Tiverton Primary School

Welcome at Tiverton Primary School. Tiverton prides itself on providing a happy, safe, secure and supportive learning environment. At the centre of our ethos is the belief that our children should enjoy their school experience while achieving their full potential.

We want to prepare our children to be kind, confident learners, reflective individuals and responsible, open-minded citizens who are prepared to embrace the importance of mutual respect, tolerance and cohesion in our society.

We believe this is achieved through a close and trusting relationship between home and school, both working together to promote the vision, aims and ethos of the school.

Confidence in a school comes from knowing and understanding what is happening within it. We want to prepare our children to be kind, confident learners, reflective individuals and responsible, open-minded citizens who are prepared to embrace the importance of mutual respect, tolerance and cohesion in our society.

We will do this by:

• Developing a positive, celebratory, inclusive whole school ethos.
• Adapting the learning environment so pupils have equal access to the same learning opportunities.
• Having the highest expectations for learners for their progress and achievement.
• Encouraging risk taking, innovation and creativity through an enriching, balanced curriculum.
• Encouraging trusting and supportive teams and relationships.
• Instilling values such as compassion towards others, independence of thought, honesty and determination through the prism of British Value.

At Tiverton Primary we aim to provide a broad, active curriculum in a caring and stimulating learning environment which is well resourced and organised. The curriculum of the school is delivered through a combination of skills based work, subject based work and topic based work. Many activities draw on first hand experiences and we organise educational visits for children to make this possible.

At Tiverton we believe that RE should not attempt to alter a child’s own beliefs but, provide knowledge of their own and other’s beliefs. RE lessons help pupils to:

• Develop a positive attitude towards other people, and respect people’s rights to hold different beliefs from their own.
• Acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions and to look at non religious world views represented in Tiverton.
• Develop an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on our society.
• Enhance their spiritual, moral, cultural and social development by developing awareness of the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences. And of how diverse religious teachings and philosophies can relate to them.

Tiverton Primary school contributes towards community cohesion in many different ways. We introduce many opportunities for children to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relations, including links with different schools and communities.

By working in partnership we help the children grow, be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve at school and make a positive contribution to their community. We respect enormously the role parents and carers play as the most important people in their children’s lives.

Tiverton School considers the protection, safety and wellbeing of children in its care a key priority and responsibility and is committed to adhering to the child protection procedures and guidance stipulated by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and the LA. Tiverton undergo regular training to ensure that all pupils in our care are healthy and safe. In the event that we have any concerns with regard to the safeguarding of any pupil, we will take immediate action and this may involve seeking advice from external agencies.

PSHE supports the development of personal, social and life skills; the identification of and dealing with emotions and feelings, exploring health related issues, understanding about oneself, relationships with others and one’s place in the world.

We teach PSHE and citizenship in reception classes as well as in Nursery. We relate the Healthy School and citizenship aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals (ELGs).

For Nursery children we aim to develop their emotional, personal and social skills so that they become fully integrated citizens mainly through games and Circle time activities.
Healthy School is taught through SEAL (Social and emotional aspects of learning): as a whole school approach. SEAL includes curriculum material which includes work on self-awareness; managing feelings; motivation; empathy and social skills.

English is divided into Reading, Writing (including spelling and handwriting) and Speaking and Listening.
Our main reading scheme is the Oxford Reading Tree. We also encourage children to read non-fiction texts and poetry. We want all of our children to read for pleasure so children are encouraged to choose a free choice book once a week. We also have several reading stations positioned around our school and encourage children to ‘get caught reading” All children throughout the school are taught using a programme called Language and Literacy. The scheme engages teachers and children in the English curriculum through using high quality texts and creative teaching approaches.

From the Foundation stage until Year 3, children take part in daily synthetic phonics sessions. We follow the Ruth Miskin phonics scheme, also known as Read Write Inc.