Ilsham C of E Academy, a part of the Learning Academy Partnership, has a beautiful mosaic to reflect the vision and values for the school, which were chosen by the entire community. The academy is rooted within the Wellswood community in Torquay and has recently re-developed their Christian vision and values. The Senior Leadership Team worked with the children, the staff, parents and families, the wider community and St Matthias Church to co-construct a vision which reflects the local community ‘To grow and flourish wherever you are planted.’ and as a church school family, the children are compassionate, respectful, honest, courageous and inspirational.
The school has an Ethos Group made up of children from different year groups, and it was their idea for a mosaic to be created as a visual representation of the vision and values. Children across the school submitted designs and a mosaic of a trees was created. On the tree, there are images to reflect how the vision underpins the school curriculum offer: a reading book as the school is one of only 34 English hubs in the country, a bee for forest school provision, and a cup of hot chocolate to represent a treat for children of the month who enjoy a hot chocolate at Me and Mrs Jones Deli across the road from the school are a few examples that can be seen on the mosaic.
Community sits at the heart of the school and the children were fortunate enough to work with a local artist, Karen Wones from Mint Mosaics. Every child in the school placed their own tile and the project was all made possible by the school’s PTFA. They very kindly funded the entire project and came into the school to work with the children and alongside Karen Wones.
Jake Grinsill, Head Teacher at Ilsham C of E Academy, said: “The school vision sets out the ambition for all children to succeed and be prepared for the next stage of their education and beyond. It is important that children are given the opportunities to meet authentic people and professionals and we hope that this sparks that passion for children for them to realise that could be me – wherever they end up in life, that they can impact positively on society and the world around them.”
