Understand school ethos, mission, aims and values

Introduction.
I have chosen to compare how Wimborne Infant School and Court Lane Infant School use their website to promote the schools ethos, aims and values and draw and comparisons or differences between them highlighting these. I am working within Wimborne and therefore have also highlighted what we do within the school to help promote the aims and values to the children.
School 1:
Wimborne Infants:
We are a happy, friendly and successful school, proud to be a close community who work hard together, have fun and look after one another.
We are committed to continuous improvement and lifelong learning for both children and adults. We want everybody to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and we value everyone’s achievements both in and out of school, academic or otherwise. We are interested in the development of the whole person and believe that everyone can be successful.
We aim to nurture academic progress, excellent behaviour, care, consideration and good citizenship in all of our children. We teach all aspects of the national curriculum and enrich this through visits, visitors, specialist teachers and special projects. We build firm foundations which inspire enjoyment in learning, positive self-esteem, self-respect and confidence. http://www.wimborne-inf.portsmouth.sch.uk/The impact that these aims, values and the schools ethos have are many from child to parent and teachers. The school highly promotes the safety and wellbeing of the children and supports their continuous improvement in Maths, English, ICT and development as a person , this is reflected in the homework books sent home to parents which asks them to work with their child and complete the book to say how they feel their child did in the task, there are also folders for teachers and assistants when doing one to one work with children so that we can track their progression. Around the school the promotion of being friendly and polite to one another is very high, this is on posters and an ethos that the children say during assembly.
Good impacts:
Builds good relationships with children and staff.
Children learn to be polite and respect adults and one and another.
Opportunities for children to constantly improve and be challenged.
Opportunities for children to better themselves away from school.
Creates a happy environment for everybody.
Negative impacts:
Building such good relationships can lead to distraction in class. This is reflected in the classroom when some children get more easily distracted and sit talking to their friend rather than listening to the teacher. Effectiveness of the website:
The website is bright and colourful and eye catching. The first thing you see is that the school has been rated as “good” by Ofsted and that the school is always striving to achieve better, there is also a link to the Ofsted report should anyone want to review that which shows that school has transparency and honesty.
There is however nowhere for the pupils to go on the website and is mainly aimed at providing information for current or future parents and teachers. This could be seen as a negative as the child then has no reason to visit or learn more about the school or be part of it online. There is lots of information for new parents and current ones. The website has links to all classes so you can see and read what your child has been learning. There are many links to other sites for admissions, and results as the school is proud of its achievements. They have a prospectus that details all activities aims, values, ethos in greater detail. There is a gallery so that you can see what the teachers look like along with assistants too. As a teaching assistant within the school we promote these aims, values and ethos by asking the children to take notice of the boards around the school highlighting the need for sharing, caring and reporting of bullying or inappropriate behaviour. All staff within the school are smartly dressed, polite and caring towards the children as per the schools aims and values. The aims and values of the school are promoted throughout the school on posters in the halls, classrooms and even in the playground.
Overall I think it is a very good website which is easy to navigate and provides lots of useful information to the parents. However it doesn’t have any reason for the child to visit the website and there was nothing for the larger community to view, although it does state they are happy to be contacted for any questions or queries.
School 2:
Court Lane Infants:
We are all proud of our school and hope you will be excited by what we offer. Come and take a look!
We want children to flourish, leading happy, healthy lives with skills and attitudes to adapt in an ever changing world, and in doing so fulfil their aspirations and dreams.
We offer a secure and caring environment. We aim for the children's learning experiences to be engaging, creative and thought provoking. We believe every child deserves excellent teaching and curriculum provision that allows for them to grow in confidence and independence.
As a professional and dedicated staff team we track the progress of each child and intervene to target additional support to ensure our high standards of progress and behaviour are maintained.
We work in partnership with parents and the wider community for success.
We hope you will share our vision for years to come, capturing the enthusiasm and energy of young learners in order to inspire them to develop a love of learning that will last a life time. http://www.courtlane-inf.portsmouth.sch.uk/ The impacts of the aims, values and ethos for Court Lane are similar to those of Wimborne. Both schools feel that each child has the potential to do the best they can and to be challenged whilst also making sure that each child is cared for.
Good impacts:
Opportunities for after school activities.
Opportunities for the child to flourish and be happy.
Engaging in all activities with children.
Negative impacts:
The aims, values, and ethos is very short, not very descriptive and very open to interpretation.
Effectiveness of the website:
The website is not very welcoming, it is in the school colours of green but is not as bright and eye catching as the Wimborne website. The aims, values and ethos is short and sweet and is only mentioned on the home page, whereas Wimborne promotes on the front page and also in the prospectus. I could not find a prospectus for Court Lane on the website. The website does promote that the school has facilities for disabled children and promotes this and its other facilities well. The website is for parents only as is Wimborne’s, there is no area for the child to go and engage, Court Lane does promote their after school activities in a good fashion and displays this information well. They also have other useful links to websites that include: games, bbc bitesize, keeping your child safe online, national geographic and more.
Conclusion
I feel that the Wimborne website communicates better its values, ethos, and aims on their website, it is also more welcoming to the person viewing the page. It shares pictures of the teachers and some of the children participating in school activities so that the parents can get an idea of who is with their children and what they have been doing. It also shows what they have achieved with Ofsted and are not afraid to show this whereas Court Lane only briefly mentions that they have achieved a “great” standard. Court Lane however does promote its after school activities in a bigger and better way than Wimborne and outlines the facilities it has for disabled children and the rest of the pupils who attend.