Harris Primary Academy Crystal Palace

[EduCativ]

We have high aspirations for our children and are committed to ensuring that everyone in our academy reaches their full potential and develops the skills to become life-long learner.

Our aims and values underpin all of our policy and practice and we ensure that all staff, pupils and the wider community have a shared understanding of our vision. Everyone at our academy aspires to our ‘ACT’ vision where we are ‘Aspirational, Compassionate, Team-players’.

• Ensure that all of our pupils leave our academy literate and numerate, fully equipped for secondary school.
• Develop a learning community that inspires everyone to have high aspirations and develop a life-long love of learning
• Create a stimulating learning environment in which children and adults feel welcome and safe
• Ensure that equality of opportunity enables everyone to reach their full potential
• Support children to become confident, well-rounded individuals who recognize the part that they play in society
• Develop a culture of respect for different beliefs, religions, and cultures and have a good understanding of British values and democracy
• Provide a rich and balanced curriculum that inspires children and encourages them to take control of their learning
• Encourage children to take care of their environment and recognize the part that they play in creating a positive learning environment
• Create an environment that nurtures the spiritual and moral development of every child and promotes respect for diversity
• Work with parents and the local community to ensure that an academy is a place of learning for all.

We aim to make sure that, from the first day of their education, our pupils have a truly happy experience of school. This means teaching them to become confident learners and making sure we nurture each child’s personality and character.

We are proud of our children at the Academy. With the help of our wonderful parent body, they are taught to be kind, caring, self-assured, and eager to learn. We hope that you find our website interesting and informative.

Our academy is a member of the Harris Federation, a group of 44 primary and secondary academies in and around London educating some 30,000 young people. The Harris Federation Teaching School Alliance enables us not only to train and develop teachers and leaders in our academies but also to do so for other schools. Each academy is led and run by its Principal and other senior leaders: we are deliberately a federation rather than a chain. What unites us is a culture that ensures the children and teenagers in our schools get an excellent education within a happy, caring, and supportive environment.

As a result of this, all Harris academies so far to have been inspected by Ofsted have been rated either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ with the vast majority being Outstanding. Many of these academies replaced schools previously considered to have been failing.

The Harris Federation has been recognized as a top performer by education researchers at the Department for Education, Sutton Trust, and Education Policy Institute as well as Watchsted and PwC.

We are a not-for-profit charity created by Lord Harris of Peckham. He and his family take an active interest in every Harris academy, supporting us financially and with their time.

We believe that all children should be equally valued at our Academy. We will strive to eliminate prejudice and discrimination and to develop an environment where all children can flourish and feel safe. We have a range of agreed policies.

Harris Primary Academy Crystal Palace is committed to inclusion and part of the Academy’s strategic planning involves developing cultures, policies, and practices that include all learners. We aim to engender a sense of community and belonging and to offer new opportunities to learners who may have experienced previous difficulties. This does not mean that we will treat all learners in the same way, but that we will respond to learners in ways that take into account their varied life experiences and needs.

We believe that educational inclusion is about equal opportunities for all learners, whatever their age, gender, demographic group, ethnicity, additional need, attainment, and background. We pay particular attention to the provision for and the achievement of different groups of learners:

• Students from families that are financially disadvantaged (PP - Pupil Premium)
• Students who arrive with below nationally expected ability in any area (LAPs)
• Boys or Girls
• Students from minority faiths, ethnicities, travelers, asylum seekers, refugees
• Students who have English as an additional language (EAL)
• Students who have Special Educational Needs or a Disability (SEND)
• Students who are Gifted and Talented (G&T)
• Students who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (LGBT)
• Students who are Looked After Children (LAC)
• Young carers, sick children, children from families under stress

Whatever a child’s background or starting point, we want to make sure that they finish Year 6 with the academic skills, social skills, and knowledge necessary to succeed. Every lesson at our school is creative and there is plenty of time for children to think, to play, to discover and wonder.

Each child is taught in the way that suits them best and we step in quickly if a change is needed. For some children, this might involve one-to-one support if they are finding something difficult and for others, it could mean stretching them more to keep them interested.

Our Academy is relaxed and comfortable but pupils know that good behavior is expected of them. They are frequently praised and rewarded for trying their best and for being kind, hard-working, and well-behaved.

We want the Academy to feel friendly and welcoming and we always make sure that every pupil has at least one friend. Our children are taught to respect each other and their teachers. There is a zero-tolerance approach to any type of bullying.

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