At De Beauvoir Primary School, we ensure that pupils’ education meets the needs of the new National Curriculum. Our vision is to keep the children’s needs, interests, and skills for life at the heart of everything we do. To support our vision, the offer we provide for our pupils is a rich, relevant, broad, and balanced curriculum. We actively teach the skills and knowledge children need to prepare them for life, as well as the essential attributes of resilience, communication, endurance, and inquiry.
Three and four-year-old children can go to nursery classes attached to primary schools in Hackney. The age that your child can start depends on the number of places available. At De Beauvoir Primary School, we process our nursery admissions. Application forms are available from the main office. You will need to provide proof of your address with your application form. Once your application form has been received, we will contact you before your child is due to start to let you know if they have a place. If your child is offered a place, we will need to see their birth certificate to confirm their date of birth.
If your child was born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014, they are due to start primary school in September 2018. Hackney Learning Trust is responsible for the admissions arrangements for all community and voluntary controlled schools in the borough, including De Beauvoir Primary School. In-year admissions are applications made for school places not covered by the reception class intake and Year Six transfer to secondary school in September each year. If you would like to apply for a place at De Beauvoir Primary School you must complete an in-year application form.
During the EYFS day, children engage in purposeful play and exploratory activities. Each day is planned to provide a range of experiences and activities that encourage independent thinking and choosing, as well as developing children’s communication and social skills when working alongside peers.
We developed a curriculum at De Beauvoir which ensures children have a broad range of knowledge, skills, and understanding. Above all, we try to ensure they enjoy their learning and make progress. Assessing how children progress against the requirements of the National Curriculum informs teacher planning.
Children’s work is assessed both formally and informally at appropriate stages. Teachers use formative (ongoing) and summative (test scenarios) assessments. Teachers and support staff continuously monitor and evaluate children’s progress in all subjects through marking, feedback, and observations. Children are encouraged to play an active part in assessing their progress and set targets.
We have developed a system of recording and analyzing assessment information with our partner schools in the Primary Advantage Federation. It involves a series of Fundamentals which children are expected to meet by the end of each academic year. The Fundamentals are shared with all staff, children, and parents and are referred to regularly. The Fundamentals currently cover the core subjects and science they will soon cover RE and humanities too.
At De Beauvoir Primary School we have high expectations of the children and know that good behavior is essential for children to have positive relationships with others, be successful and achieve highly at school. We actively teach routines and specific behaviors for learning, help pupils to sustain these, and teach them how to build successful relationships with peers and adults.
We use ‘Stay On Green’ at De Beauvoir Primary School. ‘Stay on Green’ is a behavior management system that ensures that pupils who regularly respond to expectations are noticed and rewarded. The system also encourages children to identify when their behavior is not acceptable and gives them opportunities to turn poor choices around. We believe that it is important for children to develop their sense of responsibility for their behavior and their understanding that they choose how to behave and have the power to turn situations around.
‘Stay on Green’ is a restorative approach, which means that we support all pupils to repair/rebuild mistakes and poor choices, focusing on positive rather than negative actions. Another benefit of ‘Stay on Green’ is that it enables teachers to manage behavior quickly without losing the flow of, or focus on, learning.
The Department for Education (DfE) published a new special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice on 30 July 2014. It came into force on 1 September 2014, replacing the previous 2001 Code. The Code of Practice (2014) covers the 0-25 age range and includes guidance relating to children and young people with a disability as well as those with special educational needs (SEN).
The Department for Education (DfE) is spending over £450 million on improving physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools over the 3 academic years. The funding was first issued for the academic year 2013/2014 and it will continue over the academic years 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. The funding will be allocated directly to primary schools to spend on improving the quality of sport and PE for all pupils.
Teaching children to keep themselves safe online is an important part of our job as a school.
