Our Values and Vision
Our values are incorporated in the phrase ‘Proud of ourselves, proud of our school’ which can be seen prominently around the Academy.
Chobham seeks to help our students develop as individuals who are sustained by an intrinsic sense of pride and a recognition of their own worth as human beings. Many Chobham students come from challenging backgrounds and work hard to get to school and to succeed here. All of our students make a unique contribution and all have much to celebrate in their lives and talents. Our aim as a school is to help our students recognise, appreciate and fulfil their individual and collective gifts.
At Chobham Academy, we wish to assist the development of our students in four key areas:
- Citizenship - we want our students to become active young citizens who have an informed social conscience and who take an interest in the world around them.
- Learning - developing curiosity and a true love of learning. We want Chobham students to be equipped with skills to help make them confident and effective life-long learners.
- Academic - achieving the best examination outcomes they are capable of.
- Social - helping students acquire the social skills and attitudes which will help them to form effective relationships both within and beyond school. These include excellent communication skills and the ability to be polite and friendly in any environment.
- Success - helping students to be successful in everything they do at school and to celebrate their achievements.
Our Chobham Values are:
- Empathy- the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Being interested in the wellbeing of others and helping those in need.
- Curiosity- being open minded, interested in the world and keen to see the bigger picture.
- Excellence- taking pride in looking after ourselves and in all we do. Striving to do the very best that we can.
- Respect- listening to and considering views that are different from our own. Allowing people to make their own life choices. Looking after our local and global environments.
- Inclusion- valuing and treating all members of our community equally; giving them the same opportunities whatever their background or life choices.
- Honesty- always being truthful to ourselves and to those around us.
At Chobham, we want to create an environment where all students are happy, appropriately challenged and stimulated, and feel able to fulfil their potential. The things that make our vision distinctive are:
- All Chobham students will achieve a broad range of exceptional educational opportunities
- The different talents of our students are recognised, cultivated and celebrated
- Students are helped to understand moral issues and recognise the difference between right and wrong. Our students are encouraged and supported in speaking up for what they believe to be right
- Students are enabled to succeed in whichever areas they possess talent and have a desire to achieve
- All students are supported in making as much academic progress as they are capable of and in achieving as highly as they can
- All students are recognised as unique individuals and enabled to express themselves in an articulate way
- Our students will possess good levels of knowledge and have a broad cultural, scientific and historical awareness
- Our students will be active young citizens who take responsibility and are considerate towards others
- Chobham students should be creative thinkers, capable of taking risks in their learning and studying independently
- Students will be socially adept and confident when meeting new people
- Students will be environmentally aware and knowledgeable global citizens
- Our students will have a commitment to equality and inclusivity and embrace diversity
To help us achieve our ambitions we aim to make the following provision a typical experience for all students at Chobham:
- Great teaching and learning
- Strong and supportive relationships with fellow students and staff
- A diverse range of enrichment activities and trips
- A safe and secure environment where young people can express themselves with confidence
- Outstanding role modelling from adults in the Academy community
- A range of external speakers and mentors
- An inspiring learning environment
- A broad and exciting curriculum that meets the needs and aspirations of all students.
An inclusive school
Chobham is a school where all students are recognised as individuals and appreciated for their own unique personality and talents. At Chobham 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. At Chobham 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.
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 do 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
Chobham Academy in its 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.
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
The school seeks to be active in its local community, encouraging students to be environmentally responsible and to take part in local campaigns
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 E co Schools application from two of our sixth formers, Joy and Aryan:
A group of us were allocated to work with Mr Whitworth 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.
