At Tanfield School we have many minds but one mission: to get students to attend the best university, or real alternative, succeed in their dream job and thrive in all aspects of their life.
Our core values of hard work, trust and fairness permeate all that we do. From the moment a student arrives at Tanfield, we ask them to live these values:

Hard work

We never give up. We remain positive so that we have the strength to persevere with even the hardest work. We do what it takes for as long as it takes.

Trust

We are honest. We do what we say we'll do and do not make excuses. We are loyal and have the courage to do the right thing.

Fairness

We play by the rules. We are respectful, polite, kind and courteous at all times. We don't take advantage of others and helping a member of our team is helping ourselves.

We also focus on three key drivers: Mastery, which is the drive to get better at things that matter; Autonomy, or the drive to direct our own lives; and Purpose, which is the drive to connect to a cause larger than ourselves (Dan Pink, 'Drive').

We clearly communicate our mission, values and drivers throughout every day so that the whole school community knows the purpose of everything that we do. We know why we move around school in the way that we do, we know why we wear our uniform in the way that we do and we know why we look at the speaker in all of our lessons.

Through rigour, simplicity and a relentless focus on success, all students work hard every day to climb the mountain to university or real alternative.