Personal Development

Welcome to our Personal Development section.

Mental health & Wellbeing
Restorative Approaches

Timothy Hackworth Primary have been very busy revisiting Restorative Approaches with staff and also in training some children to be Restorative Peer Mediators. The children have been amazing! Mrs. Morgan, a Director and Trainer for Restorative Approaches, made the following comments after working with our staff and pupils:

“I was so impressed with all aspects of the school that I experienced, from the lovely warm welcome I received from staff to the fantastic feedback that staff have taken the time to share back. Relationships are clearly a key part of why the school feels like a big warm hug!

This is the first school I have visited where I have seen the UN Rights of the Child used in such a way and I was honestly so impressed. The articles are not just words and displays on the wall, they are truly embedded within the values, attitudes and behaviour of the whole school community. The children who were training to be Restorative Peer Mediators were so aware of the importance of these articles and linked them to the behaviours they needed to display when working together. The initial activity we did related to how we needed to behave when working together for the day. Children gave answers such as, “We need to listen to each other as we all have a right to be heard.” Not only were they aware of this right, they behaved in a way that aligned with that right, from the start of the day till the end.

Relationships between staff were fantastic, as were relationships between students and staff. The Lunchtime Supervisors knew the students well and clearly enjoyed working with them. It was a real pleasure to experience your school for the few days I was there.”

Let’s Think; Let’s Talk

CRC Article 12 – Every child has the right to have their voice heard.

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School, we aim to nurture and develop our pupils to have the ability to become eloquent, active and interested citizens of their local communities, their country and the wider world. As part of our work to achieve this, we have introduced the, ‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ initiative. ‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ provides a platform for pupils, to access and discuss current affairs on an international scale.

In each session, we consider a key question based on a recent news story. We actively work to directly teach children how to express their opinions and thoughts verbally, to challenge each other and to summarise their arguments using key discussion vocabulary and phrases. As a Rights Respecting School, we focus on each child’s right to an opinion, and the right to be listened to, (Article 12), using our class pupil voice charters as an agreed method of respecting each others’ views, and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to share.

During each lesson, the children have the chance to reflect, listen, speak and form their own opinions. Our priority is to give pupils the chance to talk with purpose, improve oracy skills, expand vocabulary and raise their awareness of the wider world in which they live.

In addition to this, we spend time considering how the story links to key British Values, empowering pupils for their future as citizens of Britain and the world. We carefully select questions that encourage the growth of social, moral, spiritual and cultural understanding, with our Rights Respecting values at the centre.

‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ has also proven to be an excellent platform to develop international mindedness; we focus on the location(s) of each news story, and, as a result, our pupils will develop their geographical and global knowledge. Pupils also explore the context of each news story, therefore, diving deeper into the culture and context of the events that they explore.

‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ has proven to be a much enjoyed and anticipated lesson within our curriculum. It has provided fantastic opportunities for debate and discussion and the positive impact on the eloquence and oracy of our pupils is evident in their growth as confident communicators.

We are a Picture News Advocate School!

CRC Article 13: Every child must be free to say what they think and seek and receive all kinds of
information as long as it is safe.

CRC Article 17: Every child has the right to reliable information from the media

At Timothy Hackworth, Picture News provides the launch-pad for our ‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ sessions. ‘Let’s Think; Let’s Talk’ is designed to encourage every child to have a voice, to know how to respectfully use their voice to share their own thoughts and opinions, and to challenge the viewpoints of others.

Picture News Advocate School

Fair Trade Award

View our Fairtrade Award

Junior Road Safety Officers

Our Junior Road Safety Officers are working with our local Police Officers in Shildon to promote safer driving and safe parking around our school.

The JRSOs have just completed a speed survey alongside Jess and Holly, our local PCSOs.

Road Safety Week:

Please see links below regarding safer systems and speed:

‘Share the Light’ – Let’s Think; Let’s Talk

This term, as part of Picture News’ national Christmas Campaign, we have ‘Shared the Light’ within our community. Children spent time responding to a beautiful festive image by illustrator Lucy Burvant. The image provoked discussions around the loneliness and sadness some people may face over the festive period. Our children showed their excellent empathy and understanding and created positive and encouraging messages within their lamps.

They then took their lamps home to display in their windows, sharing the light across their home town, Shildon. Selected messages were shared with Shildon Alive, to be distributed as a part of their festive food parcels. We hope the messages created by the children work to spread the light and cheer this Christmas.

Further information can be found here: Share the Light Powerpoint

Robinwood 2022
Show Racism the Red Card

Recently, Year 5 were very lucky to take part in a Show Racism the Red Card workshop. As part of the workshop, we discussed some very important situations. We explored the meaning and importance of avoiding stereotyping.

We discussed appropriate and inappropriate vocabulary so that we know how to respect everyone’s nationality and culture.

We had a wonderful morning and feel that we can now help educate others to support Show Racism The Red Card.

‘I would just like to say what an absolute pleasure it was delivering in your school yesterday. The staff were so accommodating and the pupils were polite and engaged. They came up with fantastic answers and really insightful questions too.’ 

British Values

At Timothy Hackworth Primary School, we share and celebrate ‘British Values’ with all of our children and staff as part of our Rights Respecting School ethos.

We encourage our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in our school, our local community and the wider world.

We aim to nurture our children on their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British Society and the world.

Please visit our ‘Assemblies’ section to see how we have shared the values of being British with our school family.

You can also view and download our British Values Policy by visiting the school policies section of our website or you can view our UNICEF Gold Level School Award Accreditation Report here.

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Privacy Policy

We regard your privacy as important and any personal information you give to us will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations.

We do not store personal information about individuals who visit this site except where they provide contact information via our contact us page and contact forms available on various pages throughout the website.

Any information you provide will only be used for the reasons specified and it will not be shared with any third party without your consent, unless required by law.

Your contact details are kept securely and are only accessed by authorised members of staff as part of the provision of school services. If you do not wish us to keep this contact information please tell us.

This website uses Google Analytics which provides statistical data about the usage of the site. This information is not used to identify individuals, but is collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our site and how our site is being used.

If you are connected to the internet you will have an IP Address. This may take the form of a figure, such as 333.333.22.1. The address will be automatically collected and logged as part of the connection of your computer to our web server and may be used to determine the total number of visits to each part of the site. This data is not collected and used for other purposes.

This website contains links to other websites. The School is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites or organisations and recommends you consult the privacy information on those sites.

This policy will be reviewed and updated versions will be posted on the website.

If you have any questions about the use of your personal information, the Information Commissioner is the independent regulator for both Data Protection and Freedom of Information.