Awards & Accreditations
At Newfield we work hard to ensure that we follow recognised standards of best practice. We strive to gain accreditations and awards from these organisations as part of our ongoing quality management systems.
Here are details of some of the Awards and Accreditations we are proud to have achieved.
Arts Award
The Arts Award is a national accredited course for work relating to the arts. This covers areas such as art and craft, music, drama, ICT, research and communication. Newfield School became an Arts Award Centre in January 2015 which offers our pupils the opportunity to participate in the Arts Award scheme and gain nationally recognised accreditation for their achievements. It provides young people with opportunities to develop themselves creatively, learn new skills, communicate effectively, and hold exhibitions and performances. Pupils can achieve Bronze, Silver and Gold awards and new certificates which will be introduced are discover and explore. Pupils in the secondary phase have been working towards the award since January 2015, with the award being open to students in the post 16 phase and primary phases since September 2015.
Autism Accreditation
The Autism Accreditation programme provides an autism-specific quality assurance programme for hundreds of organisations throughout the UK and across the world. By providing a unified standard of excellence and a systematic framework for continuous self-examination and development, the aim of the programme is to continuously improve the quality of service provision for people with Autism and Asperger syndrome. Newfield School first under went an Autism Accreditation review in June 2011 with a review team spending 3 days in school observing lessons and other parts of the school day. They also reviewed planning, policies and training for staff and was initially accredited in September 2012.
We were re-accredited in September 2014 and then again, following the review process in June 2017, were delighted to achieve confirmation of another successful re-accreditaion in September 2017.
Duke of Edinburgh Award
Our students in the post 16 phase of school have the opportunity as part of our curriculum offer to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.
The older pupils benefit from learning lots of new and interesting skills, which lead them towards achieving the internationally famous award.
We are very excited about this initiative, working with the D of E.
Inclusion Quality Mark
The Inclusion Quality Mark is an award that is given to schools who can demonstrate that they provide equal opportunities for all their pupils regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, background and attainment. It is about each individual being a valued member of the community and providing every child with a real sense of belonging.
An Inclusive Curriculum should provide relevant and challenging learning to all children by setting suitable learning challenges, responding to diverse learning needs and overcoming barriers to learning. After a very rigorous assessment process, Newfield School was deemed to meet the requirements and was first awarded the Mark in 2006.
Successful applications were made again in 2009 and in June 2012.
In recognition of our achievements we were invited to apply for ‘Flagship School’ status which we first gained in October 2012. We were delighted to be re-accredited with Flagship Status in June 2013, and subsequently every year, most recently in June 2024. Having this accolade enables us to share our exemplary inclusive practise with other schools.
Leading Parent Partnership Award
LPPA is a national award that provides a coherent framework through which schools, early years settings and other educational organisations can deliver effective parental engagement from early years to post-16. It is awarded to schools who are committed to investing in parents and carers for the achievement of pupils and students.
The LPPA Programme is based around 10 objectives. These are the key areas through which high quality parent partnership is delivered in LPPA schools. The commitment of pupils, parents, staff and governors is essential and a detailed portfolio of evidence demonstrates, for example, that the school is a welcoming environment and provides learning opportunities for parents and carers to support their child’s and their own learning.
Newfield School was proud to first be awarded LPPA in May 2013; the report stated that we offered ‘an exemplar approach to improving parental involvement through the LPPA process’. The award has enabled us to celebrate the strengths of the school and the excellent working relationships we have with our parents and carers. We were delighted to be successfully re-accredited with the award in September 2016, November 2019 and again most recently in June 2023.
MOVE - Gold Quality Mark
The MOVE Programme is an activity based practice that enables disabled children and young adults to gain independent movement. It uses the combined approach of education, therapy and family knowledge to teach the skills of sitting, standing, walking and transitioning between.
The programme’s central philosophy is that movement is the foundation for learning. A toddler just learning to walk, learns special concepts about the environment around them by being able to move and explore. A disabled child, who uses a wheelchair and is reliant on others for movement, is not able to do this as easily. Their opportunities for learning are significantly diminished.
The aim of the MOVE Programme is to offer these movement opportunities to disabled people, opening up and transforming the world around them and creating an accessible, interesting and educational world full of opportunity and choice.
In November 2020 Newfield was delighted to achieve the Gold standard of the MOVE quality mark.
Rights Respecting Schools Award
The RRSA is a whole school award governed by UNICEF that celebrates the rights of children and recognises a schools achievement in putting these rights at the heart of their planning, policies, practice and ethos. Children’s rights are central to all aspects of UNICEF’s work, including education, and they use the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a framework for the RRSA activities. Essentially this award is relevant to us at Newfield because it celebrates what is central to our work, this being that it is our duty to ensure that all of our children have their rights protected and that this is celebrated.
We began our journey with the RRSA in October 2011 and steadily worked our way through the Recognition of Commitment, RoC, level in May 2012, and the level 1 accreditation awarded in May 2013 by UNICEF assessor, Mrs. Pat Peaker, who was very impressed with our work. Pat returned in July 2014 and we were delighted to achieve the highest accolade - the Level 2 award from her and Martin Russell.
Most recently, in July 2017 we were re-assessed and happy to have Pat return with her colleague Paul Harris and confirm our re-accreditation at Gold level (formerly known as level 2) - They said ‘…Your work as ambassadors for rights-based education in the locality and beyond is commendable’…
Wellbeing Award for Schools (WAS)
Developed in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) the WELLBEING AWARD FOR SCHOOLS focuses on changing the long-term culture of the whole school.
By using an evidence-based framework to drive change, it helps schools to deliver staff and pupil wellbeing, review staff training, and revise policies. This award ensures that mental health and wellbeing sit at the heart of school life and helps schools to promote emotional wellbeing and mental health across school
Newfield has long been committed to supporting wellbeing and has used the award framework to assist our work to develop the wellbeing offer for children, families and staff.
We were delighted to have successfully achieved the award for the first time in June 2020, and to then have a very successful re-accreditation visit in April 2024.