Welcome to Buxton Community School.

Welcome to our school website and to Embark Federation. We are proud to be part of a family of schools across Derbyshire who believe that by working together as a team we can create schools that ‘stand out’ at the heart of their communities. Our trust has four core beliefs; Family, Integrity, Teamwork and Success which are integral to everything we do. 

We have high standards across our schools but want to ensure that the school experience for our children is a magical time. Our purpose is to enable everyone in our Embark family to be able to ‘Love Learning, Love Life.’ 

I became the Headteacher of Buxton Community School in March 2023, it is a role that I am very excited about. Since qualifying as a teacher of science in 2007, I have worked in the roles of Head of Science, Assistant Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher. I have worked alongside the senior leadership team here at Buxton Community School to provide a high-quality education for the students, as recognised by OFSTED in January 2020. Moving forward, I would like to build on the good school we are already part of, to make it even better.

Our Vision:

Our school is a place where all our staff and students feel happy, challenged, and supported to achieve their very best so that Buxton Community School is a place where students, staff, parents and governors are proud to be a part of. We will continue to work together, to create and maintain the highest of standards. Our approach will involve acknowledging and rewarding positive behaviours and achievements whilst challenging and supporting students to be the best version of themselves. Our values, Ready, Respectful and Safe will be instrumental in achieving this vision for our school.

Our Values:

We have worked hard on establishing the values that are important to us at Buxton Community School. We want to keep things simple and effective for our students: we feel that if our students are ready for learning, can show respect and learn in a safe environment, they will become the best versions of themselves.

Ready – we expect our students to be ready to learn. This means that the students will come to school with the correct equipment; will demonstrate effective learning behaviours in the classroom and will have the confidence and independence to extend their learning beyond the classroom.

Respectful – we expect our students to behave with respect towards: each other; our staff; visitors and the wider community. I have shared and will continue to share my expectations regarding respect with the students. As a school, we will continue to expect the highest expectations of behaviour and uniform as these underpin the values we have for each other and the school environment as a whole.

Safe – we expect students to always behave in a safe and mutually respectful way. This may be in a technology lesson, a science lesson or whilst enjoying social time.

We believe that parents who send their children to Buxton Community School have a clear idea of what we are trying to do for our students.

These are our aims:

• Provide a calm and caring environment, in which everyone can feel secure and where our young people will develop a sense of responsibility, initiative and self- discipline.
• Enable our young people to develop open, lively, enquiring and confident minds, so that they will emerge as independent thinkers, effective communicators and lifelong learners. We want our young people to be reflective, ask questions, challenge, and always seek to make sense of the world and their place in it.
• Provide a quality curriculum that takes account of the needs and the potential of every learner, and that reflects the breadth of human experience and achievement. We also aim to involve students in a wide range of additional opportunities, activities and experiences to broaden their understanding of the world.
• Offer support, guidance and encouragement and to instil confidence and self- belief. Equally, we shall make demands, and require hard work and effort, so that our young people will be motivated to see new potential and possibilities for themselves. We shall recognise, reward and celebrate achievement of all kinds, and we shall encourage the pursuit of excellence.
• Prepare our young people for the opportunities, challenges and tensions that occur in their community and in society at large - through active involvement in the life and values of the school, and by promoting qualities such as understanding, tolerance, respect, pride, generosity of spirit and optimism.
• Gain the trust and confidence of parents and the wider community, by working in open and genuine partnership and by sharing both our successes and our difficulties. We also aim to work in close and effective collaboration with all other organisations that contribute to the education and development of young people, including our partner primary schools, Higher Education and business and industry.
• Be a school that plays a full and effective part in the community - by involving ourselves in the social, economic and cultural life of the community; by recognising that our facilities represent an important community resource; and through the widest possible involvement of the community itself in the life of the school.

Above all, our aim is that our students should develop into sensitive and confident young citizens, as fully prepared as possible for their life ahead in an increasingly complex world, and with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that their chosen future will require.

I hope you enjoy browsing our website and I hope it helps you to better understand our values and ethos at Buxton Community School.  If you would like to visit our school, please contact us to arrange an appointment.

Mrs Sam Jones - Headteacher

We want the very best for our young people and will not let it get more complicated than that!