Rushmore is a friendly, caring, and welcoming community school in a diverse and exciting part of Hackney. We believe in the power of partnership and community involvement to support learning for all! We do everything to ensure that all our children become confident, happy, and creative learners, individuals and citizens and we will settle for nothing less. At Rushmore School, we are committed to the safeguarding and welfare of children and young people.
Parents of prospective pupils are welcome to visit the school at any time and can arrange to do so through the school office. Parents wishing to apply for a place need to bring with them a copy of their children's birth certificate/s and proof of address (e.g. rent book, official letter). Please contact the School Office for more information. Applications for a nursery place can be made when a child reaches the age of 2.
Generally, children start in the nursery a term after the child's third birthday. Transfer to the reception class in the main school cannot be guaranteed. Applications for Reception need to be made through Learning Trust. Consideration may be given in special circumstances e.g. medical needs, a request from Social Services, a Health Visitor request, etc., but places are not guaranteed in these instances. Children joining the school other than in Reception are carefully supported during the settling in period.
The Rushmore School Council consists of 24 members, 1 boy and 1 girl from each class from year 1 to year 6.
We follow the National Curriculum for Key stages 1 and 2. We are committed to delivering a curriculum which both supports attainment and progression in the vital skills of speaking and listening, reading, writing, and mathematics as well as developing a rich and creative holistic model which encompasses the Arts, science, computing, humanities, PE, citizenship, and wellbeing.
From the Foundation Stage through to the upper phase we recognize the importance of making links across the curriculum. Lessons are designed to ensure pupils acquire knowledge and skills and have opportunities to practice and apply their skills in a range of contexts. We encourage co-operative work, talk, discussion and above all, enjoyment as vehicles for learning in all subjects.
The overall goal within the Early Years Foundation Stage at Rushmore is to create a positive learning environment that enables all children to grow and develop in all areas of the curriculum. We endeavor to provide a stimulating learning experience by creating wonderful indoor and outdoor learning spaces. We aim to provide exemplary learning opportunities where all children engage in purposeful play and exploratory activities that provide a range of experiences and activities to develop the children’s independent thinking, creativity, communication, language, and social skills.
Parents are an integral part of our department and we have clear and open communications with all of our parents and carers within the local and broader community. Children within the Early Years develop through playing and exploring, being active, creative, and critical thinkers, which takes place both indoors and outdoors. These 7 areas of learning are used to plan your child’s learning and daily activities.
Assessment for learning has become ever more important as national curriculum levels have been removed and the responsibility relies ever more heavily on the class teacher and support staff to establish an attainment and progress judgment rather than relying on tests. It's also about making sure conditions for learning are at their peak, making teaching and learning more effective for both staff and pupils.
Clear learning intentions, success criteria, good questioning, and detailed and specific feedback are the best conditions for pupils to understand their targets and reach their full potential. Here at Rushmore, we want every child in every class to reach their full potential.
At Rushmore, we place great importance on the quality and value of teacher assessment. We do so because we believe that teachers are best placed to make judgments on the attainment and the progress of the pupils in their care as they work with them every day and get to know them well in all domains across the curriculum. We use ongoing profiling of all pupils in Nursery and Reception. These are contributed to by all key workers through ongoing observations which inform teachers about where children's attainment sits within the development matters brackets and what their next steps should be. At the end of the Reception year, teachers assess children against the 'Early Learning Goals. Each child's 'Early Years Foundation Stage Profile' is then shared with parents. We ask teachers to assess whether children in their classes are making progress in the key domains of reading, writing, and mathematics every half term based on the children's progress in lessons and as demonstrated in recorded pieces of work. We also undertake regular assessments of children's Phonic knowledge in years 1, 2, and (for some children) year 3. Rushmore has opted to undertake two summative assessments of children's progress and attainment in reading, writing, and mathematics the first will take place early in the Spring term and the second during the second part of the Summer term. We use NFER tests for these summative assessments. We use the information garnered in these tests alongside ongoing teacher assessment to judge children's overall progress and attainment and to inform future provision. We have a more regular summative assessment schedule of Year 6 pupils than for other year groups and use a variety of materials for this purpose, including previous SATS papers.
