THE
CRYPT SCHOOL
Strategic Plan 2026–31
Pupils receive an exceptional quality of education and benefit from a rich offer to develop their talents and interests. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
Enabling every student to
flourish
THE CRYPT SCHOOL
Introduction
Remaining true to the ambitious vision of our School’s Founders, this strategic plan sets out how we intend to further strengthen our school, its mission and values over the next five years and in doing so, sets out an ambitious plan for the future.
Thinking about what the future holds for education, for our young people and for our staff, we have carefully considered what our main strategic priorities should be that will ensure the continued success of our distinctive educational offer.
Preparing students for the future, offering a rigorous knowledge-rich curriculum through which they can themselves make informed judgments about our world, about their lives and through that find out who they are, underpinned by an inclusive and supportive school culture , remains our educational priority and challenge. It is one we embrace, as we look to the future with confidence in our vision, mission and school values.
Nicholas Dyer Headmaster
Our Vision
...rooted in history, right for the twenty first century
Pupils make exceptionally good use of the extensive range of extra-curricular activities on offer.
Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
The School remains committed to the outstanding grammar school vision, ethos and aspirations which were established upon the School’s founding in 1539, and which enable all the students who attend, and staff who contribute to the nourishing and further development of the School, to flourish in all that they seek to do.
Our main strategic ambition over the next phase of the development of the school is to further strengthen an inclusive classroom and wider school experience that enables every student to flourish and to thrive.
To enable this to be achieved the School will work to strengthen further the quality of education offered to students through an academically focussed and knowledge rich curriculum, which aims to offer academic challenge and tailored support, which will enable all students to achieve outstanding academic outcomes.
Through their education at Crypt, all students will develop a strong sense of belonging and identity, as well as values, key skills and personal qualities, which will thoroughly prepare them for their future adult lives. Our work in school will be based around a clear and ambitious set of values, and because of those values, and our place in the life of our city and community, we will continue to play a key role in supporting the life and wellbeing of our city and of our local communities.
Our Values
We are a values-based school, and build our culture around a shared set of whole-school values, that also give our students a framework through which they can develop into the young person they wish to become.
Pupils gain an exceptional depth of understanding in all the subjects they study.
Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
Integrity Kindness Pride Respect
Responsibility
Our Mission
Our whole-school values also underpin and inform our mission.
To provide an exceptional educational experience which enables all students to flourish in their school and adult lives, whilst supporting and guiding them to lead happy and fulfilling lives, to develop a strong sense of belonging, of identity and purpose through which they can become active, and engaged citizens, able to demonstrate leadership attributes and through which they demonstrate a strong sense of personal integrity and social responsibility.
The school’s personal development curriculum is exceptionally well conceived and organised. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
To lead happy and fulfilling lives students will be:
• Nurtured and cared for in an inclusive, safe, happy and supportive school community that promotes positive mental and physical wellbeing and through which students show kindness and are encouraged to develop into caring young people
• Supported to be ambitious, to take pride in and excel in their academic work; to develop their knowledge and understanding, to be curious, creative and develop the skills of critical analysis to enable them to become independent thinkers
• Given opportunities to participate in a wide ranging programme of enrichment and extracurricular activities which promote friendship, key skills and personal qualities
• Be educated about the world of work and further learning and which enable each student to flourish in their adult lives
To develop a sense of belonging, of identity and of purpose the School will:
• Encourage students to take pride in belonging to their school and House
• Promote equity, diversity and inclusion, encouraging our students to be accepting, empathic, understanding and compassionate young people
• Ensure through their school lives that they become resilient leaders, who commit themselves to both support and inspire others showing integrity in all that they do
To become active and engaged citizens the School will:
• Help students to develop a sense of personal and social responsibility for themselves and for others
• Educate students to respect themselves, others and their environment, and their role in nurturing and sustaining it
• Ensure students develop a strong appreciation of our shared and inclusive British values, and an appreciation of individual rights and liberties, as well as their responsibilities as citizens showing personal integrity in all that they do
Our Educational Priorities
Our main strategic ambition over the next phase of the development of the school is to further strengthen an inclusive classroom and wider school experience that enables every student to flourish and to thrive. This ambition shapes the following priorities:
1Developing a sense of identity and belonging
Pupils receive high-quality pastoral care. They are comfortable sharing concerns about themselves or others with staff. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
The school will ensure that every Cryptian is included in all aspects of school life, will celebrate and promote the diversity of its student and staffing body and guide students to celebrate both differences, as well as our common values and experiences as a school and wider national community. Students will be educated about rights and responsibilities, about our inclusive British values, equality and the challenges there are to achieving societal equality. They will be educated also to seek to embrace the many opportunities that exist for them to make a real difference to both their own and to the lives of others, becoming young people who exhibit a strong sense of personal responsibility, integrity and kindness
We shall work to ensure that every child’s needs are met, including and especially those with SEND, who come from a disadvantaged background, and others who are identified as requiring additional support to ensure that any barriers to their personal development and welfare are reduced, so that their educational progress and attainment are at least as good as those of their peers in school. The school’s strong culture of safeguarding, in which all staff share a culture of professional curiosity and understand their roles in safeguarding all young people, will remain a priority. All members of the school community will work together to ensure the school is calm, orderly and purposeful, and we will work to ensure that students and staff develop a strong sense of pride and belonging to the school, that they build positive relationships based on mutual respect and shared responsibility A central part of our work in school will be to actively promote positive mental health and wellbeing, so all students engage fully in their school lives, show integrity in all that they do and that students with additional needs have no barriers in place to their education and full participation in school life. 2
Ensuring a fully inclusive system of pastoral care, which enables every young person to thrive and to flourish
Disadvantaged pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), achieve highly. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
3
Committing ourselves to further strengthen our outstanding knowledge-rich curriculum which values equity, access and inclusivity and which reflects the diversity of modern Britain.
