New Year 7 students enjoy team-building trip to Walton Firs Activity Centre – and put our core values into action!

*RELATIONSHIPS* RESPONSIBILITY* RESPECT*RESILIENCE*

We are always very excited to welcome our new Year 7 students to Southborough at the start of the new academic year. After a rigorously supportive transition process during the previous summer term and during the holidays – including the option to join our summer school - we already have a pretty good idea of who our boys are, their interests and thoughts about moving up to ‘big school’.

However, there’s nothing like spending the entire day at an exciting and challenging activity centre like Walton Firs to try new things, really get to know each other, bond with their teachers and -crucially – make lots of new friends. And in so doing, our new students are -whether they know it or not! - putting Southborough’s core values of RELATIONSHIPS, RESILIENCE, RESPECT AND RESPONSIBILITY very much into action!

RELATIONSHIPS

The RELATIONSHIP between two people or groups is the way in which they feel and behave towards each other; it signifies a connection. Here at Southborough we place huge emphasis on forging positive relationships between staff and pupils as we know that a positive school environment contributes to students’ academic achievement and wellbeing.

Building positive relationships with students makes them feel valued and respected. When students feel their teachers care about them, want what’s best for them and have confidence in their abilities, this can be powerful enough to move mountains. But it also provides another key benefit; it teaches our students how to harness the power of forging positive relationships themselves, whether it’s with their classmates, friends, family, people they go on to work with and for. At Walton Firs, our boys were given the opportunity to spend quality time outside of the normal school environment and it was clear that making new friends was high on the agenda!

RESPONSIBILITY & RESILIENCE

The term ‘RESPONSIBILITY’ means being dependable, making good choices and taking accountability for your actions. It’s a quality that we, at Southborough, also hold very highly. and as a result, it’s one of our key school values, as, too, is RESILIENCE, the process and outcome of successfully adapting to challenging life experiences -and succeeding. At Walton Firs, our new Year 7 students quickly learnt to take both responsibility for themselves and show resilience when taking part in some of the more challenging – some would say rather scary?! – activities!

RESPECT

Treating someone with RESPECT means that you value someone’s feelings and views. Respect in your relationships – both professional and personal - builds feeling of trust, safety and wellbeing. But being ‘respected’ by others can also signify admiration for someone based on their abilities, qualities and/or their achievements. Being respectful –and being respected by others - means that you care enough to think about how you impact others. And here at Southborough, respect is at the very heart of our key values. At Walton Firs, our new students demonstrated utmost respect for the instructors and staff, following instructions and advice to the letter, knowing that by doing so, they would be kept safe - and enjoy the activities fully!

We feel very proud of our Year 7 students, who – probably without even knowing it - took on board and put into practice our four school values during their team-building fun day out at Walton Firs. We are confident that these boys will settle into school life at Southborough brilliantly!