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Our aim at Harris Primary Academy Merton is to make sure that our pupils leave us thoroughly prepared for secondary school and feeling that they have succeeded both academically and in the extracurricular aspects of Academy life. We opened in 2014 as a local school for children aged three to eleven. We have a Nursery for 60 children and are a 2 form entry school for children in Pre School through to Year 6. We also have an additional resource base for 20 children who are diagnosed with Autism. We believe that children thrive when they are consistently happy and safe at school and that through expert teaching and support all pupils can achieve a high standard. As a part of the Harris Federation, we share best teaching practices with other Harris Academies and continue to build on the Harris Federation’s proven track record in the borough: with two successful and oversubscribed Harris Secondary Academies, Harris Academy Merton and Harris Academy Morden. We want all of our children to have a truly enjoyable experience at school. Our pupils’ achievements are celebrated every day in their lessons and we are proud that they are kind, caring, self-assured, and eager to learn. If you are looking for a place in Harris Primary Academy Merton because you have recently moved into the area or your child is at another primary school and you feel that a change of school would benefit their education and/or general well-being you are entitled to apply for a place. Since September 2013, the law allows you to apply directly to Harris Primary Academy Merton.Parent(s) wishing to appeal against the Academy’s decision on admissions, for any year group, should complete an Appeal Form stating the reason for the appeal, based on the published Admissions Criteria. If you wish to appeal you must contact Admissions at the Academy who will send you an appeals form to complete. Harris Primary Academy Merton is fortunate to provide a pre-school setting for children to learn in. Our pre-school staff is a welcoming and dedicated team that is committed to the welfare and education of young children. Our highly qualified and experienced staff offer the children learning through play-based experiences, under the areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This contributes to the development of the ‘whole child’ as we aim to enable all our children to have fun and foster a love for learning. This curriculum includes the seven areas of learning: PSED (Personal, Social and Emotional Development), PD (Physical Development), CL (Communication and Language), Literacy (Reading and Writing), Mathematics (number and space, shape and measure), EAD (Expressive Arts and Design) and UW (Understanding of the World). We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunities for all and we will endeavor to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity within the pre-school setting. The nursery at Harris Primary Academy Merton is an Early Years provision with warm and welcoming staff. Our staff is a dedicated team of individuals who work together professionally to promote a wide and varied Early Years Provision. Our highly qualified and experienced staff offer the children learning through play-based experiences, under the areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This contributes to the development of the ‘whole child’ as we aim to enable all our children to have fun and foster a love for learning. Our approach to learning embodies a positive attitude to life and learning as they prepare to start their journey through school life. We aspire to encourage our children to feel equipped to play an active role in life as they grow and flourish in our care. Harris Primary Academy Merton believes that diversity is a strength, which should be respected and celebrated by all those who learn and visit us. We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunities for all and we will endeavor to develop a culture of inclusion and diversity in which people feel free to participate fully in Nursery life, regardless of their race or gender. The Academy is a member of the Harris Federation. Ultimate responsibility for the Academy rests with the Board of Trustees of the Federation, but much of the work of the Board is delegated to the Local Governing Body (the Governors of the Academy). Some Governors are appointed by the Federation whilst others are elected by parents or guardians of students at the Academy or by staff. The Academy is committed to the vital contribution all Governors and staff can make to safeguarding children. We will strive to make sure that every student in the Academy feels secure, well cared for, and able to reach their full potential. We will ensure all our staff, other professionals, parents/carers, and students work together to know the rules about keeping children safe. They will understand the importance of following procedures and listening to each other, especially when there are safety concerns. The Academy will work hard to reduce all the kinds of harm that children can suffer, including abuse, bullying, discrimination, and avoidable injuries. View full school

At Harris Academy Merton we promote the ethos ‘’Achievement is Success’’ and believe every student has the right to the highest standard of education so that they can accomplish their aspirations. We aim to give every student an educational experience that is enjoyable and holistic so that they develop into responsible, articulate, and successful young people. We combine the traditional values of strong discipline, good manners, respect, and pride in appearance with contemporary best practices in teaching and technology. With these core values embedded, we develop our students into confident and capable individuals that have a desire to excel academically and personally now and in the future. It is vital that whatever individual students’ starting point is, they are given the opportunities and experiences necessary to achieve their personal best. At Harris Academy Merton we are very fortunate to have highly skilled and dedicated staff who are committed to this purpose. The Academy philosophy, vision, and expectation on safeguarding are very clear. Every person connected with the Academy has a personal responsibility for the highest standards of safeguarding of our students. It doesn’t matter how you are connected to the Academy, as part of our community we all have a responsibility for safeguarding our students. Selecting the right secondary school for your child is an act of trust. I hope that, once you come to know us, you will find that Harris Academy Merton is a school you can choose with confidence. Please do come along and attend our Open Evening so that you can find out more. I look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to Harris Academy Merton. We embrace students of all abilities and from all backgrounds, and our teachers take the time to understand the needs of each student – whether they are already doing very well, needing support, or somewhere in the middle. Each of our students acquires a broad range of knowledge and skills that will equip them for the demands