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Welcome to Gillespie Primary School. We want our children’s primary school experience to be an unforgettable and inspirational journey with us. We believe the journey for adults should be equally motivating, hence our school’s motto ‘Growing Together. Our children come from a range of backgrounds and cultures and thrive in our unique school environment. The whole school and our partners work together to develop an innovative and creative learning culture for our children. We want Gillespie School to be a magical place for our children firing their imagination and stimulating their growth and development. Our school values and ethos: At Gillespie School, we believe that everyone in our community can grow to be a highly motivated life-long learner. We provide a safe and vibrant environment where children and adults thrive on challenging and creative learning experiences. We will equip everyone with the skills to achieve their full potential in a climate of mutual respect and personal responsibility. We instill values that prepare children to play an active part in a modern, democratic, and tolerant Britain. “Growing together” at Gillespie means that we: Treat everyone fairly and with respect Believe everyone is special and has something to contribute Work hard to achieve success and demonstrate excellence Support each other to succeed and have fun Celebrate our achievements Recognize we are all life-long learners Provide a broad, rich, and relevant curriculum Ensure the school is a safe and secure place to work and learn Promote a healthy lifestyle Foster partnership with the wider community Gillespie’s Foundation Stage setting is a vibrant, creative, and active learning space engaging all pupils. Gillespie follows the National Curriculum for KS1 & KS2 and the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum for Nursery and Reception. We ensure that children develop well spiritually, morally, socially, and culturally through our curriculum and by participating in the rich life of the school. We believe that early childhood is the foundation on which children build the rest of their lives and at Gillespie Primary School we greatly value the importance that the EYFS plays in laying secure foundations for future learning and development. At Gillespie, we recognize that children learn and develop in different ways and at different rates. We value all areas of learning and development equally and understand that they are interconnected. We develop a creative approach to teaching subjects in the curriculum to ensure that cross-curricular links are made, facilitating deep and meaningful learning for pupils. We provide vibrant additional specialist learning opportunities in Science, Music, and PE. Through our spiritual, moral, social, and cultural (SMSC) learning and by sharing our ethos and values, children are supported on their journey to become safe, caring, democratic, responsible, and tolerant adults. We want our children to make a positive contribution to British society and to the wider world in which they live. At Gillespie, over the last five years, we have developed, implemented, and worked hard to embed a coherent and consistent vision for teaching and learning. Active learning has maximum impact within a school culture that promotes a ‘growth mindset’, where intelligence is viewed as something that can be increased through hard work and effort. A ‘growth mindset’ encourages a ‘can do’ approach to learning where ability is not seen as fixed. Instead, children are motivated to have a go, take risks, and are not afraid to make mistakes but rather they are willing to embrace new challenges. Children are supported in being resilient, persistent, and confident learners. At Gillespie, we engage children as active partners in their learning through a range of learning and assessment strategies that foster deeper learning and enable children to make rapid and excellent progress. This is achieved by involving children dynamically at all stages in the learning process. At the beginning of each term, the children are involved in discussing and planning aspects of the term's work. This gives them ownership motivating and engaging them right from the start. In class, children are given regular opportunities to review their ‘Learning journey’. This valuable time gets children reflecting upon and discussing aspects of classwork. In 2017 the Year 6 pupils achieved significantly above the national average in reaching the expected standard for reading, writing, spelling, punctuation & grammar, maths and science continuing a trend achieved by pupils at the school for many years. A much higher proportion also achieved the higher greater depth standard. View full school