Grove Park Primary School

Grove Park Primary School is an exciting place to be and you can't fail to be captivated by its warmth, vibrancy and dynamic energy when you walk through the doors. Community is at the heart of our school and supported by a strong staff, highly active governors and fantastic parents, we all strive to make the children's learning experience one of great joy and value.

Our core values underpin the school ethos which is linked to our symbol of the TREE; Trust, Respect, Empathy and Enthusiasm which are characteristics we foster in our children and which staff promote throughout the school. A personal growth model of teaching drives our vision, whereby we educate our children intellectually, socially and morally, providing them with the skills, knowledge and wisdom to be the best they can be. All children have unique talents and unfolding these, through a range of rich curricula experiences in an exciting environment which fosters creativity, high expectation and ambition is central to our aims.Our contextualised approach to learning is reflected in the extensive offer of educational visits, projects and visitors to the school.

We place a strong emphasis on our highly creative and rigorous curriculum where children achieve incredibly highly and usually well-above age related expectations! Developing children's narrative voice through regular creative writing sessions linked to multi-layered picture books, allows pupils to grapple with interesting themes and foster self-expression which produces writing of outstanding quality. Story permeates the school and children become expert readers through exposure to high quality literature throughout the school. Our creative and exciting mathematics and science curriculum allows children to explore the world around them and link their study to everyday life. A specialist Music, PE and MFL teacher allows children to explore the richness of the world of music, learn about other cultures and language and be active and healthy.

Our vision is deeply centred upon the individual child at Grove Park and we strive to provide an exciting and stimulating curriculum punctuated by high standards and creativity. Rich curricula activities form part of our core curriculum whereby pupils contextualise their learning through educational visits, residential visits and many school visitors. To place learning in context enriches and enthuses children to understand why and what they are learning.

Developing children’s interests and talents and equipping them with strong literate and mathematical skills is a core aim. We use high quality picture fiction and novels from a range of high quality authors to foster a strong individual narrative sense, whereby children engage with the world of literature and imagination and grapple with issues and themes in the world. Producing stunning writing, regularly in the top 5% of writing nationally, children can write at length using a rich range of vocabulary and ideas and creative imagination. Providing children with a stimulating and balanced curriculum is key and through integrating history and geography topics into English and Mathematics sessions, children can learn and discover the world. Music and the performing arts is richly encouraged in the school and a school choir along with amazing drama performances are an important part of our offer. The international dimension to the curriculum equips children with cultural understanding and knowledge and children learn Spanish through music from N to Year 2 and French in the juniors. Children are provided with the skills to appreciate and respect a diversity of cultures and to celebrate this through art, music and languages. Healthy living and PE is enhanced by our wonderful PE teacher and through Healthy School’s Week, sports days and PE lessons we provide children with the core understanding of ‘mens sana in corpore sano’. Opportunities to develop computing skills to equip them for modern life enhances the curriculum and we aim for our children to become proficient users of technology.

Our community and familial ethos is a key aspect of our school; first and foremost we are a community and we welcome parents to be full and active members of the school. Through our parents’ forum, weekly assemblies, open mornings and meetings in the playground each day we aim to be inclusive and cohesive. Our happy and caring staff are passionate about the children and we aim to develop children’s talents and skills and importantly to become the best people they can. Assemblies and our core values offer a conduit to developing children to become kind, empathetic and active members of society enabling them to play a positive role in the future. We work hard to support charities and each class has their own charity to which we dedicate a themed week which involves learning about and making items to sell to raise money for the good cause. Our very own Grove Park Ambassadors support and run charity events throughout the school. Our children’s voice is important to us and we have an active School Council who are a joy to work with and regularly impact decisions regarding playgrounds, school meals and our School Development Plan.