HAYDON Wick Primary School is the latest to join the White Horse Federation (WHF), which puts shared values such as respect, co-operation and honesty at the heart of education.

It is the tenth school to join the multi-academy trust of primary, secondary and special schools, which share the belief that collaboration between schools serves to improve education to children.

Simon Cowley, executive principal at Haydon Wick Primary School and director of primary schools for the WHF, said: “I think it’s a great opportunity for Haydon Wick, especially considering all the recent changes in the education system. Because Haydon Wick is an outstanding school and we feel that we can offer some new experience to the White Horse Federation and we’re very pleased to be a part of it.”

To mark the start of the new term, Mr Cowley was just one of more than 450 members of staff from all of the schools in the White Horse Federation who came together at STEAM yesterday to learn more about values-based education from Dr Neil Hawkes, the founder of the International Values Education Trust (IVET).

Dr Hawkes said: “Values-based education is when an organisation bases everything it does on positive values such as respect, co-operation, and honesty.

“It’s so exciting that the White Horse Federation here in Swindon is embodying this 21st century concept.”

Dr Nick Capstick, chief executive officer of the WHF, said the group worked because of the values all members of staff in the trust shared, such as valued-based education. He said: “I truly believe that schools become places where pupils experience positive values in context.

“They learn how to apply and talk about values appropriately becoming self-motivated as they develop holistic competence.

“Our job is not just to produce the best academic grades for our students but to make them fulfill their potential as human beings wherever they are on the academic spectrum.

“Schools are getting less and less support from local government and central government and it’s all the more important that schools work together to support each other.

“Part of that is establishing and sharing a core set of values, and establishing what we stand for as a trust and what we want to achieve.”