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Children in Assembly
Aims & ethos

Ambitious aims require a strong ethos

Love • Care • Excellence, as lived out by our amazing staff on a daily basis, is uniquely appropriate for young children and a key success factor in achieving our overarching aim of shaping their future.

The whole child

We fully embrace the development of ‘the whole child’ and aim to equip every one of our pupils with:

  • a complete set of skills in all major domains of development, i.e. self-regulatory (executive functions), cognitive, social, emotional and physical;
  • skills and interest in all core academic subjects such as maths, English and science, as well as a wide range of specialisms, such as music, sports, arts, French, drama, dance and woodwork;
  • the ability to solve problems and find solutions both individually and collaboratively; and
  • a moral identity, to ensure they become good citizens with sound moral values.

In addition, we place great emphasis on helping to shape:

  • a sustained joy of learning, innate curiosity and creativity;
  • self-esteem and self-confidence, balanced with humility;
  • independence;
  • a positive, ‘can do’ approach to life;
  • perseverance and resilience to rebound from setbacks; and
  • an appreciation of the importance of wellbeing, and strategies for achieving it.

Guiding principles

Our long-established and deeply engrained ethos of Love • Care • Excellence encapsulates our commitment to excellence and our conviction that love and care are prerequisites for a child’s optimal development. They are essential to awakening innate curiosity and establishing a positive cycle of learning, success, confidence and happiness.

This philosophy is manifested in our school’s caring, friendly and fun atmosphere, so that children can feel secure about themselves and their learning. At the same time, we champion achievement, respect and discipline, marrying academic excellence with the development of strong emotional and social skills and values.

Our nine golden rules help us live out our ethos on a daily basis. We introduce the from Kindergarten and continuously reinforce and deepen their underlying concepts to provide a moral and behavioural compass for everyone at the school.

We are fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children at the school as described in our safeguarding policy. We embrace every aspect of diversity and believe in the benefits of a co-educational environment in the Early Childhood Education period. In our view, young children need to see themselves reflected in their surroundings and be exposed to a range of others if they are to truly understand and learn about our world.

Kindergarten children and their teacher
Year 1 doing woodwork
Year 1 working outdoors
Kindergarten child looked at a bug hotel
Two reception children working with their teacher
Hip-Hop Dance Club
Pre reception Art

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The Old Vicarage, 127 Herne Hill, London, SE24 9LY   |   enquiries@hernehillschool.co.uk  |  020 7274 6336
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