School Development Plan

"Expect the best in everything - then play your part in achieving it"‍

Dunster First School, located in the picturesque medieval village of Dunster, Somerset, is a vibrant educational institution, home to nurturing teachers and curious students. Rooted in inspirational values, we take pride in our all-inclusive ethos, welcoming children, adults, and families from all walks of life.

Vision & Values

At Dunster, our vision is:

• Every child must have access to an enriched curriculum
• Every child must be given the right level of support and challenge to excel
• Every child must be able to learn in a kind, calm, healthy, safe and caring environment
• Every child must be educated on all matters: academic, social, moral, health, spiritual, citizenship, values and ethics
• Every child must be given the opportunity to develop their learning attitudes such as critical thinking and problem solving
• Every child will develop a sense of worth and belonging in our school community

Our Goals

Our development plan for the forthcoming academic year focuses on the following areas:

Leadership & Management

• Embed the new structure supporting governance and leadership to succeed.
• Secure our commitment to the Staff Wellbeing Charter.
• Refine our tracking and national benchmarking to secure the best for our schools.
• Maintain safeguarding standards.

Quality of Education

• To review our curriculum with the most recent pedagogy and research on how children learn best.
• To ensure our pupils have the greatest levels of autonomy over their own learning and are entirely well equipped, motivated and confident to succeed.
• To purchase Little Wandle phonics scheme to add to our already strong phonics teaching and provisions.
• Deliver expert and additional tutoring to support our pupils after lock downs and gaps from education; emotionally, socially, and academically.
• Look at utilising support from across our federation to increase our capacity for curriculum development and leadership.
• Improve our ICT connectivity and improve our provision for our pupils.
• To review the ICT curriculum after a time of remote and online learning to ensure its e-safety provision is fit for the period of time.
• Link with the Middle and College phases for writing, maths and RSHE curriculums.

Early Years Foundation Stage

• Embed the Sept 2021 EYFS Framework, including new tracking systems.
• Ensure the framework is linked to KS1 and transition is seamless for pupils.
• Children make good or better progress from their starting point.

Personal Development

• Linked curriculum project with Middle and College sectors to ensure our RSHE programme keeps our children fully safe.
• Review our mutli cultural and cultural capital aspects of our curriculum to ensure our pupils have a positive

Behaviour & Attitudes

• Revisit attendance procedures in light of post covid lockdowns. Interpreted as safeguarding foci.
• Pupil parliament reviews and full engagement.
• Ongoing value of our trauma informed schools approach, with a foci on mental health and wellbeing.

‍

Monitor and Review

We believe in continuous improvement and therefore regularly review our progress through external reviews, leadership reviews, staff impact reviews, and coaching, parental reviews, and student leadership reviews. This feedback directly influences our school evaluation, which is rigorously reviewed against the current Ofsted framework and national and local statistical data.

Acknowledgments

Our strength lies in our community and their commitment to our vision and values. Thank you to all who help us by providing feedback throughout the academic year—parents, grandparents, and members of the community—your contributions are invaluable in our cycle of improvement and review.