Our aims are expressed in three words – Opportunity, Excellence, and Success. We aim to provide rich learning experiences that allow every child to master basic skills, discover and develop talents, deepen interests and succeed in ways they did not imagine possible. For early reading, we follow a synthetic phonics scheme called ‘Read, Write Inc.’ This is taught within a text-rich environment where children are encouraged to read for pleasure. Children in Reception and Year 1 have a daily phonics lesson (of varying lengths), completing all the phases before continuing with English lessons further up the school. Early mathematics is taught through the use of ‘Mathematics Mastery’. Mathematics Mastery is an innovative maths teaching framework that focuses on using mathematics principles to problem-solve. We use objects, pictures, and words to help pupils explore maths and understand the role it plays in their lives.
The first entry point for starting school in Nursery. We have two thriving nursery classes (morning and afternoon) with 52 children in each. Children are eligible for Nursery the term after their third birthday, and we have intakes in September, January and April. Note that the majority of places are allocated in September and January, with places in April allocated on a 'one out, one in' basis only. Children eligible for the April intake (born between January and the end of March) who are not offered a place will automatically be put through to the September round.
Most children for whom Wimbledon Park Nursery is their first choice can secure a place. Merton accepts online applications for Nursery places between September and mid-January each year for places in the following academic year. Do contact us with any queries and for information about Parent Tours, run throughout the Autumn term. Please note, a place in the Nursery does not give priority to a Reception place.
Children start in Reception in September after they turn 4 years old, with the application deadline in the January of the same year (full details below). We hold prospective parent tours on many Wednesday mornings during the Autumn term – please get in touch to make an appointment. Demand for places into Reception has far exceeded our capacity for many years. To provide extra places to meet that demand we increased the admission number from 60 to 90 children (three Reception classes) in 2011. Despite adding the extra class, unfortunately, we are still unable to offer places to all families for whom Wimbledon Park is their closest school of choice. For the past two years, the furthest distance (in a straight line from the school gate) for places outside of the admission priority area has been slightly over 200m. In the case of an unsuccessful application, the applicant has the right to appeal.
All children are taught to play the recorder in Year 3. We also offer tuition in a variety of instruments including the drums, piano, keyboard, violin, flute, trumpet, French horn, guitar, and clarinet. There are annual music concerts where all the children can take part including our Christmas singing concert, Summer Serenade, year group performances, and our Year 6 summer production.
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.”
Children are placed in mixed ability classes according to their age. Within each class, there may be further groupings according to the needs of the children and the work being undertaken. We also set children in Years 5 and 6 for Maths lessons to match teaching to attainment more closely. Additionally, all the children are divided between four houses (Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow) with brothers and sisters joining the same house. The house system is used to maintain strong pastoral care across different year groups as the school grows. Each term there are house days and events (charity fundraising, sports, music, picnic, etc.) where the children work and interact as a house team.
The Governors of Wimbledon Park Primary School work in partnership with the Local Authority (LA) and the school community to provide the best possible education for our children. Parents, former parents, community volunteers, staff, and local business people are represented on the governing body, which has 12 members. The governing body meets formally four times every year, but governors regularly visit the school. The Governing Body has three Committees, each with terms of reference to carry out statutory functions that meet three times a year.
We have a commitment and responsibility to safeguard children and staff and this includes their online activity.
Internet access at school, provided through the London Grid for Learning, is strictly filtered and monitored to ensure that children are as safe as possible when using computers at school. From our Online Safety assemblies, we know that almost all children have a home computer/device with internet access and children enjoy using computers and the internet at home regularly, so we see online safety as a shared responsibility between home and school.
High-quality teaching, positive learning, and accurate assessment are at the heart of our school ethos, and our inspiring, enthusiastic and dedicated staff are committing to providing this for every child. We have a program of weekly professional development for all teachers and teaching assistants. This is delivered by our lead teachers, supplemented by occasional sessions drawing on wider educational expertise. We have the highest expectations for every child, not just to achieve strong academic results, but also to become highly successful learners.
All office staff, teaching assistants, and lunchtime supervisors have received First Aid training. Additionally, some teaching staff has had emergency first aid training. If a child is ill or has an accident at school, we will contact you if we feel it is necessary. We will always contact you if there is an emergency concerning your child. For this reason, you must keep us up to date with daytime telephone contact numbers.
For legal reasons, staff members are unable to administer medicines. If prescribed medication needs to be taken during the school day, you can either come into school to administer the medicines yourself or sign a form in the school office giving explicit permission for staff to administer these with details of the medicines required. Please note that staff cannot administer any prescribed medication. Separate arrangements apply in the case of long-term medical treatment (i.e. asthma, allergies, etc). We do have children at the school whose allergies are potentially life-threatening, and we, therefore, adhere to a Nut Free policy in school to minimize any threat to them.
