The Mary Bassett Way

The 'Mary Bassett Way' is the school’s well established ethos to ensure we all behave respectfully and take responsibility for our actions. By following the Mary Bassett Way, children are encouraged to develop habits of conduct that make sure everyone is happy and safe. When the opportunity arises for children to learn from a poor choice, we take the time to talk this through with them using our Restorative Approaches strategy. The whole staff body has developed significant expertise to help children reflect on their choices and most importantly consider why they should not repeat the negative ones. Responding to poor behaviour with punishment and sanctions only often misses an opportunity to repair the wrong-doing, get to the root of the cause of the behaviour and ensure that the learning has happened to avoid the behaviour being repeated. (For more information about Restorative Approaches at The Mary Bassett Lower School, please follow the link below).

We do now have the ‘Mary Bassett Way’ song which helps us to remember some key features of this ethos. The lyrics to the song are below to give you some pointers of how to help reinforce the Mary Bassett Way (and of course take advantage of it at home!)

Verse 1

If you want to follow The Mary Bassett Way,

Have listening ears and think of what you say.

Take time to think of how others feel,

Imagine something helpful, and then make it real!

CHORUS

We follow, we choose to follow!

We try our best in our work and our play,

We choose to follow The Mary Bassett Way!

Verse 2

Enjoy making friendships, be caring and kind.

Think about nice things, don’t store hurt in your mind.

Try your best in all that you do,

Be polite to your grownups and other children too.

Verse 3

Keep everyone safe by having kind hands and feet,

Wear your clothes smart and keep your work neat.

Fix your mistakes and start new every day,

That’s how you follow The Mary Bassett Way.