At William Morris Primary School we strongly believe in the concept of lifelong, child-initiated learning, where both adults and children learn new things every day. We maintain that learning should be a rewarding, enjoyable, and successful experience for everyone. Through learning and teaching opportunities we equip the children with the skills, knowledge, and understanding necessary to be able to make informed choices about the important things in their lives. We believe that appropriate learning and teaching experiences help children to lead happy and rewarding lives.
Much time has been spent reflecting on what skills and experiences our children need to equip them for life in the 21st century and what constitutes an appropriately challenging and exciting curriculum. As a result, we have adopted a themed creative curriculum.
Our creative curriculum is a carefully planned, thematic approach to teaching and learning designed to support children’s enquiring minds and stimulate and nurture their creativity. It offers the children the opportunities to work in more depth, giving them the time they need to reflect, consolidate and transfer knowledge, skills, and understanding across the learning experience as a whole. Our collaborative cross-curricular planning is closely referenced to the National Curriculum and programs of study to ensure coverage, progression in knowledge, understanding, and skills for all age ranges. There are clear links to specific subject areas in both planning and teaching, with a strong emphasis on the development of children’s Literacy, mathematical and inquiry skills. We encourage children to take responsibility for their learning, to be involved in reviewing the way they learn, and to reflect on how they learn best. There is greater flexibility of timetabling to allow for more sustained periods of focused learning targeted on the planned desired outcomes. Subject leaders closely monitor the progression of subject knowledge, understanding, and skills whilst also supporting the professional development and expertise of all teaching staff.
At William Morris Primary School we recognize that as individuals we learn best in different ways. In our schools, we provide a rich and varied learning environment that allows all children to develop their skills and abilities to reach their full potential. Our school's ethos permeates all aspects of learning and teaching. The purpose of our creative curriculum is to ensure that the children at Singlegate and William Morris Primary School are provided with outstanding learning and teaching experiences that lead to consistently high levels of pupil achievement. Learning should be challenging, rewarding, and enjoyable.
Learning involves child-initiated projects that captivate the interests and is directed by all children. Teaching should be relevant, creative, and enthusiastic. At William Morris Primary School we provide children with experiences that are fun and memorable, drawing upon their interests that ensure high levels of engagement and involvement. The emphasis is placed on helping all children fulfill their potential, not just academically but in all aspects of learning.
We understand that as individual we learn in many different ways, and respond best to different types of input (visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic) we, therefore, deliver teaching in different ways to address the needs of all of our learners and so retain their concentration, motivation, and application. We take into account the different forms of intelligence (for example, mathematical/logical, visual/spatial, interpersonal, and musical) when planning our delivery of the curriculum. We ensure the best possible environment for learning by developing a positive atmosphere where children feel safe and they belong, where they enjoy being challenged, but where they enjoy learning and know that they will succeed.
The Junior Travel Ambassador (JTA) scheme is a national initiative that encourages peer-to-peer engagement and is used to promote safer, active, and independent travel within the school community. It's a fun and engaging way to spread important messages and build skills for life. The JTA scheme aims to take a more direct approach to promote independent travel, particularly for the children in Years 5 and 6 who may now be traveling to and from school independently. This includes running projects, leading assemblies, organizing workshops and competitions to share ideas on travel planning, and learning how to use Transport for London’s Journey Planner. There are several themes that the children explore each half term such as learning about the green cross code, 'belt up' - traveling in cars, cycling safety, and much more.
Governors hold an important public office and their identity should be known to their school and wider communities. Governing Bodies, therefore, publish on their website information about their members. As governors, it is our responsibility to support the school staff team to deliver an outstanding education for growing numbers of children. We scrutinize standards and outcomes for the children, act as a sounding board, oversee budgets and work with the Senior Leadership Team on strategic planning. Our role is to ensure that all our children - our sporty children, our gifted children, our children who require extra help, our children who get the pupil premium, our musical children, our creative children, and all the other unique children at our schools get the very best education, and have the very best experience they can have at school. I am incredibly proud of the children in our schools, the staff who work so hard for them, and the governors who support them.