This approach will be implemented through outstanding research informed pedagogy, with specialist teachers, supported by other colleagues and an evidence-based CPD programme, delivering a well sequenced, coherent and ambitious curriculum that is tailored to meet the needs of highly able students, and which delivers both the knowledge and key skills which prepare all students for their exams and for each key stage of their school lives, while preparing them for their lives as lifelong learners. Assessment will be focussed on enabling teachers to ensure that students enjoy their learning and achieve outcomes that are outstanding. The curriculum and its implementation will be supported by a focus on literacy, digital learning, oracy and communication skills, climate education and social and civic education and a strong focus on each student’s personal development, and which embeds into their learning experience the 8 key Crypt Learner Traits. The curriculum will also reinforce and strengthen the school’s five key values.
4
Every student flourishes in their own personal development, sense of identity and belonging to the school and their wider community
That the school’s strong focus on the development of an all-round Cryptian continues and that all students engage and participate in an exceptional programme of extracurricular and enrichment activities. The programme will be inclusive and diverse in offer, ensuring everyone can get involved and develop the key skills and personal qualities that mark out a Cryptian. Through this programme all students will be able to lead fulfilling lives and also develop, participate and be guided and supported to achieve highly and understand the Crypt values such as respect, responsibility and personal integrity. The programme will also enhance each student’s sense of pride and belonging to the wider school community and promote the development of leadership skills.
5
Community engagement
The School will connect with its local communities, with Crypt students asked to play a role in supporting the school’s community links. Our work will have a particular focus on disadvantaged local children who often face barriers in their educational journeys and on the needs of our local community who we wish to support through the provision of shared space and activity. Acting responsibility, with kindness and with responsibility, Crypt School students will be asked to support this work.
Our Enabling Priorities
Developing an inclusive curriculum experience, implemented through high quality pedagogy
We will work to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of all students, aligns to the academic nature of the student cohort and which meets wider societal developments within the context of an inclusive high performing academic grammar school. This ambition will be implemented through the design and implementation of a knowledge-rich curriculum based on best practice, and informed by educational research; that it is ambitious for the cohort of students at the school, and that it serves to enable outstanding academic outcomes for all, whilst also facilitating student personal development and progression.
Developing our post 16 provision
Teachers have high levels of subject knowledge. They understand what pupils need to know and when. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
To continue with our strategy to place the school’s post 16 offer as the first choice pathway for all students in year 11, and for other students in the region who seek an academic post 16 pathway. To enable this to happen, students in the sixth form will be provided with a clear academic pathway through the curriculum alongside opportunities for curriculum enrichment opportunities such as the EPQ, to help enable them achieve the very top grades in their academic subjects. All students will take part in programmes that strengthen their personal skills and qualities, alongside leadership and mentoring roles, and will be offered a comprehensive programme of university and careers advice and guidance that will help prepare them for their future lives after school. Resources for post 16 studies will be aligned to a sixth form of 350 students.
Investing, developing and supporting our people
The school will ensure that the recruitment, training, professional development and welfare of school staff enables those in leadership, teaching and professional support roles to provide the best possible educational experience to all students. That workforce planning and CPD supports the priority of staff recruitment, professional development, retention, welfare and which also enables career development and succession planning into key staffing roles.
Strategic Governance
Governors will work to ensure students continue to receive an outstanding, relevant and future focussed educational experience, and that staff are supported to enable that to be achieved. They remain committed to embracing change in areas that improve and strengthen further the school’s educational offer, derived always from self-evaluative processes and which take into account wider local and national developments. They will also consider the benefits of developing stronger partnerships with other educational centres and of joining a suitable multi-academy trust.
Finance and development: developing a strong culture of giving and of philanthropy
The School will ensure the alignment of the school budget and estate planning, with our school improvement priorities to meet the School’s strategic priorities, ensuring the effective management and use of school reserves, endowments and other sources of income. Given challenges in government funding, the school will continue to strengthen the work of the new development office to raise funds to be spent on school improvement priorities and for ongoing and future capital projects.
Strengthening community engagement
The school will remain outward facing and seek to build networks within and across its local communities. Changing the year 7 entrance test to one that builds upon the KS3 curriculum which, alongside changes already made to the admissions policy, will help facilitate the entry into the school of more local and disadvantaged children. Working with partners, such as the Blackbridge Hub, alongside the work of the new development office, will help enable this priority to be met
Students in the sixth form are well prepared to move into their adult lives. Ofsted Report March 2024 - ‘Outstanding’.
The Crypt School Podsmead Rd, Gloucester, GL2 5AE
Tel: 01452 530291
Main School Email: enquiries@crypt.gloucs.sch.uk
Sixth Form Email: sixthformenquiries@crypt.gloucs.sch.uk
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley The Crypt Alumni, 1861 - 1867