Mauldeth Road Primary School

Mauldeth Road Primary School is an inclusive school with a strong, caring, pastoral structure which underpins an inspiring curriculum. We seek to develop the potential of every child in all subjects. Staff care for the children and are skilled in planning to meet their individual needs, both personally and academically. We believe that building good relationships is the key to success and the children and staff of Mauldeth Road Primary School are encouraged to work together to ensure everyone feels cared for, valued and happy – supported by parents and the governing board. Older children are encouraged to take on responsibility around school and be good examples for our younger children.

Our curriculum is based on developing a high standard of English and maths skills which can be transferred across to other subjects. High academic achievement and creative development are valued at all stages, with the classroom focus continuing to be on challenge, engagement, inspiration, fun and memorable learning. Learning is celebrated in all its forms and children are encouraged to take risks and be independent, resilient and confident, both inside and outside the classroom. We have a committed staff team, who support and encourage learning, including those children who may need a little extra help.

Our aim is that all children leave Mauldeth Road Primary school believing in themselves, having the skills to support others and striving to reach their full potential as calm, courteous, kind and co-operative lifelong learners.

At Mauldeth Road Primary School we actively promote a strong set of values. We are required to have a set of the British values that we promote here on our website. However,the children felt that 'shared values' might be a better name.

We aim to create a calm, stimulating and enjoyable learning environment in which children may:

• Achieve to their full potential.
• Understand others and respect their beliefs.
• Care for themselves, their environment and their community.

The school is situated in a pleasant, leafy suburb some four miles from the centre of Manchester, close to the Owen's Park area. There are regular bus and train services running to the University and to the city centre, the school has an attractive site with generous grounds.

This is a popular school which enjoys the confidence of parents and carers in the very diverse local community it serves. The school's community has a rich ethnic mix which is represented by the pupils. A proportion of these pupils arrive at school with no English or speaking English as a second language.

We regularly hold themed Super Learning Days, where we suspend the normal timetable and work on thinking skills to promote childrens' awareness of how best they can learn. We also hold termly Art days, and an annual Learning to Learn Week and Book Week. We also teach children Circus Skills, through sessions delivered, to all age groups, at the end of each term.

Visits include visits from a variety of people including Theatre Companies, authors, The Fire Service, Railway Police and Greater Manchester Police Force.During our Aspirations Week, a range of speakers come and talk to children in Years 5 and 6 about their experiences of life, work and education. We have had university students, lawyers, medics, sound engineers, cartoonists, TV producers, Olympians, company directors and scientists. We have had visits from former pupils in a range of jobs, including a dentist, a film director and a professional musician.

The theme of citizenship also recurs throughout our teaching and runs alongside our enrichment work. This work aims to provide the children with experiences that will give them an understanding and awareness of the way society works and the contribution they can expect to make. Each year children are elected to join our School Council, where they can debate issues raised by others, directly or through class suggestion boxes.

It is vital that all children are kept safe from harm and the staff are vigilant in trying to play their part in this. It is a fundamental duty that anyone working with children follows up on any concerns that arise around a child. Sometimes, in order to satisfy ourselves that a child is safe from harm, we need to make a referral to Childrens' Services. It is their job to properly investigate concerns and to provide support where necessary. It is ours to flag up concerns. Sometimes these will prove to be founded and sometimes they will be not. We hope that you will understand that any referral made is only done so in the best interests of your child. If you wish to share a concern about a child, then please make an appointment to see Mrs Cain (the school's designated teacher for safeguarding) in confidence.

We like to think that we instil good, positive values into our children at Mauldeth Road Primary School. In accordance with Government requirements, we list below the 'British Values' that we promote. However, when we discussed our values with the children, we decided that a better name would be 'Shared Values'. Why? When we really started to talk about our values, we found that there is nothing exclusively 'British' about them. They are just those values that we would all wish our children to share! We ran a poster competition, this year, and will be inserting a link here to some of the winning entries very soon.

All governors make a declaration of any pecuniary or relationship interests that they have in the school at the start of each meeting. None have been declared.The full Governing Body of all members meets 6 times a year, once each half term. Three of the meetings are purely “business meetings” and the other three are “discussion” or training meetings, when more time is given to such topics as the new curriculum, safeguarding, academisation etc.