Mapplewells Primary & Nursery School in Sutton in Ashfield and its multi-academy trust awarded prestigious Behaviour Hub status

Sutton in Ashfield’s Mapplewells Primary & Nursery School, and the multi academy trust it belongs to have both been appointed Behaviour Hubs by the Department for Education.

Behaviour Hubs are an initiative by the Department for Education which pairs schools who wish to develop or improve with lead schools and multi-academy trusts who have demonstrated an exemplary culture of behaviour, and therefore, provide optimum learning environments for children. Launching in 2021 with 22 Lead schools and 2 Lead MATs, Behaviour Hubs has now expanded and a further 28 Lead schools and 8 MATs have been inducted onto the programme to begin their work at the start of summer term in 2022.

These Behaviour Hubs will support other schools or MATs to develop good behaviour, as well as improving engagement and mental health and wellbeing within schools.

Both The Flying High Partnership and Mapplewells Primary & Nursery School have been selected as Behaviour Hubs, and Grant Worthington, Head Teacher at Mapplewells Primary & Nursery School said it was exciting news. “It is a great honour and privilege to be selected as a Lead Behaviour Hub school and to be part of a multi-academy trust which is also awarded Behaviour Hub status.

“At our school we have worked hard to develop a culture, which has embedded over many years, which is essentially around being a proud ‘Mapplewellian’.  This is a consistent set of principles which staff, children and families believe in. As an outward facing school, we are hugely inclusive and learn from everyone who comes to our school. We are not afraid to get support when we need it, we are very proactive in seeking support and embrace partnership working.  We embrace the support we get from Flying High, and outside agencies.”

Grant says that a school has to move swiftly to stay abreast of latest best practice. “It is important to say that no school will always get it right, but you do have to strive to be better every day. We are always looking to improve and adopt good practice wherever we see it working well, and over many years have focussed on implementing that good practice.”

To do this, Grant says you have to empower and train staff. “For example, we invested in the RSHE (Relationships, sex and health education) pilot alongside the Flying High Partnership, and the learning from that, and the focus on developing children’s personal development was so valuable.  That in turn strengthened leadership of personal development across the school. It is the same with Behaviour, we are working alongside and in partnership with our own multi academy trust, a range of outside agencies, and recently worked alongside the Local Authority to develop programmes to support the curriculum around behaviour and anti-bullying among other topics.”

Paul Goodman is Deputy CEO of The Flying High Partnership, now a Behaviour Hub multi-academy trust and he said, “We are delighted that Flying High has been designated as a lead MAT behaviour hub and Mapplewells Primary & Nursery School as a lead school.

“This designation recognises the hard work of Mapplewells and the Trust as a whole to support every child within our care to thrive. We are incredibly proud of our staff, and our children, in achieving this national recognition. As a Behaviour Hub we will now have a role in supporting other MATs and schools across our region. This designation forms part of our wider Flying High Futures offer, encompassing Teaching School Hub, SCITT and English Hub, placing Flying High at the forefront of supporting and enabling improvement across all schools within our region”.

Grant Worthington says he looks forward to assisting partner schools. “I hope that the culture we have developed at Mapplewells will offer support and encouragement to the schools we will assist, and we are very pleased to have been recognised as a school worthy of the status.”

Head Boy at Mapplewells is Hugh Smith, Year 6, and he said, “We do have a lot of children who behave very well at Mapplewells, we know how to behave and follow school rules.  We know why we are doing it. We are proud to be Mapplewellians!”

Head Girl, Chloe Morton Year 6 agreed, “We know we can always talk to teachers about anything and that helps to get things off your chest and sort things out quickly. That helps to stop bad behaviour before it happens, and we are all proud to behave well.  I agree with Hugh that we are proud to be Mapplewellians and proud to be at this school.”

Deputy Head Teacher, Andrew Whittle, said he’s very proud that Mapplewells has achieved this status. “We have a ground up approach to our ethos which everyone believes in and supports, from children, families, site, admin, lunch, and kitchen staff to support staff and teachers. We are here to support each other, and that communication is key to creating a safe, effective and vibrant school.”