Date Valley School Trust

At Date Valley School Trust we aim to develop and educate the ‘Whole Child‘, creating a caring and conducive academic environment and utilising a range of opportunities to encourage a joy of learning, to promote independence and to teach the value of teamwork and respect. We strive for our children to fulfil their potential through high standards of teaching, learning and leadership. Teaching Islam as a way of life, we aim to work with our parents to nurture the Islamic identities of all our children, preparing them to become confident Muslims, valuable to the wider community.

Date Valley School Trust is for parents who would like their children to learn in an Islamic environment. The development of the child’s rounded Islamic personality should be of paramount importance for all responsible Muslim parents. Islam is a way of life and we do not believe that a child’s education and religious education can be separated. A child has to learn that he or she is always a Muslim regardless of where the child is.At Date Valley School Trust, we hope to create a centre of learning with an ethos where young Muslims can receive a broad and balanced education. We teach according to the National Curriculum, adapting the curriculum where appropriate to be Islamic and to meet the needs of Muslim children.

At Date Valley School Trust, we hope to create a centre of learning with an ethos where young Muslims can receive a broad and balanced education. We teach according to the National Curriculum, adapting the curriculum where appropriate to be Islamic and to meet the needs of Muslim children.

We hope that all our children will be given the opportunity to develop a secure sense of self-identity, thus promoting confidence and helping them to advance in higher education, as they develop into responsible members of the culturally diverse society in which they live.

The school consists of a Early Years unit where we take children from the term they turn 3 (rising 3) to 5 yrs, and a Primary unit (5 yrs to 11 yrs), both based in Mitcham. Young children develop the very basics of their character by observing and absorbing from their environment, and this is why the environment they are in from a very young age is so important. At Date Valley School Trust, we try to create a calm and caring atmosphere for our children in which they will be constantly stimulated and challenged. Date Valley School is a small independent primary and nursery school (promoting an Islamic Ethos), with approximately 180 children on roll. We are keen to appoint an excellent teacher to join our vibrant staff team.

Covering the National Curriculum alongside Arabic, Quran and Islamic Studies, we strive for our children to fulfil their potential through high standards of teaching, learning and leadership. We aim to work with our parents to nurture the Islamic identities of all our children, preparing them to become confident Muslims, valuable to the wider community. We have been looking at ways in which we can improve on our Arabic curriculum and provide the greatest benefit to our children. It is beneficial and rewarding for our children to learn Arabic as a way of improving their understanding of the Deen, Insha Allah.

A successful partnership between parents and the school is the most powerful tool for successful learning. The more a parent knows about what their child is doing whilst at school and the more willing they are to participate in their child’s learning process the more productive their child’s time at school is likely to be.

Children are assessed in all curriculum subjects according to National curriculum criteria. Stages are recorded on an online monitoring system that is updated every 6 weeks. Stages awarded signify the stage of knowledge, understanding and skills that the student possesses. For the majority of subjects, children are assessed on teacher assessment. Teacher assessments are formally moderated termly to check for accuracy.

Formal written assessments take place in both literacy and numeracy. These take place once in each term and the results are used, together with the teacher’s on-going assessments, to inform planning and individual action when required. Target setting and progress checking meetings take place with subject teachers once a term. These meetings are initially used to set targets for all children. Subsequent meetings are to check that children are making the expected progress and if not to discuss why not. Parents will be asked to come in for a meeting if their child is not making the expected progress. Help is given to those who need it, if this is deemed necessary.

At Date Valley School the children spend a minimum of 5 hours per week Quran lessons in years 1 and 2 and 5 hours per week on Arabic and Quran from years 3 upwards. At times the subjects are taught by the same teacher and other times two teachers. The objectives are intertwined and the teachers work closely together to make sure that the objectives of the curriculum are fulfilled. In year 1 and 2 we do not teach Arabic as we firstly want our children to become proficient Quran readers. Our focus is to teach the children to read and once they have the ability to read well they will be introduced to the Arabic language. Children also spend part of their time during Quran lessons memorising set Surahs.