The vision and values of Dorothy Barley Infant School are at the core of everything we do. They underpin our teaching and learning and provide an environment that prepares our pupils as confident, happy citizens. Our children will have respect for themselves and others. They will have good social skills that will enable them to reach their full academic potential. Our children will be confident, proud, and respectful individuals who develop a broad range of transferable key skills to equip them for life. They will be self-motivated and have high expectations of themselves now and throughout their lives and adapt as their lives change.
Here at Dorothy Barley Infant School, we offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities that are available to all children in Years 1 & 2. We believe that these after-school clubs are highly beneficial to all the children as it gives them a great chance to learn a new talent or improve one that they already possess, they develop their social skills and build their confidence and self-esteem.
We at Dorothy Barley Infant School believe that each pupil has individual and unique needs. However, some pupils require more support than others. If these pupils are to achieve their full potential, we must recognize this and plan accordingly. We acknowledge that a significant proportion of pupils will have special educational needs at some time in their school career. Many of these pupils may require help throughout their time in school, whilst others may need a little extra support for a short period to help overcome more temporary needs. Dorothy Barley Infant School aims to provide all pupils with strategies for dealing with their needs in a supportive environment and to give them meaningful access to the National Curriculum.
The pupil premium is a government initiative that targets extra money for pupils from deprived backgrounds. Research shows that pupils from deprived backgrounds underachieve compared to their non-deprived peers. The premium is provided to enable these pupils to be supported to reach their potential. The Government has used pupils entitled to free school meals (FSM), looked after children and service children as indicators of deprivation, and have provided a fixed amount of money for schools per pupil based on the number of pupils registered for FSM over a rolling six-year period. This fixed amount of money is expected to increase every year for the course of this current Parliament. At Dorothy Barley Infant School we will be using the indicator of those eligible for FSM as well as identified vulnerable groups as our target children to ‘close the gap’ regarding attainment.
All schools have to spend the sport funding on improving their provision of PE and sport, but there is the freedom to choose how we do it. At Dorothy Barley Infant School we recognize the contribution of PE to the health and well-being of the children. Also, we believe that an innovative and varied PE curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities have a positive influence on the concentration, attitude, and academic achievement of all children.
At Dorothy Barley Infant School the governors agree that the money must be used so that all children benefit regardless of their sporting ability. We use our Sports Funding allocation to continue to place a very high priority on our PE provision.
Our Sports coach also works with small groups of children to support physical development and also to boost confidence and friendships. Our staff works together to give the children a secure set of sporting skills. At the same time, we strive to inspire the children by inviting professional sportsmen and women to school. They share their passion for sport and inspire the pupils. Dorothy Barley Infants strives for success and has been developing our pupils to participate in inter-school competitions. Pupils have participated in visits to the swimming festival at Abbey Leisure center, Barking, and the Primary Panathalon at Barking Abbey School. We have supported sport for parents by offering ‘Active Dance’ sessions. The program was made up of 6 sessions delivered over 6 weeks to promote active lifestyles.
Dorothy Barley School supports the strong school sport partnership infrastructure in Barking and Dagenham and we recognize this as key to the high participation levels in the school games competitions and festivals and CPD provision, as well as leadership and volunteering opportunities school, is always looking for opportunities to develop sport and fitness and we have spent significantly more than the Government grant to ensure our children benefit from the best provision.
