Ashmount Primary School

We follow a growth mindset approach to developing each child and offer an incredibly diverse and rich curriculum in which each child can excel. Our children are incredibly happy at school and hugely enjoy learning.

We take a holistic approach to the education of our children and during their time with us they make excellent academic progress. But the outcomes we achieve are much more far reaching than this; we also place great emphasis on developing the whole child through focusing on good manners, honesty, showing respect, cooperation and collaboration, taking responsibility for themselves and others, doing the right thing, being kind and generally being good people and good citizens. It’s wonderful to see them flourishing and thriving during their time at school.

We have a highly skilled and cohesive staff team who always put our children first and strive for excellence in everything they do. We have a positive, ‘growth mindset’ attitude and adopt a solution-focused approach to overcome obstacles and enable all children and adults to achieve their full potential. We encourage children to be confident, independent learners, who understand that achieving success requires effort, practice and perseverance and that making mistakes is an essential part of the learning process.

As a school we are forward thinking and always looking for ways to improve through training, learning from best practice, partnership working and constantly reflecting on what we do as we improve child outcomes.

Our focus is on meeting the individual needs of every child to ensure they develop the skills they need to reach their full potential and be ready for secondary school. We encourage parents / carers to be involved in their children’s learning as much as possible, and to work in partnership with us for the benefit of their children.

Our Mission Statement is encapsulated in Ashmount’s School Rules

• We are kind.
• We are responsible.
• We always try our best.

At Ashmount we believe that learning should be exciting and challenging. We try to make sure that each school day brings new experiences, challenges and opportunities for all our children. It is our intention to provide children with the best possible learning experiences to help them to become successful committed learners, confident independent individuals and responsible citizens.

Our curriculum inspires and engages our pupils through a project based approach. Wherever possible, children will learn in a contextual way. Each half term, children begin a new topic through which they will learn English, maths, science, geography, history, RE, PE and PSHE. We mix a rich cross-curricular approach to make learning fun, with discrete teaching of specialist subjects such as computing, foreign languages, music and physical education. At Ashmount music is taught by specialist teachers in our music and drama studio.

We have themed learning weeks throughout the year, including Arts Week, STEM Week and Sports and Healthy Living Week. Our school building, on the edge of the tree-lined Parkland Walk, provides children with a unique and enriching learning environment.

We teach Phonics following the Letters and Sounds programme. Letters and Sounds is a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.

Woven throughout the curriculum, and the broader experiences the children have, is the promotion of fundamental British values. There is an emphasis on promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of the child as well as the broader Ashmount community. Understanding where and how a child can not only fit in but also contribute to making the world a better place is essential for us here. Opportunities for children to learn and appreciate British values, along with develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, are planned for carefully. We have an active school council and every child at the school is a member.

At Ashmount pupils in our Nursery and Reception Classes follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This curriculum is play based, and involves children self-selecting activities.