Welcome to Pooles Park Primary School. At Pooles Park we aim to ensure that every child that joins us is secure and happy and enjoys learning and achieving while they are with us.
We value children of all skills and abilities and we provide an environment where they can fulfill their potential and grow into responsible, confident, and active young people.
We offer a rich and fulfilling teaching and learning environment in Finsbury Park. We have a national award-winning garden where children learn about growing food and sustainability.
We are one of the top 3 schools in Islington for children’s progress in English between age 7-11. Our average class size is 25. We have outstanding pastoral care. We have a beautiful garden and a national reputation for teaching about the environment and sustainability.
Current Vision:
- To be an ‘outstanding school in the next three years
- To continue to be a completely inclusive school that serves everyone in the area
- To be a center for learning for the whole community
At Pooles Park we aim to be outstanding. The aims and ethos of the school underpin everything that we do. This includes the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of children as well as their development as successful learners. We are particularly keen to develop children's understanding of the environment. All children learn to grow food in our nationally celebrated garden and to understand sustainability.
At Pooles Park we aim to, Support children to:
- Achieve their potential
- have high self-esteem and achieve work of high quality
- Respect the school and other members of the community
Provide an environment which:
- Has high expectations of work and behavior and celebrates children's achievements
- Is stimulating, challenging, and happy
- Promotes equality of opportunity, tolerance, and respect for others
- Welcomes children whatever their needs and seeks to include them in the life of the school
- Supports collaborative work with other local schools
Encourage children to:
- Speak confidently, discuss, initiate, question, and explore
- Be independent
- Be self-motivated and develop a passion for learning
- Be open-minded and sensitive to the feelings of others
- Participate in sports activities within and outside the curriculum
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and focus on the three prime areas of development:
- Personal, Social, and Emotional development
- Physical development
- Communication and Language
The way children learn is very important to us and there is a strong emphasis on developing the “Characteristics of Effective Learning”: We aim to help each child become a highly motivated, skilled thinker who is fully engaged and happy in school.
We teach the whole of the National Curriculum with an emphasis on Maths, Literacy, and Science. The commitment to individual, creative learning starts in our Nursery and is continued throughout the school. We place a huge emphasis on the quality of teaching and pride ourselves in each teacher’s knowledge of their individual student’s educational ability. Topics are planned throughout the year to ensure all curriculum areas are fully covered and we maximize our excellent facilities, especially outdoors, to provide skills-based learning.
In addition to excellent academic standards in teaching, we are very conscious of the importance of other aspects of a child’s life and how these can affect their time at school.
The DfE have recently reinforced the need “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Assessments are a key tool in identifying the next steps in children’s learning. All curriculum levels have now been phased out and we assess childrens’ learning using a step-based system. Termly parents evenings and an annual report ensure that we maintain ongoing communication between the important adults in your child’s life. We place a high value on establishing close links between home and school so that we can effectively work together to achieve the best for each child.
We decided to focus on the background of the painting and the story of Odysseus. We thought this would provide lots of inspiration across each year group. Again it was essential that the work done would be cross-curricular through literacy, DT, art, music, drama, and topic.
Each year group chose a trial from Odysseus’ journey to focus on and base their workaround. Then at the end, we would come back together to tell the story through the writing element and the artwork produced.
