Frequently Asked Questions

Atelier 21 Future School has no defined catchment area, children attend from all across Sussex and Surrey as it is easily accessible from the Pease Pottage roundabout from the A264, M23 and A23. We currently offer three different bus routes across Sussex and Surrey to enable families to access the school from near and far. See the link HERE. Please contact info@atelier21schools.co.uk for further information on how to book and costings.

Many children in Reception use the bus service. The children have the same bus driver each day and it is one of the highlights of the day waiting for the bus to arrive!

The school’s location is set in a stunning manor house overlooking the tranquil lake of Pease Pottage’s Broadfield Park, convenient for the K2 sports centre, Tilgate Park and near its own private forest for Wild Friday Learning outdoors.

Overall behaviour at Atelier 21 is extremely good and it is handled as outlined in our behaviour policy which can be found here.

We have a semi-democratic systems in place where the children are involved in the decision making with regards to appropriate sanctions and consequences. When agreements are not adhered to students can make use of the peer mediation system during class reflection meetings. If this does not resolve the problem, teachers will provide additional support. Ultimately an ambassador tribunal will be held, supported by a member of the senior leadership team, if rules are consistently broken.

Our peer mediators are a fully trained group of children to support with any behaviour and conflict management.

Atelier 21 is a mainstream school with provision for a small number of pupils with mild Specific Learning difficulties such as ASD, dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia. For example, specialist one to one tuition and support is available which is charged in addition to the school fees.

Parents are encouraged to be open about their children’s needs from the outset and the taster session is there to ensure that the school is the best fit for the child and their family.

No they have their own dedicate outside veranda space is used by the Reception and Class 1. However they do also make use of the main playground with other primary children and is adequately supervised.

Atelier 21 is an academic school in which our curriculum is mostly based on the National Curriculum. The children learn National Curriculum content but not the same way as they might in other schools. From Year 7 our pupils follow the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme an internationally recognised framework where the assessment objectives are aligned to the UK National Curriculum. This is also highly regarded by higher education across the globe.

The difference is that our learner centred approach is more engaging and achieves more successful outcomes all round. The pupils also learn 21st Century skills and develop their own interests and passions through self-directed and project-based learning. When the time comes, pupils practice exam skills.

Atelier 21 is a progressive school fit for children’s futures. We are intentionally different as we know the Reggio Emilia inspired enquiry-based learning enhances children’s overall performance at school – as does the strong pastoral care and nurturing of deeply curious social and motivated individuals. We also support our children’s well-being through teaching mindfulness, creativity and encouraging individual expression.

For those students wishing to continue their IB experience into the diploma there are many independent schools in the local area that offer it. There are also state schools in Brighton who offer the IB diploma.

For those students wishing to pursue A Levels – we have made links with local sixth form and specialist colleges who recognise the Middle Years Programme as equivalent to GCSEs. Individual colleges have individual requirements and will need to be investigated upon application.

Primary children are regularly encouraged to practise reading, spelling and time tables on TT Rockstars at home.

Older years will have regular tasks to complete at home to support their projects and to make excellent progress as part of the International Baccalaureate.

Staff are provided with training on the Reggio Emilia principles. Cognitive scientist and prolific education author Guy Claxton, creator of the Learning Power Approach, is a patron of the school and currently provides online CPD for teachers. Some staff have been using the approach for years having worked in the school’s nursery settings at Little Barn Owls, Hayley’s other education business.

We are a school centred around the learning experiences of our pupils and the Learning Power Approach and consequently we design our curriculum and our projects around authentic, relevant and child-driven objectives. As we have reflected and reviewed our practise, this would seem at odds with the content driven, memory and test-based model of GCSEs.

The mission statement from the IB states:

“THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE® AIMS TO DEVELOP INQUIRING, KNOWLEDGEABLE AND CARING YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HELP TO CREATE A BETTER AND MORE PEACEFUL WORLD THROUGH INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING AND RESPECT.

TO THIS END THE ORGANIZATION WORKS WITH SCHOOLS, GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS TO DEVELOP CHALLENGING PROGRAMMES OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND RIGOROUS ASSESSMENT. THESE PROGRAMMES ENCOURAGE STUDENTS ACROSS THE WORLD TO BECOME ACTIVE, COMPASSIONATE AND LIFELONG LEARNERS WHO UNDERSTAND THAT OTHER PEOPLE, WITH THEIR DIFFERENCES, CAN ALSO BE RIGHT.”

We feel that the MYP allows our students to continue with cross-curricular Project-Based Learning as well as develop mastery skills in core subjects and complete their education at Atelier 21 with a recognised qualification in order to continue their learning at a Post-16 level. The Learning Power Approach that underpins our curriculum enables students to embrace challenge and self-regulate, meaning they aren’t immobilised by fear of failure or ‘getting the wrong answer’ in preparation for an exam. This means they have a healthy attitude going into MYP and will be naturally motivated as they understand that getting qualifications is part of the process of creating choices for our lives. They develop higher levels of critical evaluation technique through our project based and self-directed approach to learning, and are more resilient and creative in order to prepare themselves for the process of sitting exams.

Atelier 21 is an authorized school for the MYP as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Atelier 21 believes is important for our students.

*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org.

Our approach to mistakes is all about developing pupils’ independence, the ability to take measured risks and other life-long skills – e.g. Guy Claxton’s big 6 learnable intelligences – mental agility, decision making skills, interpersonal skills, character development, thinking skills and emotional intelligence. This means pupils learn not to fear making mistakes and become intelligent learners for life with a moral compass and a growth mindset in place.

The children quickly learn that you can make ‘sloppy’ or ‘smart’ mistakes and learn to celebrate the ‘smart’ mistakes once a week. For example, a pupil who noticed he often doesn’t have the right equipment at school and now has learnt to look at the equipment list and timetable in his learning journal to pack the correct equipment for the following days learning the night before – so that he has a ‘stress free day.’ Or made a calculation error and corrected it.

Yes we live in a world where understanding and using technology is a necessary part of every-day life. The children use iPads and computers to help them to research topics and use a range of software to enhance learning. Some of our Wednesday workshops have been dedicated to IT and coding to ensure they have the skills 21st century skills they need. Also the children learn how to code on specific days when we have experts who come in to teach it. The children also use technology to create Digital Arts. The school uses light boxes, has its own green screen and lighting in its drama space and is currently developing a studio for recording music and podcasts, and launching Atelier’s own in-house radio station, run by the pupils.

Yes, the children have individual exercise books but also class books but may also have class books to record their Big Studies and project work.

We use the Read, Write Inc programme. It teaches phonics, reading and writing together intuitively and is a widely popular programme used by many schools.

As pupils learn in small groups we are able to tailor the learning according to the children’s abilities. This means that children requiring support can receive it and others can be challenged further academically and develop new skills in other areas. The teaching ratio is 1:10 as we have a maximum of 20 children with two adults for each primary class of which one is qualified teacher.

The school track and monitor progress through regular observations and assessments. As the classes are so small the staff know the children and their abilities and can track their progress really well on a daily basis. In all of our subjects in Primary children are assessed against the stages not ages criteria.

Students on the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) are assessed against several criteria to ensure they meet the programmes standards. These include academic skills, basic skills, core components, external and internal assessments.