Outwood Academy Shafton achieves Flagship status

Outwood Academy Shafton in Barnsley has achieved the Inclusive School Award with Flagship status.

Outwood Academy Shafton continues to be an inclusive, high performing Academy that very much lives up to its mission statement of “Students first: raising standards and transforming lives.” 

The Academy became part of the Outwood Family of Schools in 2015 and through excellent leadership has transformed itself into a welcoming and supportive Academy, with a relentless determination to provide the very best education for every child. They aim to place students at the centre of everything they do, with a focus on creating a culture of success and a positive climate for learning. 

‘Praising Stars’ culminates each half term with an assessment report for each student. If a pupil makes the highest expected effort for each of their subjects, then they are rewarded through celebratory assemblies while their names are projected on the big screens for all to see in a roll of honour. This has gone down exceptionally well with students.  

All staff are trained in positive framing and trauma aware practice. The leadership focuses on changing mindsets and creating a school where everyone ‘belongs.’ This is a tread our Assessor saw running through the Academy during their visit.   New students are introduced to the ‘ACE’ arrival programme which lays out clear expectations. The ACE redeem programme supports students, identified through the behaviour strategy to make positive choices moving forward in a supportive way.  

Diversity is a current focus across the Academy and it is currently working towards a Gold Award supported by the Stonewall LGBTQ+ charity over the next two years. An LGBTQ+ focus group meets weekly and will become part of the wider student voice. It is currently focussing on raising awareness and has already organised the Shafton Pride event in 2022. For whole school CPD, there is inclusion training using ‘FLICK’ covering updated topics such as Safeguarding and LGBTQ+.

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