citizens of the world! 

Our children are always striving to be a Parklands Person but each half term we have a particular focus to allow us to help children to know what this actually means and what this looks like in practice. Our assemblies and PSHE curriculum are all centred around this and each week in our achievement assembly, a pupil from each class is rewarded with a certificate for demonstrating these values as follows:

Autumn 1:      Respectful

Autumn 2:      Kind

Spring 1:        Safe

Spring 2:        Important

Summer 1:     Polite

Summer 2:     Positive

Teaching in these areas is differentiated across the school to ensure that being a Parklands Person is explained in an age appropriate way. After all, a Parklands Person in our nursery will demonstrate that they are positive, for example, in a very different way to which a Parklands Person in Year 2 will. Our Parklands Person statements therefore outline what being a Parklands Person looks like in each area of the school:    

The Parklands Person and Fundamental British Values

Schools are now required to ensure that pupils have an understanding of fundamental British values. These values are: the rule of law, mutual respect and tolerance of others, individual liberty and democracy. The Parklands Person ethos allows us to easily ensure that all of our pupils, no matter how young, have an understanding of these values and are able to live them out in their everyday lives. As a school, we know exactly how a Parklands Person lives out these values as follows:

The Rule of Law (Safe)

• We have clear systems for administering rewards and sanctions within the school and teach the children the importance of these.
• We teach children how to stay safe and that rules are often to help keep us safe e.g. the pants rule, Smartie the Penguin, visits from the fire service, teaching about Safer Strangers, Safer Places.
• Children are encouraged to share their worries through worry boxes and being aware of all adults who will help them.
• We take part in sports events, competitions and festivals through which children understand rules and the importance of good sportsmanship.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Others (Respectful, Kind, Polite)

• Children take part in fund raising events e.g. Poppy Appeal, Guide Dogs charity, Canaan Trust.
• We have a clear RE curriculum which looks at a range of major world faiths.
• Different cultures are looked at through our Art, History and Geography curriculum and children are often able to experience different foods and clothes.
• We have a clear Anti-Bullying policy and all children understand what bullying is and what they should do about it.
• Each term we come together as a school to celebrate a religious festival from one of the worlds major faiths.
• In our school library, children are able to access a wide range of non fiction books about different countries, cultures and religions.
• Each year we celebrate Black History Month, looking at a range of inspirational people.
• We have clear expectations for behaviour and model to our pupils how to show respect and good manners to others.
• We give children the opportunity to share their experiences out of school through ‘News Time’ and ‘Show and Tell.’

Individual Liberty (Positive, Important, Polite)

• Children are often given the opportunity to choose their own learning, choosing from a wide range of carefully planned activities and learning through play.
• Children are encouraged to share their talents through our assemblies and annual Parklands’ Got Talent competition.
• Children know that their opinions are valued as adults often ask them what they think and conduct pupil interviews.
• Children are given roles of responsibility e.g. Pupil Councillor, Safeguarding Team member.
• All children have personal targets to work towards.
• Children are able to choose their own books to read from within our reading scheme.
• Children are given the opportunity to challenge themselves within lessons, choosing which level of difficulty they access a task at.
• Children are taught that they have the right to say ‘no’ to things which make them feel uncomfortable through our PSCHE curriculum.
• Children are helped to understand that they have to take responsibility for the choices that they make through our rewards and sanctions system.

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​Democracy (Important)

• We hold an annual ‘Parklands’ Got Talent’ event in which children vote for their favourite acts.
• Children vote for their peers to take particular roles e.g. Pupil Councillor, Eco Team representative.
• Children are given choices about what they learn through planning discussions with their teachers.
• Our children are given a voice through our pupil council, safeguarding team, eco team, playground buddies and monitors.
• We regularly seek the opinions of our pupils through pupil interviews and end of year surveys.

The Parklands Person and Social, Moral, Cultural and Spiritual Development

As well as our wider curriculum, the Parklands Person ethos also allows us to ensure that all of our pupils develop socially, morally, culturally and spiritually. We offer a wide range of experiences to our pupils within the curriculum, from visiting Twycross Zoo to working with real-life palaeontologists, but our Parklands Person experiences also allow them to get out into the community and see what it actually means to be a good citizen of the world. The experiences we provide are outlined below:

If you would like to find out any more information about what it means to be a Parklands Person and how we promote this in school, please speak to a member of staff. The documents below also provide more information - please feel free to download a copy of each.