Hampton Wick Infant and Nursery School is a small school where every child is cherished and expected to achieve the best that they can about their education and social development. We promote a rich curriculum with a strong emphasis on the arts and, as a forest school, we make excellent use of our outdoor learning resources, in particular, a large conservation area – The Wilderness – which is attached to the school.
Positive partnerships across and beyond our school are a key feature: relationships are valued and seen as an essential part of each child’s development. Our school enjoys a long-standing tradition of reciprocal, positive, and purposeful links with parents, carers, staff, and governors. This is reflected in the quality of relationships with children. We have positive philosophies which we believe help the children learn well today and prepare them for their future lives.
Children enter our Nursery classes in the September after their third birthday. There is a registration procedure for admission to our Nursery but it is not possible to guarantee each child a place. Names can be registered with the school after the child’s second birthday. We are a three-form entry school with 90 reception places. Children will join a Reception class in the academic year in which they become five.
It is the responsibility of the child's parents/carers to ensure that registration forms are completed and returned to the school swiftly. Forms returned after the closing date will be processed as late applications. Schools are not informed by the Local Authority of the names or number of children in their catchment areas.
If you feel that your child is not ready to start school in the September following their fourth birthday, you can either arrange for your child to attend part-time until they reach statutory school age, or defer the date your child is admitted to the school until later on in the Reception year. If your child’s entry is deferred, the school must hold your child’s place and not offer it to another child. The latest your child can start school is at the beginning of the summer term. If you wish to defer your child’s entry, you will need to confirm this with the primary school where your child has been offered a Reception place. You also need to confirm this with the early learning provider so that your child can continue to receive their free early learning entitlement.
All Richmond maintained schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and disabilities and are supported by the Local Authority to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school. All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with a Special Educational Need or Disability being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible, where families want this to happen.
All schools with Reception children have undertaken a statutory ‘baseline screening’ with children. We have done the same for our Nursery children, trialing the screening a year before we are required to introduce this. For our Early Years Foundation Stage children and practitioners, this has been through the use of observations and everyday tasks in school from which data has been entered onto an IT-based program. This information is gathered and sent off (as required by law) so that a national picture of where children start in Reception can be ascertained. This data will provide teachers with a class-wide profile as well as information on each child. This will support teachers at forthcoming consultations in providing individual feedback but will also support staff in terms of looking to see where any possible gaps in provision may be which can then be addressed.
Phonics Screening for Year 1 will continue. This will be the 4th year of testing. Phonics is high profile in schools and also with Ofsted. Again, staff will feedback to parents/carers from all classes about their child’s phonic development. Please remember to look under the ‘For Parents/Carers' tab on the school website, then Curriculum where you can access resources to support your child. From September 2015, schools in England are expected to develop their ways of assessing the progress of children against the revised National Curriculum. For us, this means Years 1 and 2.
With the absence of levels, all schools are creating their systems and procedures, often individualized to each school. Our school is doing the same: we have explored options and come up with a system that tracks what children apply, know, and can do and plots this against a rising scale which then indicates whether a child is beginning, emerging, expected, or exceeding in terms of the National Standard, i.e. the curriculum expectations of their age. Again, staff will be able to talk with parents/carers at Consultations about how their child is performing in terms of the levels of understanding of the curriculum. Please bear in mind that children have only just started the Year 1 or Year 2 curriculum so please allow time for your child to make progress during the year! Please also bear in mind that we are just getting to grips with the system ourselves.
