Education and Training Awards 2021

Best Independent Co-Educational Early Years School - Berkshire With a strong value system and community spirit, Holme Grange School strives to ensure that each and every pupil leaves with an education and a lust for life. We speak to Headteacher, Claire Robinson, as the school is presented with a prestigious title in the Education & Training 2021 awards. Holme Grange School is a thriving independent co-educational school for 3–16-year-olds offering a unique educational experience in an idyllic setting of 21 acres of Wokingham countryside. Each pupil can develop in an environment offering a wide variety of opportunities in the classroom, on the stage or sports field and in the woodland outdoor learning areas. The school’s mission is to inspire achievement beyond the bounds of expectation within an environment where every child can succeed. While this may be a bold statement, Headteacher Claire Robinson firmly believes that it is what every child deserves. “Parents describe the school as caring, friendly and warm which highlights our strong pastoral support and sense of community,” she explains. “When a child leaves us, they will be well-prepared for the world – self-confident, sociable and articulate – and will have many special memories of their time at Holme Grange. This is our core focus which we deliver on by embracing our aims.” Holme Grange has five key aims which form its core focus and which the school wholeheartedly embraces. These are to: • Stimulate intellectual curiosity and encourage people to embrace challenge • Value and nurture the individual • Develop confident, adaptable, resourceful, open-minded, resilient and above all, creative thinkers • Equip people to be global citizens who contribute positively to society • Promote a professional learning community, leading innovation in learning There is no doubt that Holme Grange is a unique school that concentrates on opening possibilities to pupils and exciting them to learn rather than focusing on an education. However, this approach also brings amazing results, as Claire elaborates. “Our year-on-year GCSE results show how well our pupils do, in 2020 over half of all grades were grade 9 – 7. Holme Grange is also an award-winning school who this year alone has been shortlisted for 2 TES Awards, been crowned winner of the COVID Community Champion in the Thames Valley awards and Best Independent Co- Educational Early Years School in Berkshire.” Education has been massively hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with pupils having to switch from face-to-face to online learning, both of which methods depended on staff availability and competences. “At Holme Grange, we were fortunate to have already invested in online technologies and systems which meant that our pupils switched to Google Classroom and Zoom for lessons.” This meant that the school continued to deliver its full timetable from day one. It also set up an extraordinarily strong pastoral support network to give each pupil a chance to talk and explain any frustrations or concerns, and alongside this was a parent Apr21512 network to keep parents fully informed and to support them in online learning. When it comes to the staff and internal culture at Holme Grange, Claire explains that the mission, “inspire achievement beyond the bounds of expectation” is not only for the pupils but also applies to the staff too. “In order for the staff to deliver our mission, we need to inspire them to try new things and push boundaries. Our staff wellbeing committee ensures we look for programmes to support staff and ensure healthy work/life balance.” As for the future, life at Holme Grange continues at pace and things are looking bright. The school is currently working to be the first Gold Award School in the Educcate Global Award Scheme that measures a schools’ approach to the environment and sustainability. This also involves training Climate Literacy teachers and now has 12 qualified teachers. “As a school we take the responsibility for educating the next generation seriously. By focusing on sustainability at a very young age we will ensure we have a generation who care about the planet.” Contact Details Contact: Claire Robinson Company: Holme Grange School Web Address: www.holmegrange.org