of the global digital age. Students are grouped into ability sets in each subject, and they move between these sets depending on how much progress they are making. This enables us to personalize our teaching and to support each student closely concerning their learning needs. We teach the subjects that students need to bring lifelong success and that enable them to follow their passions. All students receive a well-rounded education, with a strong foundation in English and Maths. Across the curriculum, we encourage debate, participation, and a spirit of inquiry. For those who need it, we offer catch-up classes and one-to-one support, and we ensure that our gifted and talented students enjoy being stretched and challenged in all their lessons. During Year 9, we guide our students in selecting the subjects that will bring them success at GCSE, as well as allowing them to follow their passions into further education. Our specialisms are in Sport and Enterprise, skilling students up in teamwork, confidence, resilience, and creativity, to bring wider, lifelong success. Students are grouped into ability sets in each subject, and they move between these sets depending on how much progress they are making. This enables us to personalize our teaching and to support each student closely concerning their learning needs. We teach the subjects that students need to bring lifelong success and that enable them to follow their passions. All students receive a well-rounded education, with a strong foundation in English and Maths. Across the curriculum, we encourage debate, participation, and a spirit of inquiry. For those who need it, we offer catch-up classes and one-to-one support, and we ensure that our gifted and talented students enjoy being stretched and challenged in all their lessons. During Year 9, we guide our students in selecting the subjects that will bring them success at GCSE, as well as allowing them to follow their passions into further education. Our specialisms are in Sport and Enterprise, skilling students up in teamwork, confidence, resilience, and creativity, to bring wider, lifelong success. Harris Academy Merton provides an inspiring, personalized learning experience in a stimulating environment, enabling all students to make outstanding progress. The Academy’s promotion of ambition and excellent behavior helps all students develop the attributes that bring lifelong success in today’s global society. The Academy takes the welfare and safety of students very seriously, working hard to reduce all the kinds of harm that children can suffer, including abuse, bullying, discrimination, and avoidable injuries. We strive to make sure that every student in the Academy feels secure, well cared for, and able to reach their full potential. The Academy understands and is committed to the vital contribution that all Governors, staff, parents, and students can make to safeguarding children. Our curriculum is designed to create awareness in students of safeguarding issues and how to deal with them. Training of all staff in identifying, reporting procedures, and dealing with such issues is regular and thorough. We will continue to ensure that all our staff, other professionals, parents/carers, and students work together to know the rules about keeping children safe. They will understand the importance of following procedures and listening to each other, especially when there are safety concerns. To help all our Sixth Form students to reach their full potential, we work with neighboring Harris Academies as part of the Harris Federation Sixth Form to provide a very wide range of A level and BTEC Level 3 courses. Class sizes are small, resources are excellent, pastoral support is exceptional and teaching is outstanding. Our Sixth Formers are role models for our younger students, demonstrating the heights that can be reached through the outstanding education they have received at the Academy. The vast majority go on to university, with an increasing number being offered places at the most prestigious institutions. Our leavers have the best possible futures, whatever their next steps. View full school

At Merton Park, the children develop essential skills in literacy, numeracy, and ICT and can work independently and through participation with others. There is an emphasis on using the rich range of resources available to us in the local area and beyond, as we believe that this helps to develop lively and enquiring minds and teaches children important life skills. The admissions policy of the school is determined by the Governing Body. The present policy is to follow the admissions policy recommended by the Local Authority, which is Merton. All places are allocated by the Schools Admissions Section of the Local Authority. Children are admitted to Reception in the September following their 4th birthday. There are 30 places each year. Please refer to the Merton website or admissions book for admission criteria. Application packs are available from the school office in the September before admission (1 year before entry). Applications may be made on paper forms, to be returned to the school office. Alternatively, applications may be made online via the Merton website. Offers are sent out to parents in March before entry. Children are admitted to Nursery in January or September following their third birthday. There is no entry in April unless places are available. There is a single application and offer process each year for Nursery places, irrespective of the term you wish your child to start. On joining the school children quickly become an integral part of the community. As a small school, there is a caring, family atmosphere where all children are taught the importance of consideration and respect for other people and their beliefs. Parents and carers have a vital role in the education of their children and we actively encourage close co-operation between home and school. We value and build on the experience and knowledge which pupils bring from their home lives and we hope that you will join us in making your child’s time at Merton Park both happy and successful. The governors of Merton Park Primary School play an important part in supporting and assisting the headteacher and her team with the management of the School. Many of our governors are parents, but others are nominated by the council or are supporters of the school from the local community. There is at least one member of staff on the governing body, in addition to the Headteacher. Merton Park Primary recognizes that it must ensure arrangements are in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and to carry out this duty through our teaching and learning, pastoral care, and extended school activities. All members of the school community will work together to establish and maintain a safe and stimulating environment where children feel secure, are encouraged to talk to adults they can trust, and are listened to. Both officers have received appropriate training and are responsible for the completion of the required paperwork and ensuring that confidential records are stored securely. It is the responsibility of the designated members of staff to have