Dalmain Primary School

Dalmain Primary School is a popular, thriving school in South East London with an ethos of hard work, respect and fairness.We serve a culturally rich and diverse multi-ethnic community and we celebrate this diversity in our curriculum and our school activities. We have a strong focus on educational attainment, music, sport and the arts.

Every member of the school community recognises and values their role in actively providing pupils with an education of quality. Our aim is to keep the child at the centre of learning, developing their skills for adult life and nurturing each towards achieving their full potential.Our aim is to add something positive to the life of every child that attends Dalmain School, whether they are here one day or eight years.

Everything we do at Dalmain School is concerned with the development of the whole person. We aim to balance the provision of the building blocks of learning – language and reasoning, mathematics and science – with the application of skills and interests that add enjoyment, stimulation and inspiration to the school day such as music, art, physical education and information technology. All feature prominently on the curriculum, and the school’s many successes in these areas speak for themselves.

For children embarking on their school career there is nothing more important than learning how to learn. This is an important and useful skill from which they will benefit throughout their lives. All pupils have access to the school library and state-of-the-art computer facilities, enabling them to carry out individual research and study.

We believe

• That every child matters and has value and talent, and that it is our job to discover and develop these qualities.
• That we should seek to achieve and maintain the highest possible standards in our professional lives.
• That our aim should be to stimulate and guide our children so that their future will hold a passion for life and learning.
• That we can best educate our children (some of whom have profoundly challenging home circumstances) while enhancing their life opportunities by:
• Offering them excellent teaching;
• Instilling in them a love of learning;
• Being excellent role models at all times, exemplifying politeness, respect, consideration and kindness;
• Encouraging their aspirations;
• Insisting that they behave responsibly and respectfully to others;
• Implanting in their minds the understanding that, with appropriate effort, we can all improve the quality of our lives; that we can all achieve success in some way;
• Engendering in them a real sense of the virtues of hope, love, gratitude, duty and grace;
• Convincing them that lasting and meaningful human relationships have greater value than transient material gains;
• Demonstrating our enthusiasm for and commitment to our work at all times;
• Ensuring that we always appear open and easily approachable to our pupils.
• In wanting the very best for pupils and staff at all times.
• That teachers and support staff should demonstrate their own creative thinking to pupils.
• That teachers should have good subject knowledge.
• That teaching staff should be good team players who perceive both success and failure as ways of learning.
• In creating an efficient school and a healthier learning environment by consuming less energy, water and materials and producing less waste.
• In providing opportunities where pupils can learn about sustainability both in the classroom and from their first hand experience of how their school is run.
• In encouraging care through all aspects of school life: care for oneself, care for each other, care for the environment.
• That when we observe how happy our children are to be in our school this is largely if not entirely because of the excellent work we do.

Our vision is that Dalmain

• Continues to be a place of opportunity and benefit for pupils and adults
• Continues to be an institution that thrives for excellence in education
• Continues to have a caring ethos where everyone is well mannered, respectful, dependable and consistent in his/her commitment
• Continues to be a community which enjoys its growth and willingly accepts change, in which everyone shows initiative in their own professional development while at the same time supporting colleagues in theirs
• Offers children a work ethic which will enable them to become lifelong learners
• Is a school where every classroom door is metaphorically open
• Is a school where there is be a balance between child directed and adult directed learning
• Is a completely ICT literate school
• Is a school that employs staff who continue to be self-evaluative, self aware and self confident
• Instils in every child an awareness of their place in the school community, the local community and the global community
• Is a school at which every child understands that actions have consequences and is not afraid to tell the truth
• Is a school which works constantly to promote and safeguard the welfare of children
• Enriches children’s spiritual well-being through music, drama, dancing and singing.