Our Vision & Values
Harmood is a welcoming and nurturing school. Each of our students has an Education, Health & Care plan (EHCP) and we work closely with each child as an individual, helping them achieve their very best – whatever their starting point.
Harmood is a place where all students can learn, grow and succeed. Our tailored approach helps students build their practical life skills, including digital awareness and oracy, and gain qualifications. In collaboration with others, they learn to manage their social, emotional and mental health and communicate effectively.
Our Core Values
At Harmood School, our values are more than words – they are the foundation of our culture and the guiding principles behind everything we do. These shared values are lived and modelled every day by both staff and students, shaping how we learn, interact and grow together as a community.
Resilience
We encourage our students to face challenges with determination and perseverance. We support them to keep going, learn from setbacks and develop the strength to succeed in school and beyond.
Integrity
We promote honesty, responsibility and doing the right thing, even when it is difficult. Our students are supported to take ownership of their actions and build trust in themselves and others.
Compassion
We foster a culture of kindness, empathy and respect. Students are encouraged to understand and support one another, helping to create a safe and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued.
Ambition and Achievement
We have high expectations for every student. We inspire ambition, celebrate success and support each young person to achieve their full potential, both academically and personally.
Community
We value the strength of working together. Our school is a community where everyone belongs, contributes and is supported. We build positive relationships that extend beyond the classroom and into the wider world.
These core values are embedded in everyday school life. We actively recognise and celebrate students who demonstrate our values through our rewards system. Students earn reward points for showing resilience, integrity, compassion, ambition and achievement, and community, which can be spent in our reward shop. This reinforces positive choices, engagement and a strong sense of pride in their achievements.
Through our core values, we aim not only to develop successful learners, but confident, compassionate and aspirational young people who are well-prepared for their future.
Who are our students?
We support students who have an Educational, Health and Care Plan where the principal area of need is their social, emotional and mental health. Our students will likely face challenges with regulation, relationships, and accessing learning. They may sometimes display challenging external behaviours.
Our young people will often have secondary needs around communication and interaction. Our students must be able to access group provision, alongside their tailored support. We seek to support local, neurodiverse students who meet these criteria.
What do we offer?
In our warm and welcoming school, we offer small-group, classroom-centered learning. We have high ratios of staff to students, and adapt our teaching to suit each individual child. Our curriculum is an appropriate blend of the National Curriculum with off-site learning, targeted interventions, and tailored accreditation.
We prioritise personal development, life skills, literacy and numeracy, and preparation for adulthood. This is supported by a nurture-based, trauma-informed approach with strong pastoral care and restorative practice, equipping students with the tools to understand and manage their SEMH needs.
Outcomes for our students
At Harmood, all students can learn, grow and succeed. Our tailored approach helps students build their practical life skills, including digital awareness and oracy, and gain qualifications. In collaboration with others, they learn to manage their social, emotional and mental health and communicate effectively.
We prepare our young people for post-16 success, and teach them how to foster strong and lasting relationships. As a result of our specialist provision, Harmood School students are set up to become happy and fulfilled adults thriving within a diverse community.
Our Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Specialism / Special Educational Needs (SEN)
Our students benefit from a universal embedded SEMH curriculum that is integrated into lessons and pastoral support, and serves as the foundation of our nurture ethos and trauma-informed practice.
At times, the universal SEMH and adaptive SEND provisions may not fully meet a student's needs. In these cases, students will have access to targeted interventions informed by assessment of their progress and our responsive approach to their daily needs.
On occasion, students may require even more specialised support beyond our universal and targeted provisions. In these cases, we will provide additional interventions with a view to supporting students back into our group provision.
From the first day you walk through our door, you'll experience the care, compassion, warmth and ambition we extend to all our students and families. At Harmood School, we know that with the right support, every student can succeed.
