Morden Primary School

We believe Morden is a highly successful school. This is down to our happy, friendly children; dedicated and hardworking staff; supportive parents and governors and our exciting and engaging learning environment. Working together in partnerships with parents, we strive towards our school motto – Learn, Achieve, Enjoy. Our main school aim is to ensure that all children reach their personal best.

The early years of your child's life are a very important and precious time. In these first steps into education, they will learn, grow and develop into young members of society. At Morden we aim to give your child the very best start in education with a team that sees the children at the core of everything we do within the school. At Morden we encourage individual personalities to develop, gifts are nurtured and children are given the tools to reach their personal best. Whether your child is starting at our nursery or transferring from another school, we encourage you to look through our website and phone to arrange an appointment to see learning opportunities we can offer your child.

Education is most successful when there is a strong and positive partnership between home and school. We strive to build upon the skills and knowledge which you are providing for your child by offering valuable, fun learning experiences. We have high aspirations for the children at Morden Primary and our vision is that we ensure we are preparing children to be successful in the ever-changing world and community they will grow up in. None of us know what the world will look like in 2076, but we know it will be very different to today.In the years since they were born, many of our children have seen the invention of the iPad and widespread use of smartphones, literally putting knowledge into the hands of millions. The development curve of knowledge and technology and the impact on our lives means that we need to prepare for a future in which change might be rapid. To provide our children with a firm foundation for a lifetime of learning, we must equip our children with the ability to learn and re-learn new skills and knowledge. The development of the whole child – character education– is central to the Morden Primary community.

We have created Medium Term Plans which show the learning that takes place in each year group. Every year group has plans showing the curriculum content taught in each term , and through which topic.

Each year group has a topic focus which can vary in length from a couple of weeks to a whole term. Each topic is led by a particular subject, such as History, Geography or Science and then as many other subjects are linked to this as possible. This approach helps the children to see links between subjects and also how subjects fit into their world. There are times when subjects have to be taught discretely because we do not make tenuous links. RE, for example, is identified separately on our Medium Term Plans.Maths is also taught separately but children are made aware that we often use mathematical knowledge in other areas of the curriculum. We have adopted the Singapore Maths method of teaching from Early Years, up to Year 3. This approach is also used as a resource in the other KS2 classes.

The school’s safeguarding polices can be found in the Policies section of our website and on request at the school office. At Morden Primary School we consider the safeguarding of children to be our most important priority. Children need to feel safe, cared for and valued in order to learn and thrive. To ensure the above guidelines are followed we take action to enable all children to have the best outcomes through our safeguarding measures regardless of their age, culture, physical needs, gender, language, racial origin, religious beliefs and sexual identity. In order to do this we have clear procedures in place to ensure that disclosures or allegations are taken seriously, recorded correctly and investigated. Who is Responsible for Safeguarding?

Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding children. Staff are made aware that any safeguarding issues need to be reported through the correct routes to the designated Safeguarding Leader. When staff are recruited we follow the procedures set out in our ‘School Recruitment and Selection Policy’. Also on-going safeguarding measures are in place for staff currently employed i.e. through training and DBS re-checks. In addition to this all staff receive annual safeguarding training and updates to ensure they could recognise signs and symptoms of abuse and report using our agreed procedures.

The school receives a Pupil Premium grant in addition to our main school funding. The purpose of the grant is to help schools address current inequalities and to raise the attainment of children from disadvantaged families. The amount we receive is based on the number of pupils who are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM); pupils who are in care and have been looked after continuously for more than 6 months; children of active armed forces personnel.

If your child does not have Free School Meals, but may be eligible because of your family's income level, please contact the office (in confidence) to register them. Even if you do not wish them to have the meals, this would mean the school could still claim Pupil Premium funding that may be used to help your child.