discussions with Social Care, when concerns arise regarding the safety of a pupil in this school, and to make appropriate referrals using the CASA (Common & Shared Assessment). All such pupils are closely monitored and where extra concerns arise these are passed on to the appropriate agencies. At Merton Park Primary books are at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim is for every child to not only acquire the essential basic reading skills but to become a lifelong reader with a real appreciation and love of books. We teach synthetic phonics daily in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, using the Ruth Miskins Read, Write Inc program, which is based on Letters and Sounds. Children are encouraged to use phonic techniques (decoding and sounding out) to read and spell ‘green’ words. Children are taught to read ‘red’ words (tricky words) by sight. We use real books which provide children with opportunities to work on their decoding and become confident readers. There are writing activities that link to the books and focus on building sentences and using phonics for spelling. All children from Reception Class to Yr 6 are allocated to a House at Merton Park. There are four Houses (Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow) and each has a Yr 6 House Captain, who is voted for by the Year 6 class at the start of the school year. Our school internet is filtered - Google web searches & Youtube both defaults to the safe-search mode in school and children are appropriately supervised during internet use. Children are taught how to search safely, effectively, respectfully & responsibly. This involves thinking about appropriate keywords to use and only visiting recognized sites. They are taught what action to take if they do see something upsetting. At home, this may be turning off the screen and telling an adult immediately. We also include age-appropriate lessons on copyright and plagiarism. View full school

We are a successful local school and we simply want the best for the children we teach. We want children to love learning: when they are with us and after they have moved on. We want them to enjoy learning in and out of the classroom - so we provide a curriculum that interests, excites, and engages children. Standards are crucially important. We want children to make the best possible progress – to achieve the highest standards in learning – so that they see themselves as successful learners. We want them to be fully equipped for later stages of education and the rest of their adult life. High-quality relationships and good behavior are at the center of everything we do. Children and adults in our school have relationships built on trust and respect. Children are taught to get along very well together. This is why the school has a ‘great community atmosphere that visitors speak so highly of. Our school is expanding. This is an exciting time for us as we look to the future. We are delighted to serve a community that is growing. We look forward to increasing our teaching team and the facilities we offer over the next three years - but we are determined to keep hold of our close relationships between children, staff, and parents. The school motto is Working hard and caring for each other. We place great emphasis on teaching children the value of sustained effort and encourage them to approach their learning with resilience and persistence. As well as academic learning, we teach children the importance of social learning: getting along well with others and taking care of one another. This helps us to create a community where everyone feels safe and happy. Merton Abbey offers to all children a high standard of academic and social education, enabling and challenging all pupils to reach their full potential. We provide a safe, secure, stimulating environment in which we encourage all children to value themselves and others to make the right choices and develop into responsible and caring members of society. At Merton Abbey Primary School one of our key aims are to prepare the children for life in modern Britain. We want our children to leave us as confident, respectful individuals who can participate fully in our society. We ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed, and experienced through the ethos and work of the school. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for furthering understanding of these concepts and, in particular, our RE and PSHE lessons provide excellent opportunities to deepen and develop children’s understanding. We have classes from nursery to Y6. Teachers in these classes work together to plan the curriculum so that there is continuity and progression across the age ranges. Work is planned in Topics, lasting half a term, which include activities and learning in all curriculum areas the highest proportion of your child’s time will be spent on English and Mathematics. In each class, children are divided into groups, according to their learning needs and styles for some work and activities, and at other times the class teacher will gather them together as a whole class. We use discussion and paired work to enable the children to clarify issues and talk about their learning. All classes also have a teaching assistant so that there is a good adult/child ratio. Classrooms are organized so that children have all the apparatus and materials they need readily to hand in and learn to make choices independently of the teacher. At times a group of children will work under the direction of the teacher and at other times they will be given a task to complete with only the minimum of help. From time to time, educational visits are planned in connection with classwork. You may be asked to make a voluntary contribution towards the cost of these visits. Please speak to the Headteacher if this causes any difficulty. Teachers may also ask for parents to volunteer to help supervise the children on outings, and this can be a good way to get a better understanding of what your child is learning. Merton Abbey has a governing body, as do all other state schools in Merton. Our purpose is to help the school achieve the best for all our children. We do this by working with the headteacher and staff to make sure that teaching is excellent, good resources are available to help children learn, and money is well spent. We also read and act upon the many documents sent to school, so that we are confident that Merton Abbey operates legally and gets the support and grants, to which it is entitled. Another of our roles is to appoint the headteacher and assist in other senior appointments. The full governing body meets once a term and we also have regular committees which focus particularly on school standards, staffing, and the budget. Governors are volunteers and are appointed to represent all parts of the school community: parents, teaching and support staff, Merton, and community interests. We are expected to attend meetings regularly and are welcomed in to visit the school during working hours so that we have opportunities to talk to staff and children. This helps us to understand how Merton Abbey works and what we can do to make it even better. View full school