Holy Ghost Catholic Primary School

At the heart of our ethos is the desire to stimulate each child as a learner, and fully engage them, developing their natural talents, and allowing them to discover their own great potential. Our dedicated staff forge warm relationships with children and parents, and we seek to provide a happy, supportive environment where our Catholic mission is lived each day.

Through creative teaching approaches, and a broad curriculum, we develop critical thinking across the range of subject areas, challenging children to excellence, whilst at the same time honing positive attitudes and behaviours. We enjoy high standards academically, but we place the greatest value on inculcating the Christian virtues initiated at home, and developed through a strong partnership.

Building on children’s innate capabilities, we ensure full participation in all aspects of learning, irrespective of capability, and this is nowhere more evident than in the school’s provision for sport. Children – when they enter key stage two, represent the school across a range of sports; and participate competitively at borough and national levels. In addition to the teaching of Religious Education, Literacy, Numeracy and Science, we pride ourselves on the use of drama; the school’s musical provision; the teaching of Spanish, and the exploration of “Forest Schools”, which is our newest initiative. The children here are encouraged to have a voice and to steer school improvement, especially those directly relating to playtimes. The re-design of the playground is a current project being led by the children.

At Holy Ghost School, working in partnership with parents to help fulfil their baptismal promises, we seek to affirm Christ through whom, and for whom all of us were made.

Therefore learning will be

• A joyful celebration of God’s creation.
• A lasting source of radiance and wonder.
• A steadfast quest for truth.

This Mission Statement is the foundation for THREE Core Purposes in everything we do

To achieve personal growth by

• Fostering the virtues to enable children to realise high aspirations, healthy self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Inculcating a steadfast quest for truth which develops an open mind to consider all possibilities and a growing capacity to evaluate wisely and choose the best options based on the highest values, and in keeping with the Unicef “rights respecting schools” agenda.
• Encouraging a thirst for learning and an appreciation that it is a life-long pursuit guided by the spirit and the presence of Christ, in the service of God and others.

To encourage inter-personal relationships which

• Value the variety of gifts, qualities and contributions made by each individual.
• Celebrate the achievements of each and of all.
• Foster mutual respect between all regardless of age, gender, race, capability or occupation.
• Appreciate the communities of which each is part: the family, the school, the parish, the local community and the wider national and international communities.
• Motivate each to play an active role in these communities

To develop and maintain a constant sense of

• Being created by God for some definite purpose.
• Wonder in discovery.
• Fulfilment and reward in learning and achievement.
• Deep satisfaction in achieving a harmonious balance between dynamic creativity and reflective thought.

Our Phonics teaching is based on ‘Letters and Sounds’; some aspects of ‘Jolly Sounds’ are incorporated. Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 participate in a phonics lesson on a daily basis. ‘Letters and Sounds’ is divided into 6 phases. Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting. Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions.

The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On completion of this phase, children will have learnt the "simple code", i.e. one grapheme for each phoneme in the English
language.

Children are regularly assessed in their phonics knowledge and work at the phase that is appropriate for them. Towards the end of Year 1, children are formally assessed through the statutory ‘Phonics Screening Test’. In Key Stage 2, spelling strategies are taught 2-3 times a week, alternating with grammar teaching. Phonics teaching continues into Key Stage2. Throughout the school children are given additional support as necessary to develop their phonic understanding and spelling skills. Spellings taught include homophones, letter patterns, suffixes, prefixes, silent syllables, tricky words, topic words and children’s own mis-spelt words.