Bringing Our Community Promise to Life

Bringing Our Community Promise to Life

At the heart of everything we do at The Alice Smith School is a simple, shared commitment: to build a school culture where everyone is kind, safe, and purposeful. This promise isn’t just a slogan on the wall, it is the fundamental why behind how we teach and how we build our community.

To deepen this commitment, we were delighted to welcome renowned behaviour and inclusion expert Nancy Hooper from Team Teach UK for an inspiring four-day residency across both our Primary and Secondary Campuses.

Behaviour as Communication

If we want children to feel truly safe and act with kindness, we first need to understand what their actions are telling us. The central theme of Nancy’s visit was that behaviour is communication. Nancy worked with our educators to align our daily practices directly with our core Community Promise:

• Creating Safe Spaces: School leaders joined Nancy on sensory walks through classrooms and corridors to experience our campuses from a student’s perspective. By tweaking lighting, noise, and room layouts, we can ensure our environments feel calm and reassuring for every child.
• Encouraging Kindness: Staff learned positive, constructive ways to consistently help upset students manage their feelings. Teachers were equipped with practical scripts to de-escalate stress and encourage empathetic, restorative conversations.
• Supporting Purposeful Learning: When children feel calm and understood, they can re-engage with their learning in a meaningful, focused way. Nancy has consulted on the school’s updated Positive Behaviour Policy and confirmed that it is in line with best international practice. 

Extending Our Community Promise to the Home: September Parent Workshops

A culture of kindness, safety, and purpose doesn't stop at the school gates, it flourishes when home and school work hand in hand. Through our upcoming parent workshops, we hope to enable our parents to learn more about what our Community Promise looks like in action within our school, giving you shared strategies to bring into your home.

This September, we are thrilled to host two key international experts across our campuses. Both guests will host parent workshops, we will share more information in due course.

• Jonathan Taylor — Online Safety: Helping families navigate the digital world safely, responsibly, and with purpose.
• James Wright — Coaching & Family Harmony: Author of Kids Pro Quo, As well as leading coaching training for our teachers, James will host an exclusive parent workshop: "Raise Team Players: How to Coach Your Child for a Calmer, Happier Household."

Thank you to Nancy Hooper for empowering our team, to our staff for their enthusiasm, and to our parent community for partnering with us to ensure every child experiences a kind, safe and purposeful school day.