Information

‘Choose your dream and chase it!’

Aims:

Work hard
Aim high
Love learning
Think of others
Open our minds
Never give up

Values:

Belonging
Compassion
Resilience
Respect

Walton Drivers:

Aspiration
Independent and creative thinking and learning
Knowledge of the world
Citizenship

Curriculum Intent Statement:

At Walton, we will provide an exciting, broad, inclusive Curriculum, which includes specific drivers which we deem important to our children (Walton Drivers), supporting children with a therapeutic approach to any barriers to learning. This is based on the Essex Steps mind-set. Children use collaborative learning (such as Kagan methods) across the Curriculum to support their learning.

The ability to learn is underpinned by the teaching of skills, knowledge, concepts and values, mostly derived from the National Curricu-lum. We provide enhancement opportunities, such as Forest Schools and Wow days, to engage learning and believe that school should be a happy time in our lives, where we have the ability to investigate and inquire. There is equity for all and children leave with a thirst for knowledge.

We believe that strong links between home and school are essential for a child to flourish, therefore many events involve parents, family and carers. Our dedicated team prides itself on knowing our children and families well, working together to provide our children with the best possible futures, in a happy, secure, caring environment.

We want all of our children leaving with a love of learning, aspiring to be the best they can be. They will be responsible global citizens, mindful of their own wellbeing, able to make a positive contribution to our Society.

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to fulfil their potential.
EYFS September 2014

Implementation:

Our Curriculum is based on:

Development of Vocabulary/ Oracy skills –

Kagan methods for Collaborative Learning are used across the Curriculum. A small group of pupils (usually 4) is responsible for its own learning and the learning of all group members. Pupils interact with each other in the same group to practise skills, learn subject matter, solve a problem, complete a task or achieve a goal.

Talk for writing style mapping in writing across the Curriculum - Children are given the opportunity to orally rehearse and use the framework of Imitation, Innovation and Invention.

Development of thinking skills –

Children have a greater involvement in their work, the same starting point may allow differing responses and no cap is placed on learning. Challenges 1 to 3 and Challenge X are used.

Time for pupils to reflect and review on their learning is key, they are given next step thoughts to respond to.

Reading across the Curriculum -

Reading is given high priority across the school with specific areas designed in each classroom, class readers and various additional resources being provided for children. A regular parent session is also held for each class. High quality texts are provided to be shared with classes and new stock regularly purchased in line with requests from children.

Children are encouraged to read a wide variety of texts.

We are currently undergoing a programme of Professional development to train teachers in a new phonics’ scheme – RWI, which will run from EYFS to Year 2.

Learning experiences -

We know that giving pupils the opportunity to develop new skills and try new things helps them to grow in confidence, have more knowledge of the world around them and know what is available to them in an ever changing world. We believe the benefits of introducing the children to a new skill, hobby or passion can be huge.

We offer a variety of experiences, led by our Adventure Ambassador, which include the well-loved Grow, Cook, Eat, educational workshops, visits, bedtime story events, residentials, Beach day and Enterprise week.

Additional special days take place to introduce new topics (Our Wow days), which will be extending to Brilliant beginnings, marvellous middles and Fabulous finishes.

Individual subject days also take place, such as Maths and Science Day, e-safety day and art week.

Outdoor Learning -

For many of our children, Outdoor learning (Forest school) is playing a particular part of supporting learning at school, helping them to develop a sense of belonging and ownership of our school grounds and the wider area. This year, a collaboration is taking place with Essex Wildlife trust to widen the area and number of families able to participate.

Aspirations -

We want our children to know what is out there- to broaden their horizons. We want them to know that achieving well at school and following their own career path is not bound by background or gender and that they should expect equity. We provide visitors to the school in the form of local businesses, for example, Tesco’s and Aldi and regular author and athlete visits. Assembly themes will cover achievements of others. Children are given the opportunity to take more responsibility and learn about democracy through school council, head Boy and head girl roles, Playground Pals and other allocated job roles.

We also provide children with specific Curriculum time to learn about being mindful, looking after their own well-being every day. This is provided through Mindfulness activities and specific pieces of work completed with our excellent Pastoral support team.

Impact -

At the end of their Walton Learning Journey, the vast majority of children will show good recall and fluency of the content taught. They should be able to make connections and apply their knowledge. Some pupils will have a greater depth of understanding. We will track and monitor progress carefully using a variety of methods including book scrutiny, lesson dips and pupil voice to ensure pupils are on track for meeting age related expectations in all subjects.

A voice for the child:

     Children are not the people of tomorrow, but are the people of today.
     They have a right to be taken seriously, and to be treated with tenderness and respect.
     They should be allowed to grow into whoever they are meant to be.
     ‘The unknown person’ inside each of them is our hope for the future.

Janusz Korczak (1879 -1942)

Admission Arrangements

Although we are a Foundation School, Essex County Council is still in charge of our Admissions process. Information on how the arrangements work can be found on the Essex County Council Website at the following address:

http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/Admissions/Pages/Admissions.aspx

Parents can also call the following number: 0845 603 2200
or email: admissions@essex.gov.uk

Walton on the Naze Primary School is a mixed form entry school in Essex, currently with 237 pupils. We have a Breakfast club which runs daily and many varied after school clubs.

