Vision, Values and Ethos
Chobham is a school where all students are recognised as individuals and appreciated for their own unique personality and talents. Everyone is encouraged to be the best they can be and nobody is allowed to fail.
We are a richly diverse inner London community and a robustly comprehensive school. Difference is celebrated and everyone is welcome. Within our school community, no one is overlooked. Our house and tutor systems ensure that all students are known and their achievements recognised.
Our vision
- We are a school that breaks down barriers, broadens horizons and challenges stereotypes.
- We are a school that is ambitious for all with a curriculum that wastes no time.
- We are a school where teaching and learning is carefully planned to ensure everyone makes excellent progress.
- We are a school with excellent academic outcomes.
- We are a school that inspires and ignites the flame of learning.
- We are a school that takes learning beyond the classroom and offers a varied and popular enrichment programme.
- We are a school that is a family for children to be part of from 3 to 18.
- We are a school that values play and nurtures imagination.
- We are a school that finds moments of calm and sees the beauty in silence.
- We are a school that learns in nature, looks after the planet and teaches others to do the same.
- We are a school that grows the superstars of tomorrow - sportspeople, politicians, actors, musicians, scientists, inventors, artists
- We are a school that gives everyone space to grow.
- We are a school where lifelong friendships are made, nobody feels lonely and everyone has an ally.
- We are a school where everybody has the right to be heard.
- We are a school where equality and diversity are embedded in everything we are and everything we do.
- We are a school that doesn’t have all the answers, looks outward and is always learning and growing.
- We are a school that meets people where they’re at and takes them on a journey beyond their expectations.
- We are a school that is more than a school - a place of welcome, refuge, community, warmth, fun and celebration.
Our values
Our values are incorporated in the phrase 'I CHEER', which you can see displayed prominently around the Academy.
Students are encouraged to give their own views in a reasoned way and to do their best to understand, and always respect, the views of others. Our Student Council and Curriculum Advisors give structured routes for every student to contribute their opinions.
At Chobham, we believe that schools have a role to play in guiding young people to develop morals which help them to lead a healthy, happy life and through their actions to benefit others. Our assembly and PSHE programmes and the frequency and quality of day-to-day discussion between staff and students helps our students to think in a community-centred way.
Mutual respect and tolerance are integral elements of our school culture at Chobham. We promote an inclusive approach to issues surrounding disability, race and ethnicity, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age, marriage/civil partnerships and parenthood. The Academy has a zero tolerance approach towards bullying.
Students are helped to understand the attitudes and beliefs that are protected by law and form part of British values. These values are not just taught but are embedded in our school life and ethos. British values include; individual liberty, the rule of law, democracy, tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs, mutual respect and awareness and tolerance of communities which are different to their own. This helps prepare our students for life in modern Britain, giving them the confidence to support one another and to challenge discrimination and extremist attitudes. This philosophy also underpins the academic curriculum and is taught through every subject.
Academy environment
We believe that effective action must be preceded by understanding, hence the need to educate and discuss important issues. We are not afraid of disagreement or of accommodating differing perspectives. Ultimately, we believe that young people need to lead environmentally responsible lives because of their own experiences, views and choices.
Individual
We each have an individual responsibility to be environmentally aware. We must strive to understand the issues facing our environment and do our best as individuals to help address them.
Organisation
As a school, we will endeavour to be as environmentally responsible as possible; for example in our purchasing of resources and in our disposal of waste
Local
The school seeks to be active in its local community, encouraging students to be environmentally responsible and to take part in local campaigns
Global
We want our students to be aware of global environmental issues and of the debate surrounding them. We encourage students to be active participants in this debate and to act in helping to address global challenges.
Eco schools
As part of our efforts to be as environmentally responsible as possible we are currently preparing an application for the Eco Schools Green Flag award with a group of students from the Youth Leadership Team. As part of our work in preparing the application we have reviewed our environmental standards and come up with an action plan to further improve them.
Key actions we are taking include:
- Installing bird boxes and hedgehog homes
- Providing bird and animal feeders
- Designating a wild area on the school site
- Publicising the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
- Ensuring our sixth form garden club is well established
- New indoor and outdoor planting using recycled containers
- Eco suggestion box
- School newsletter to publish healthy recipes, water saving tips and recycling tips
- More recycling bins with accompanying publicity
- Eliminating the use of pesticides and weedkillers
- Reducing our use of single use plastics
- Raising awareness of marine conservation issues
- Seeking to reduce food waste with the catering team.
Here is a paragraph about the Eco Schools application from two of our sixth formers, Joy and Aryan:
"A group of us were allocated to work with the Principal and to look at the school overall in terms of the ecosystem. In the Eco Schools team sessions we all came together from a wide range of year groups to discuss how we can tackle our school’s eco problems. Things such as; our school grounds, litter, marine, health, global citizenship, transport, energy usage and bio diversity. Our first task was to pick a section of interest and to tally what we already do. This helped as we can identify what we have to work with which can help us in deciphering solutions to our problems. Our second task was to come back together and agree what the three main sections that we would work on for the Eco Schools challenge would be. We chose global citizenship, biodiversity and healthy living which we will now heavily focus upon tackling. In the coming weeks we will start projects which will help Chobham fulfil its eco friendly responsibilities."
