Belmont Primary School

Our school's main aim is to provide high quality teaching and an effective, inclusive learning environment for all our pupils. Our staff team is committed to providing a secure and happy environment in which all pupils are able to thrive socially, emotionally and academically.

We have well maintained buildings and grounds and as a consequence our pupils can learn indoors and outside at all times of the year. We work hard to encourage pupils to take full part in the life of the school.This includes opportunities to develop musically, to use the latest technologies to support learning, to be actively involved in physical activity and join our extensive range of clubs and to share responsibility for looking after the environment. Our pupils are highly motivated, well behaved and a real pleasure to teach. We have specialist facilities here for pupils who are blind or visually impaired and a thriving resource provision for pupils with physical, medical and other learning needs.

As a successful school, we are committed to supporting and learning from others. Belmont is now working in close partnership with Woodside Special School providing strategic leadership across both communities.We are proud of this and are always looking for ways of strengthening the links between the schools.

Our vision is encapsulated in our motto All Together Better. At Belmont, our school community works together towards achieving our shared goal of individual and collective excellence. As such, we have a shared responsibility for success.

The purpose of our school is to provide an excellent educational experience for every child which enables them to understand the world and their place in it. This is underpinned by our four commitments to excellence:

• Altogether Connected: connecting each member of the school community to the wider world
• Altogether Inclusive: a deep understanding of inclusion which permeates the whole school community and all we do
• Altogether Resilient: building resilience so that we can overcome obstacles and challenges, take risks and act with courage
• Altogether Creative: each pupil can express themselves through a rich and varied curriculum and take plentiful opportunities to develop their own skills and talents

At Belmont we strive to provide our pupils with a broad, balanced highly challenging, exciting and creative curriculum. Our curriculum is designed to provide every learner with a rich learning experience that is carefully planned to meet the needs of individuals. English, maths, science and ICT all have a very high profile.

Our approach is based on enquiry learning; finding out the answer to a big question. The pupil voice is central to this approach as the children pose questions about what they want to explore in relation to the enquiry. These questions (our ‘wonderings’) determine the direction of the investigation and ensure that pupils are fully engaged in the learning journey.

A pupil’s learning journey each academic year includes a combination of whole school termly topics, projects and themed weeks. This themed approach motivates the children and creates enthusiasm for their learning. This approach also enables them to become increasingly independent.

At Belmont, our foundation subjects are taught through the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). The IPC is a thematic and creative curriculum that provides pupils with a clear process of learning to enable them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding across the foundation subjects. It promotes and embeds personal learning goals and allows pupils to develop their international mindedness.

Each themed unit is closely tailored to the National Curriculum and allows pupils to become inquisitive learners allowing pupils to form questions based on their IPC units to lead their own learning. Our Inspirational WOW Days are a key element to the IPC and act as a ‘hook’ into each unit, providing pupils have an engaging and rich starting point for forthcoming work as well as a memorable experience for all children.