Hanover Primary School

Set by the side of the Regents Canal with astonishing views across London from our rooftop playgrounds, it is hard not to be aspirational at Hanover. We really are at the heart of one of the most vibrant cities in the world, and we want our children to benefit from all that London has to offer. Our neighbours include some of the most creative and interesting organisations and businesses in the world – a constant reminder that we have a huge responsibility to prepare our children for an exciting and challenging future.

Our school community is very mixed and this makes us strong. We speak many languages and come from many different faiths and cultures. We bring a wide variety of experience and knowledge to school, and celebrate this both through the curriculum, and through regular community events. Children learn that diversity is good, that we must not only tolerate difference, but that there is huge benefit where we can learn from one another

We are a successful school. OFSTED recognised this in their most recent inspection, and our results also support this statement. Children are challenged to make rapid and sustained progress through expert teaching and a carefully tailored curriculum. We are not an exam-factory however, and recognise the need for a broad and exciting curriculum.

The arts, physical education, computing, science, the humanities and the development of character are just as important as maths or English results, and it is through a combination of all areas that children are enabled to leave our school ready for the challenges and opportunities that await them, and ultimately, for jobs that may not even exist yet. We want our children to become critical thinkers, to be resilient and resourceful, and to be able to work together to solve problems, and recognise that it is through the development of a relevant and interesting curriculum that these aims are most likely to be met.

Parents and carers are the prime educators of their children, and they are welcome at Hanover. We actively encourage that they come into the classrooms at the start and end of each day, and there are many opportunities for involvement at our school. Our openness and apparent informality is loved by many. We do not have a uniform, and children know adults by their first names. Do not be fooled however – we have extremely high expectations, and behaviour is very good! We believe that children learn best when they feel safe and understand the rules, and work hard to create a learning environment where everyone is happy, well-motivated, well behaved and healthy. We wish to instil a lifelong love of learning atlearning
our school.

We are all on a learning journey, and our expectation is that everyone should be improving all the time. This applies to the children at Hanover, but also to our highly skilled and experienced staff team. We are committed to being the best school that we can possibly be, and also to the success and happiness of all those who are a part of our community. With hard work and a belief that we all have a part to play, Hanover will go from strength to strength. How might you contribute?

At Hanover we uphold the following values as being central throughout our school and help our children to understand what it means to live in Britain today

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith

We do a great deal of work in order to help our children and community to understand how our society functions, to feel safe, find identity, and a sense of place both in our school and in the wider world. This work runs throughout the curriculum, but this page gives some specific examples of the way in which we help our children to uphold our Shared Values at Hanover.

• Through our PSHE curriculum, children learn about all aspects of our values, about what it means to be British, and about respect and tolerance for others. A summary of our PSHE syllabus can be found here.
• Through making our curriculum representative of a wide range of cultures and faiths. This means that the literature we use, the arts, humanities and all aspects of our curriculum help children to understand that there is strength in diversity and that we must all tolerate difference.
  Our Equalities Objectives ensure we are constantly improving in our drive to ensure equality for all, and set high standards for ourselves in doing so. You can see our Equalities Objectives here.
• Through our 6 Hanover Characteristics. These were written through democratic process by all children at Hanover in 2016-2017. They are: Teamwork, Resilience, Independence, Ambition, Creativity, Bravery.
  Through regular assemblies. These are led by teachers and focus on one of our 6 Hanover Characteristics. An example of these assemblies is attached here.
• Through working with representatives from a range of professional and cultural organisations. Children meet and learn about many aspects of democratic and cultural life at Hanover. Recent work has included children meeting community leaders, police officers, representatives from Islington Council, members of religious communities and people from a wide range of professions.
• Through regular whole-school events we celebrate the diversity and unity of our community. Our autumn International Evening brings our community through food and celebration for example, with families bringing dishes to share that represent their home cultures and life stories.
• By working with our PREVENT officer we ensure that staff understand how to ensure children are kept safe from extremist views and deal with concerns appropriately.
• We have a robust approach to dealing with discrimination and report all cases to parents according to our policy.
• We report trends and numbers of events to governors each term, and keep detailed records of incidents. We work with children and their families in order to learn from incidents of discrimination and prevent further incidents.
• Through regular trips and visits to key cultural and democratic institutions in London