Vision and Values

We are proud to serve a diverse, vibrant community at the heart of Northampton. Our children grow up in an urban setting where challenges exist, but also where opportunities to thrive are rich. We believe that every child can succeed—academically, personally, and socially—when provided with the right environment, high expectations, and a strong sense of belonging.

We are relentless in our drive for high standards. Every child is expected to give their best, every lesson, every day. We match this with unwavering support, ensuring no child is left behind and every child is challenged to achieve more than they thought possible.

Our Core Values

Respect – valuing ourselves, others, and the world around us.

Resilience – developing the courage to keep going, learn from mistakes, and embrace challenges.

Integrity – acting with honesty and fairness, even when no one is watching.

Our Curriculum Vision

At Spring Lane, we nurture confident, curious learners through an inspiring and empowering curriculum. We celebrate inclusivity by opening minds and doors, guiding every child on their unique journey of discovery and growth.

Our curriculum is vocabulary-rich and has a strong focus on oracy, ensuring that every child develops the language, communication, and confidence they need to succeed. For our community, where many children are learning English as an additional language, this focus is vital: it enables pupils to access the full curriculum, express themselves clearly, and engage in meaningful dialogue with others.

Our Curriculum Intent

Children at Spring Lane Primary School will learn to be:

• Effective Communicators
  
• Expert Learners
  
• Caring Citizens
  
• Healthy Individuals
  
• Aspirational Thinkers

Our curriculum is implemented through Learning Quests that prepare children to thrive in a diverse and ever-changing world, ready to embrace opportunities and challenges. These quests provide rich, contextual, and enquiry-based learning experiences that are tightly aligned to both the national curriculum and our curriculum intent.

The Learning Quests are underpinned by three core principles:

Relevance – We make learning meaningful by connecting it to children’s lives, communities, and the wider world.

Experiences – We bring learning to life through immersive, hands-on adventures.

Collaboration – We learn best together, as learners and as citizens.

A Language-Rich Curriculum

At Spring Lane, we believe that language unlocks learning. For our children, many of whom speak English as an additional language, developing vocabulary and oracy skills is central to success across the curriculum.

We are committed to:

• Vocabulary-rich teaching – every subject includes explicit teaching of ambitious and subject-specific vocabulary, ensuring children can think, talk, and write with confidence.
  
• Oracy at the heart of learning – through discussion, debate, storytelling, and presentation, children learn to express themselves clearly and listen to the ideas of others.
  
• Language for life – by prioritising communication skills, we equip our pupils to thrive academically, socially, and beyond school in the wider world.

This golden thread runs through every Learning Quest, making Spring Lane a school where children find their voice, grow their confidence, and connect with the world around them.

Relationships

At Spring Lane, relationships are not left to chance—they are taught, modelled, and nurtured as part of our curriculum. We believe that positive, trusting relationships between adults and children are the foundation of all learning.

Staff consciously build respectful, consistent, and caring relationships with pupils, ensuring every child feels seen, heard, and valued. Children are taught how to relate to one another through kindness, empathy, and responsibility, preparing them for life beyond school. We work in close partnership with families, recognising parents and carers as the first educators of their children and essential partners in the learning journey.  By placing relationships at the heart of the curriculum, we create a safe, supportive environment where children have the confidence to take risks, embrace challenge, and thrive academically and personally.

Academic Excellence and Personal Development

Our curriculum is ambitious and knowledge-rich, designed to give every child the best possible start in life. Alongside academic study, we place equal importance on personal development. This includes:

• Social and emotional learning, giving children the tools to understand and manage their emotions.
• Building strong relationships, rooted in trust, with both children and families.
• Self-efficacy, ensuring children believe in themselves and their ability to achieve.

We do not settle for 'good enough'.  Instead, we relentlessly pursue excellence, ensuring children leave Spring Lane not only with strong academic foundations, but also with the character, resilience, and confidence to succeed in whatever path they choose.

Pastoral Care, SEND and Inclusion

High-quality pastoral care is at the heart of our inclusive ethos. We recognise that every child and every family is unique, and we work closely with parents to provide tailored support that meets individual needs.

Our strong SEND provision ensures that pupils with additional needs receive the right balance of challenge and support to help them thrive. Through personalised plans, specialist staff, and carefully adapted teaching, we make sure every child has access to the full curriculum and the chance to achieve their best.

We are equally committed to supporting children’s wellbeing—providing a safe, nurturing environment where they feel understood, valued, and confident to take risks in their learning. By working hand-in-hand with families, outside agencies, and community partners, we ensure that barriers to learning are reduced and that every child’s potential is realised.

Safeguarding and Protective Culture

Spring Lane has a deeply embedded safeguarding culture where the safety, welfare, and protection of children is paramount. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and staff are vigilant in identifying, supporting, and responding to the needs of our children and families. We extend this commitment into the home by working closely with families around attendance, wellbeing, and family support.

Through our bespoke PHSRE curriculum, children are explicitly taught how to keep themselves safe—both online and in the wider world.  This ensures every child grows up with the knowledge, understanding, and resilience to lead safe, healthy, and happy lives.

A Community of Belonging

Spring Lane is a school where every child is known, valued, and celebrated. We are enriched by families from a wide range of ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds, with many of our pupils speaking English as an additional language. This diversity is not just respected—it is celebrated—and contributes to a strong sense of unity and belonging across our school community. Through assemblies, curriculum themes, and cultural celebrations, children learn to value difference and recognise the strength it brings.