Smallwood Primary School is a happy, vibrant, and friendly inner-city school. We are an inclusive school where all children are treated equally. We celebrate their right to be different and to reach their potential in different ways. Our school is dedicated to raising standards in teaching and learning and to this end we are committed to:
- Providing a safe, caring, welcoming, and well-resourced environment where all children are given opportunities to maximize their potential and to become independent learners.
- Providing an excellent and dedicated staff and an enriched and broad curriculum so that all children can perform to the highest level developing a desire to learn and to become lifelong learners.
- Creating an inclusive school where the unique diversity of pupils is both recognized and valued.
- Ensuring our children are equipped with the skills to become motivated and responsible citizens able to use the tools of a modern and challenging technological society.
- Celebrating all achievements, developing pupil confidence, self-belief, and sense of worth.
- Creating a strong sense of community where its members respect each other, work together in partnership, and encourage co-operation and a sense of purpose.
At Smallwood, we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in our care. We expect all staff, volunteers, visitors, Governors, parents, carers, and children to share this commitment. All visitors must sign in at the main school office.
- All staff must read the safeguarding procedures leaflet provided by the office staff. This leaflet provides information about different types of safeguarding concerns and what you should do if you have any of these concerns.
- All visitors will be issued with an appropriate pass which must be displayed clearly at all times whilst on site.
- Visitors wishing to speak to a particular member of staff should telephone the school office to make an appointment.
- All visitors must sign out at the main school office and return their visitor pass, before leaving the site
At Smallwood, we offer an exciting broad, and balanced curriculum where learning is at the heart of what we do. We promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, and physical development of all our children and prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities, experiences, and basic skills needed for further education and successful and satisfying life. The delivery and development of the curriculum are based on the following key principles of children’s learning:
- All children will have ample opportunities to develop as independent learners
- The curriculum will encourage active learning and participation
- The curriculum will provide a broad and balanced variety of learning contexts
- The curriculum will reflect the diversity of the school community in terms of race, gender, and range of abilities
- Positive encouragement and support will be given to all children to ensure equal access to the curriculum
- Positive role models will be provided to demonstrate, develop and extend skills and strategies
- All children will experience appropriate practical learning activities
- In Early Years and KS1, we follow the Letters and Sounds Phonics program.
- Reading Schemes: we predominantly use the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme, supplemented by other reading schemes, to provide a rich and progressive range of texts to support children’s reading development.
