Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy

INNOVATE to educate: Sedgefield Hardwick’s three-tiered philosophy for character and academic success

Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy, a school in Sedgefield, County Durham, UK and part of Laidlaw Schools Trust, has eradicated traditional, passive learning styles and ignited a wildfire of academic and character success among its students. It has a unique approach of progressively building knowledge and skills in a logical, sequenced manner to create independent learners, and has resulted in consistency, high expectations, and innovative thinking.

In 2013, faced with the consequences of a lack of student engagement, such as absenteeism, low achievement, and parental criticism, Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy implemented the Instil, Inspire, and Innovate philosophy, based on Oliver Wendell Holmes' Three Storey Intellect, to reverse the traditional, teacher-led, passive learning style.

The approach builds knowledge and skills in a logical, sequenced manner. In the first level (Instil), teachers provide the learners with the necessary skills through direct, traditional teaching. Next, students are inspired to use and process that newfound knowledge by showing, telling, and sharing what they know. To facilitate this, the school has invested in 1-to-1 iPad devices. The technology allows students to collaborate with each other, mark their own work, and progress towards being self-directed learners. Teachers can add modelling videos to their presentations, enabling pupils to check back on their iPads to see how to complete a task without the assistance of an adult. Finally, at the Innovate level, pupils self-direct, collaborate, and reflect on their learning.

To embed the programme into their everyday practice, the school revamped its curriculums in Maths and English, and instituted a parallel character curriculum to help build students’ resilience and embrace the risk of failure. The character curriculum includes a student self-assessment that the school triangulates against peer and teacher feedback to create a baseline and progress path for each student.

Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy measures its success not so much in its Outstanding rating by Ofsted, but by its high oversubscription, low student mobility, and the fact that so many families place it as their number one choice for schools during placement requests.

If Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy wins the World's Best School Prize for Innovation, it intends to further develop its character curriculum to be more extensively used in the wider educational community, sharing its innovative methods with other schools to improve pupils' independence, self-directed learning, and collaboration skills.