Hillbrook School

Hillbrook Primary School is a large, happy, safe and successful place of learning in the heart of Tooting. We want to build a long and rewarding relationship with you and believe this will happen best when we work in genuine partnership with you and the wider community. Our aim is to give your child every opportunity to achieve the highest possible standards in everything they do. We are committed to offering an exciting and creative curriculum with a wealth of different experiences and opportunities to learn and flourish.

We encourage a 'can-do' attitude to everything with clear aims and a shared vision for future improvement. We aim for the children at Hillbrook Primary School to become confident, lifelong learners and believe that we can do this successfully if we work together and have a positive partnership between home and school.

We place a strong emphasis on the individual child and encourage our children to make the most of each opportunity, in order to gain the best from their education. We work with the children to help them prepare for the ever-changing world in which we live, and to develop their skills in order to sustain life-long learning as well as strong self-belief.

At Hillbrook our ethos is based on our 3Rs

• Be Responsible – both collectively and individually
• Be Resilient
• Be Reflective

We encourage our children to accept responsibility for their own actions and the impact they have on others within the school and the wider community. We believe it is important to help children understand the role they play in their own learning and how they can help themselves to progress. We understand that it will not always be easy for our children to succeed and we help them to understand that by picking themselves up and trying again, they will reach their goals. We believe these values to be fundamental skills that will not only help our children succeed at school, but in all areas of life.

The Department for Education expects all schools to promote British Values.

These are stated as

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

At Hillbrook we promote these values in a wide range of ways.
Democracy:Every year, we elect school councillors to represent each class in our school council. We learn about democracy through a fair voting system which we use in lots of different class decisions. We have had visits from MPs who taught us about Parliament and how laws are made in our country. This year, the school council is organising a campaign to get our bins back! We have been out and about on Hillbrook Road to speak to our neighbours and are in contact with Wandsworth council to make a positive impact in our community.

The Rule of Law:The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced at Hillbrook. Pupils are taught from an early age the rules of the school. These are our Three Rs, Playground Rules and Safety Rules. Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind rules and laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. Visits from external authorities such as the Police and Fire Service help to reinforce this message.

Individual Liberty:At Hillbrook, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we educate and provide boundaries for young pupils to make informed choices, through a safe environment and an empowering education. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advised how to exercise these safely, for example through E-Safety.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs:We are lucky to be in such a diverse community in Hillbrook. Respect is one of our very important 3R rules and we show this to adults, other children and to ourselves. In class, we celebrate our differences and learn from each other’s experiences by exploring different faiths and backgrounds.

We also actively promote diversity through our celebrations of different faiths and cultures. Religious Education lessons reinforce messages of tolerance and respect for others. Members of different faiths and religions are encouraged to share their knowledge to enhance learning within classes and the school. The children visit places of worship that are important to different faiths.

Learning and achievement drives everything we do at Hillbrook Primary School. Our role, in partnership with parents and carers, is to build the foundations for a successful education, to enable each child to discover the joy of learning, to help them to fulfil every aspect of their potential and to encourage their growth into effective citizens, ready to play their part in the world and their community.
We want all our children to experience success and enjoy their learning when at school. We aim to achieve this through high standards of teaching within a happy, structured and caring environment. While following the National Curriculum, we ensure our children enjoy their learning by encouraging creativity and links across curriculum areas wherever possible. Through a rich and engaging curriculum, we motivate our learners to accumulate skills for life: children are encouraged to learn through enquiry and curiosity, drawing on real-life experiences to develop their skills as well as their knowledge.

Although the pages on our website will give you an insight of learning at Hillbrook Primary, we believe the best way to get a real taste of learning is by joining the learning journey your children are taking. If you would like to find out more about the way different subjects are approached and taught, please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher or come and visit us. We also run a number of parent workshops on a range of topics throughout the year, which you are welcome to join.