Vision and Values

Excellence, Care and Partnership

Our motto and what it means to us

As a school we are extremely proud of our badge, you will see it everywhere around the school. We are proud because it sums everything that we believe in. The motto on the badge says ‘Ut Fili Lucis Fiatis’ and it means ‘to become children of the light’, and that is the reason we exist as a school. We believe that every young person who walks through our doors has enormous potential. Our staff work hard to help students to reach their best and become enlightened, or as our motto says, become children of the light.

Everyone at The Earls High School supports students to make as much academic progress as possible so that they are equipped for the next stage of their education or career. We believe that it is our duty to help them develop character too, so that they can communicate effectively, have the resilience to carry on when things get difficult, work effectively as member of a team and develop their leadership skills. We want students who leave us to be kind, compassionate and caring individuals; people who will support and help their neighbours and make a significant positive contribution to Halesowen or whatever community they choose to live in.

If we develop these three qualities in the young people who choose to come to our school, we can feel content that we have done our job well.

How do we achieve this at The Earls High School?

In everything we do we are guided by our core values of Excellence, Care and Partnership. This can be seen in:
 

  • Great teaching. We have a stable, dedicated and experienced group of excellent teachers who work hard to improve the learning of the students. We have a clear understanding of how children acquire knowledge and skills and the professional development of our staff is a crucial part of our success.
  • A rich and diverse curriculum. We teach a full range of subjects from Year 7 to 9 and students then choose the subjects that they will specialise during Year 10 and 11. We give student the widest range of choices so that they can focus their learning on subjects that they enjoy and are good at.
  • We have high expectations of our students. We will give lots of support, but we expect the students to make good decisions and to work to the best of their ability in every aspect of their learning. Even if dance or science or geography is not their favourite subject – we still expect students to try their hardest.
  • Extra-curricular activities are an important part of life at our school. Every September we hold our Freshers’ Fair for the new Year 7 students where they can sign up for orchestra, choirs, samba band, sports teams, dance companies, drama club, science club, history and chess club to name but a few. There is also a myriad of leadership opportunities: The Duke of Edinburgh Award, joining our Junior Leadership Team, becoming Head Boy or Girl, the Bushcraft experience, not to mention the opportunities they have to represent their house.
  • The Earls Gold Award is our way of developing students as confident, accomplished individuals. It gives them a framework to demonstrate that they have a positive attitude to their learning but also recognises their contribution to their community, their commitment to developing their own health and well-being and their engagement in cultural activities. You see students wearing their ‘Gold’ flashes with pride; it shows us that they are students who are becoming well-rounded individuals.
  • We put a huge emphasis on the care of our students to ensure that they are safe and happy at school. We have a large pastoral team and great form tutors who will support students so that they can learn effectively at school. Like any school, there are rare incidents of bullying, but we deal with these quickly and effectively.
  • Partnership is also vital in so many ways, especially the partnership between the school and parents. Research has shown that a parent’s efforts towards their child’s educational achievement are crucial – often playing a more significant role than that of school or the child. When we have high quality staff at school, supportive parents and motivated students the results can be absolutely stunning.

Does our approach work?

Our exam results suggest that it does. The attainment of our students is well above average and we are proud that when students attend The Earls High School, they make significantly more progress if they were to attend an average school in England, no matter what their starting point is.
But more than this, if you spend time in school you will see happy, safe, confident students who attend well. We know that our students will thrive when they leave us because they are so well prepared for their next steps. We also know that students make friendships and build relationships here that will last a lifetime.

Please don’t take my word for it though, if you are a prospective member of staff or a family looking for a school for your child, you are warmly invited to visit The Earls High School to see for yourself. We look forward to meeting you.