Merton Park Primary School

At Merton Park the children develop essential skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT and are able to work independently and through participation with others. There is an emphasis on using the rich range of resources available to us in the local area and beyond, as we believe that this helps to develop lively and enquiring minds and teaches children important life skills.

The admissions policy of the school is determined by the Governing Body. The present policy is to follow the admissions policy recommended by the Local Authority, which is Merton. All places are allocated by the Schools Admissions Section of the Local Authority.Children are admitted to Reception in the September following their 4th birthday. There are 30 places in each year. Please refer to the Merton website or admissions book for admission criteria. Application packs are available from the school office in the September prior to admission (1 year before entry). Applications may be made on paper forms, to be returned to the school office. Alternatively, applications may be made online via the Merton website. Offers are sent out to parents in March prior to entry. Children are admitted to Nursery in the January or September following their third birthday. There is no entry in April unless places are available. There is a single application and offer process each year for Nursery places, irrespective of the term you wish your child to start.

On joining the school children quickly become an integral part of the community. As a small school there is a caring, family atmosphere where all children are taught the importance of consideration and respect for other people and their beliefs. Parents and carers have a vital role in the education of their children and we actively encourage close co-operation between home and school. We value and build on the experience and knowledge which pupils bring from their home lives and we hope that you will join with us in making your child’s time at Merton Park both happy and successful.

The governors of Merton Park Primary School play an important part in supporting and assisting the head teacher and her team with the management of the School. Many of our governors are parents, but others are nominated by the council or are supporters of the school from the local community. There is at least one member of staff on the governing body, in addition to the Headteacher.

Merton Park Primary recognises that it has a duty to ensure arrangements are in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and to carry out this duty through our teaching and learning, pastoral care and extended school activities. All members of the school community will work together to establish and maintain a safe and stimulating environment where children feel secure, are encouraged to talk to adults they can trust and are listened to.

Both officers have received appropriate training and are responsible for the completion of the required paperwork and ensuring that confidential records are stored securely. It is the responsibility of the designated members of staff to have discussions with Social Care, when concerns arise regarding the safety of a pupil in this school, and to make appropriate referrals using the CASA (Common & Shared Assessment). All such pupils are closely monitored and where extra concerns arise these are passed on to the appropriate agencies.

At Merton Park Primary books are at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim is forevery child to not only acquire the essential basic reading skills, but to become a life long reader with a real appreciation and love of books.

We teach synthetic phonics daily in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, using the Ruth Miskins Read, Write Inc programme, which is based on Letters and Sounds. Children are encouraged to use phonic techniques (decoding and sounding out) to read and spell ‘green’ words. Children are taught to read ‘red’ words (tricky words) by sight. We use real books which provide children with opportunities to work on their decoding and become confident readers. There are writing activities which link to the books and focus on building sentences and using phonics for spelling.

All children from Reception Class to Yr 6 are allocated to a House at Merton Park. There are four Houses (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow) and each has a Yr 6 House Captain, who is voted for by the Year 6 class at the start of the school year.

The House Captain helps to organise the weekly ‘Star of the Week’ Assembly, when a child from each class is selected as the class star. At this assembly they announce which House has won the House Point trophy for that week.

Our school internet is filtered - Google web searches & Youtube both default to safe-search mode in school and children are appropriately supervised during internet use. Children are taught how to search safely, effectively, respectfully & responsibly. This involves thinking about appropriate key words to use and only visiting recognised sites. They are taught what action to take if they do see something upsetting. At home this may be turning off the screen and telling an adult immediately. We also include age-appropriate lessons on copyright and plagiarism.