Darras Hall Primary School

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Darras Hall Primary School's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Darras Hall Primary School is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.darrashallprimary.com

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

40 | DARRAS HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Victoria Parr, head teacher

Peer coaching in

action

Darras Hall Primary School, an outstanding school located

in Ponteland, Newcastle, has seen a number of changes

over the past few years, and will see yet more in the

not-so-distant future. In January and then September of 2016,

they appointed a new head teacher and deputy head teacher,

respectively. In 2017, they officially made the transition from a

first school to a primary school. By the end of 2018, they will

have moved into a new, state-of-the-art school building, and

have helped form the Pele Trust, comprising multiple academies.

Head teacher Victoria Parr has been an instrumental part of

these changes since she first joined.

Everyone is a leader

At Darras Hall, we focus on leadership at every level, and professional development

is central to everything we do. All staff members have a collective responsibility for

the school’s continuous development. In short, improvement is everyone’s business.

Key to this is our philosophy of “growing” leaders. This begins with our

methodology of grouping subjects into “curriculum teams”. These comprise

a range of staff, including newly qualified teachers and higher-level teaching

assistants. With a workload spread across the team appropriately, staff are able

to continuously learn from one another. Those in early stages of their career work

incredibly closely with curriculum leaders who mentor them in how best to lead

curriculum areas.

REPORT CARD

DARRAS HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

»Head teacher: Victoria Parr

»Founded in 1985

»Based in Ponteland, Newcastle

»Type of school: Primary school

»No. of pupils: 497 in 2017-18

»Converted from first school to

primary school in 2017

»Founding member of

PeleTrust

»www.darrashallprimary.com

Darras Hall Primary

School

41DARRAS HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

What is truly central to this is knowing

the strengths of individual staff

members. We create opportunities

for each member of our team to fulfil

their potential and, as a result, remain

satisfied in their work. This goes a

long way toward ensuring that we

are all passionate about success for

every child at Darras Hall. Beyond

that, middle leaders at the school

take complete responsibility for pupil

learning and pastoral care within their

phase. Support from the higher-level

teaching assistants really helps drive

this home, and a close relationship

with all governors allows everyone to

remain deeply involved in the school’s

development.

Partners of all shapes and

sizes

We try to look outwards at how we

affect others and how others can help

us in everything we do, the result being

that the school’s structure is not one of

strict exclusivity. Parents take on a really

central role at Darras Hall. Since some

have a limited amount of face-to-face

contact with their child’s teacher, we

use a range of communication methods

to ensure that they maintain an up-to-

date awareness of their child’s learning.

Indeed, many of these parents also

volunteer within the school. Along with

grandparents and other volunteers,

they offer individual reading support

for identified children on a regular basis

and receive training from school staff.

Our move from the original three-

tier structure – where we were a

first school that pupils would attend

before moving on to middle and then

high schools – to a primary-secondary

model has enabled us to form effective

partnerships with our neighbouring

schools. Staff have regular opportunities

to work together on areas such as

assessment, physical education, middle

leadership, SEND and the transition

between years 6 and7.

The partnership between our school,

other local primary schools and the

local secondary school is a strong

one, and will this year provide the

basis for the Pele Trust. Two members

of staff are centrally employed by

this partnership and work across all

organisations within it: an MFL teacher

and an educational psychologist.

With time, we plan on having

more to come. Looking beyond the

traditional 11 to 18 school structure,

we also work closely with Northumbria

University in training teachers through

School Direct, BA and PGCE courses.

Problem solving is a central

element of our curriculum

Determination, ambition and resilience

are key components of the Darras Code

We are all

passionate

about success

for every child

at Darras Hall

“

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

42 | DARRAS HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL

Values, curriculum and

standards

Our view is that our school values

and vision must remain at the heart

of everything we do. In 2016, we

renewed and revisited six central values

that inform every decision made on

school grounds by our team. These

six values take the place of the school

rules, and instead form a “code”, one

formed collaboratively by all staff and

pupils. It reflects key behaviours and

traits that we aim to develop in every

pupil throughout their time at the

school. The Darras Code is an acronym

which encourages both pupils and staff

to be determined, ambitious, resilient,

respectful, amazing and successful.

At Darras Hall, we keep our standards

consistently high across everything we

do. This is a result of our high-quality,

responsive teaching methodology and

our creative and engaging curriculum.

We value the importance of coaching,

and staff have learning conversations

in place of more traditional feedback

methods. This enables them to engage

in purposeful and collaborative

reflection on their learning as well

as pupils’ learning, and leads them

to their own conclusions about the

quality of teaching and learning in

their classroom.

Going forward

The changes outlined earlier are the

two main points we are looking at for

the remainder of 2018. The transition

into a new school building will be an

undoubtedly eventful one, but will

hopefully be a straightforward process.

Beyond that, by the end of the year,

we want to see the Pele Trust fully

established with the foundation for

even stronger bonds and partnerships

at every level of education in our

localarea.

With these two important changes

close on the horizon, our school’s

future looks to be positive. As we

move forward over the next few

months and years, we hope to

continue seeking excellence in all

things at the school and see pupils,

staff, parents and partners alike all

keeping the Darras Code at the heart

of everything they do.

A high-quality,

responsive

teaching

methodology

and an

engaging

curriculum

“

Our aim is for learning to

engage, inspire and excite

Independent learning is fostered

from the early years

www.darrashallprimary.com

This article was sponsored by Darras Hall Primary School. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

This year’s Parliamentary Review reflects on a tumultuous and extraordinary year, globally and nationally. As well as being an MP, I am a keen student of history, and I am conscious that 2020 would mark the end of an era. It will be remembered as the year in which we concluded Brexit negotiations and finally left the European Union. Above all, it will be remembered as the year of Covid-19.

In our fight against the pandemic, I am delighted that our vaccination programme is beginning to turn the tide – and I pay tribute to the British businesses, scientists and all those who have helped us to achieve this. But the virus has dealt enormous damage, and we now have a duty to rebuild our economy.

We must ensure that businesses are protected. We have made more than £350 billion available to that end, with grants, business rates relief and our furlough scheme supporting more than 11 million people and jobs in every corner of the country, maintaining livelihoods while easing the pressure on employers. The next step is to work with business to build back better and greener, putting the net zero carbon challenge at the heart of our recovery. This is a complex undertaking, but one which I hope will be recognised as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Through the prime minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, we can level up every region of the UK, supporting 250,000 green jobs while we accelerate our progress towards net zero carbon emissions.

With our commitment to raise R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP and the creation of the Advanced Research & Invention Agency, we are empowering our fantastic researchers to take on groundbreaking research, delivering funding with flexibility and speed. With this approach, innovators will be able to work with our traditional industrial heartlands to explore new technologies, and design and manufacture the products on which the future will be built – ready for export around the globe.

And I believe trade will flourish. We are a leading nation in the fight against climate change. As the host of COP26 this year, we have an incredible opportunity to market our low-carbon products and expertise. Our departure from the EU gives us the chance to be a champion of truly global free trade; we have already signed trade deals with more than 60 countries around the world.

As we turn the page and leave 2020 behind, I am excited about the new chapter which Britain is now writing for itself, and for the opportunities which lie ahead of us.

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy