Old Palace Primary School

Everything we do at Old Palace is intended to ensure that the children are happy at school, love learning and become the best that they can be. We appreciate that every child has unique talents, abilities and preferences in learning and we constantly strive to help each child develop the learning skills they will need to prosper in later life. In doing so, we appreciate the need for effective partnerships with parents to ensure that learning continues beyond the school gate and have in place a range of initiatives to support parents in helping their child.

In addition to helping our pupils achieve academically, we also wish to create healthy and active citizens, who care for and respect each other, who make wise behaviour choices and who challenge discrimination in all its forms. The school is committed to providing a broad and balanced curriculum, enriched through regular educational visits and successful links with our community and business partners. The importance of emotional and physical well being is taught through our fitness, sports and PHSE programmes and we have invested heavily in the use of new technology to make certain that our pupils have access to this, especially as it may not always be available to them at home. This together with the skills and dedication of our staff allows Old Palace to continue to provide its pupils with the best possible start to their education.

At Old Palace, our curriculum is designed to nurture healthy, reflective individuals, who possess the knowledge, skills, values and confidence to challenge themselves and to inspire others to be the best they can possibly be.

We provide an environment where pupils develop the essential skills for learning and feel secure to embrace challenge, by providing a range of first-hand experiences and carefully connected learning opportunities, which deepens their understanding and engages pupils of all abilities. Make it Real projects give a purpose to learning and often allow pupils to make a positive contribution beyond the classroom; simultaneously developing their talents, creativity, resilience and problem-solving skills. We develop the children’s ability to work collaboratively and to maintain relationships, seeking to help them understand the benefits of individuality, diversity and the importance of British values. Our focus on current affairs, supports global citizenship and helps pupils to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to process information and to stay safe in our digital age.

Phonics is taught using the Letters and Sounds programme. We do not follow a reading scheme as we wish to expose our pupils to a rich breadth of literature. We have carefully selected titles from a range of schemes such as Rigby Star, Tree Tops and Big Cat. These are supplemented with longer novels in Key Stage 2.