There are 4 schools in the locality; however Walton has the highest deprivation factor by far.

We have high aspirations and ambitions for our children and we are determined to ensure that our children are given every chance to reach their full potential. Pupil premium funding is supporting us in ensuring that all children can, indeed ‘Choose their dream and chase it.’

Although the expectations for all are high, the Pupil Premium Grant helps the school to provide initiatives to narrow the attainment and achievement gap for some.

Key facts

As Ofsted (2016) noted,

• Walton on the Naze Primary School is officially a Good school with Outstanding features.

• Pupils’ behaviour is good; they are polite, and focus well in lessons and listen attentively. There are good relationships between adults and pupils.

• The school places a high priority on pupils’ welfare. Pupils feel safe in school and are confident that staff will deal with their concerns.

• Teachers understand what different pupils should be achieving and provide support when it is needed. This is having a positive impact, especially for the most disadvantaged and those who have additional needs.

• Walton is becoming increasingly popular in the local community, with the school now being a first school of choice and numbers of pupils are rising. We were asked in various years to take additional children for County; hence we have a varied number in each of the cohorts.

• We are engaged in and committed to partnership working with a range of organisations which enhance our provision and supports our local community: South Tendring Primary Partnership, Mid Tendring Education Partnership, the Educational psychologist Team, the Specialist teacher team, GROW and many others.

When making decisions about using pupil premium funding it is important to consider the context of the school and the subsequent challenges faced. There may also be complex family situations that prevent children from flourishing. The challenges are varied and there is no “one size fits all”.

Our key objective in using the Pupil Premium Grant is to narrow the gap between pupil groups.

As a school, through targeted interventions we are working to eliminate barriers to learning and progress.

We continue to analyse our data and have made use of a range of research, such as, good practice in using pupil premium funding and the Sutton Trust toolkit, to inform our decision making.

In addition to this we have identified some key principles (outlined below) which we believe will maximise the impact of our pupil premium spending.

Analysing Data

We will ensure that:

• All staff are involved in the analysis of data so that they are fully aware of strengths and weaknesses across the school, particularly in relation to Vulnerable groups (PDM’s, PPM, PM targets).

• We use research (Such as the Sutton Trust Toolkit) to support us in determining the strategies that will be most effective (E.g. 2:1 provision). We work with other local schools to benchmark and ensure best practice.

Identification of Pupils

We will ensure that:

• ALL staff are aware of who pupil premium and vulnerable children are.

• ALL pupil premium children benefit from the funding, not just those who are underperforming.

• Underachievement at all levels is targeted (not just lower attaining pupils).

• Children’s individual needs are considered carefully so that we provide support for those children who could be doing “even better if...”.

Improving Day to Day Teaching

We will continue to ensure that all children across the school receive good teaching, with increasing percentages of good and outstanding teaching achieved by using our Phase leaders to:

• Set high expectations.

• Address any within-school variance.

• Ensure consistent implementation of the non-negotiables.

• Share good practice within the school and draw on external expertise.

• Provide high quality CPD.

• Improve assessment through joint levelling and moderation.

Increasing learning time

We will maximise the time children have to “catch up” through:

• Improving attendance and punctuality.

• Providing earlier intervention (KS1 and EYFS).

• Early morning sessions (Booster and Phonics).

Individualising support

We will ensure that the additional support we provide is effective by:

• Looking at the individual needs of each child and identifying their barriers to learning.

• Ensuring additional support staff and class teachers communicate regularly.

• Matching the skills of the support staff to the interventions they provide.

• Working with other agencies to bring in additional expertise.

• Providing support for parents: to develop their own skills, to support their children’s learning within the curriculum.

• Tailoring interventions to the needs of the child (e.g. Targeted maths revision sessions in the afternoons for children who struggle in the main lesson, TIP’s, 1:1).

• Providing high quality pastoral and therapeutic support.

Funding Priorities

We continue to use a whole school approach to supporting children in developing their skills as writers though the use of talk and have invested in staff training for the Letters and Sounds phonics programme and additional interventions alongside Collaborative Learning training.

To increase parental engagement in learning, we have created a weekly rolling programme for parents to attend with their child and support their reading We have also brought in more stay and play days as asked for at previous Parent Forums and on feedback.

In order to develop children as Leaders and promote independence, the school will be training new children to become Playground Pals and we have regular class monitors, School Councillors and Year 6 Head Boy and Girl.

It is clear that children who have the chance to sample a variety of experiences perform better; therefore, Walton Primary will endeavour to provide these opportunities for all children. Our Adventure Ambassador began work last year.

The school regularly meets with other schools to discuss and analyse our own cohorts and their progress and attainment.

One of the main foci for 18/19 continued to be Maths Mastery and high-quality maths teaching. This continued to be a key priority for all local schools, with Teach meets and cross school moderation taking place.

As always, one of the most important factors for supporting our vulnerable children has been to provide high quality pastoral and emotional and social support to help remove barriers to learning for specific pupils. This data can be very difficult to quantify, however, all staff have been asked to complete case studies for children, including vulnerable children. Within this, the real impact for the child can be seen, even if this is not measurable educational progress or attainment.

An ongoing focus is also to further increase the percentage of quality of teaching at good or better which has been supported by effective use of the funding for quality CPD, some which took place jointly with other local schools.