Eliot Bank Primary School

On behalf of the children, staff and governors, welcome to the website of Eliot Bank: a happy and vibrant primary school on the border of Forest Hill and Sydenham in south-east London.

We are a dedicated team of professionals, committed to providing a safe, secure and supportive environment where our children thrive. Promoting qualities such as resilience, aspiration, imagination, confidence and collaboration is at the heart of our vision. Our broad and relevant curriculum provides many exciting opportunities both in and beyond the classroom.

Quality teaching, high standards of behaviour and strong partnerships with parents are key features of Eliot Bank as they help provide a platform for children to fulfil their potential. We are very proud of our long track record of achievements and of our children’s readiness for continuing their education beyond primary school at the end of Year 6.

Our vision is that every child will succeed. We are highly aspirational for all of our children and we do whatever it takes to enable them to overcome barriers to their learning. We are committed to fair and equal access to the curriculum for all children, regardless of their starting points and taking into account any additional needs they may have. We work together to give each individual child the best possible experience of school life.We are committed to developing lifelong learners who value and exhibit qualities such as:

• Resilience
• Aspiration
• Imagination
• Confidence
• Collaboration

We focus on providing a safe and nourishing environment where children feel accepted, included and able to take on new challenges. With this in place, we know that we can instil a love of learning in our children.In order achieve our vision we base our practice on the following strategies:

• An inspiring and engaging curriculum which reflects our pupil’s world
• Giving children ownership of their own learning and a role in planning a curriculum which reflects their interests and questions
• Assessment for learning
• A ‘brain-friendly’ approach based on what children need for optimal cognitive functioning
• A strong behaviour policy based on mutual respect

At Eliot Bank, we know that pupils who have a positive attitude towards their learning will make good progress and be successful.We want all our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults.

Central to this attitude and approach to learning, are the theories and proven evidence of Growth Mindset. This is a term coined by psychologist Carol Dweck and her research has identified the characteristics of learners with a fixed and a growth mindset.Learn, explore and grow together. This is what we embed in all of our pupils at Eliot Bank.

We know that in order to fulfil the potential of our pupils and encourage them to become confident and resilient learners we, as a team of parents and staff, need to be modelling the mindset of a learner who is not afraid of making mistakes but who thrives upon them, knowing that this is all part of the learning process. The way in which we encourage children to learn and explore is vital to their success, not only at school but at home as well.

At Eliot Bank, we consistently endeavour to challenge and develop the attitudes of all pupils and staff towards learning by considering what makes a successful learner. We regularly discuss, in class, what kind of learners we want to be and how we can positively approach challenges inside and outside the classroom.