Thomas Arnold Primary School

At Thomas Arnold we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and we expect all staff and visitors to share this commitment.

We are committed to ensuring that consistent effective safeguarding procedures are in place to support families, children and staff at school. We have robust policies in place for ensuring the wellbeing of our children. These policies underpin our practice and every single member of staff in our school shares the values contained within.Any concerns about children are passed through the members of staff who are trained as “Designated Child Protection Officers” in the school in compliance with the “sharing of information” guidance.

Thomas Arnold is a happy, ambitious, inspirational and inclusive place place where children and adults enjoy learning together. We have a clear vision for the school that is based on a broad understanding of what success looks like for our children.To ensure this success we have developed an exacting curriculum that is skills-based and knowledge-rich; we offer an enriched learning experience that excites the children’s appetite for learning; and we have defined five core character virtues that we particularly value and we pursue through explicit character education.

Furthermore, we take an inclusive approach that maintains a focus on the wellbeing and progress of every child; we provide a safe place for learning through the application of our positive behaviour system; and we achieve better results by establishing a partnership between parents and teachers.All the adults who work at the school are committed to this clear vision and are driven by our shared understanding of what success for our children looks like and how we achieve that success together.

At the start of Reception children are assessed using the accredited baseline assessment, Early Excellence.This forms part of the teachers’ everyday practice where they build their knowledge of each child through observations, interactions and every day activities. They use this professional knowledge to make a series of judgements about each child based on a clear set of assessment criteria.

Children continue to be assessed throughout the reception year where staff add information to an assessment profile for each individual. Insights from these profiles are shared at parent consultation meetings and the completed profile is bound and available to be taken home at the end of the year. In addition, each child has a learning journey scrapbook containing photos and pieces of work which are available during the year for parents to look at and are taken home at the end of the year.

All children in Year 1 participate in a phonics check. This assessment is administered by their class teacher. Results are included within the Year 1 end of term report. Children in Year 2 and Year 6 are assessed during May. Individual pupil results from these assessments are reported annually to parents in their children’s reports. Each pupil receives an overall result indicating whether or not he or she has achieved the required standard on the test.

Teachers record children’s attainment using electronic Markbooks. These Markbooks list small steps in the children’s learning known as learning objectives.When marking, teachers look for evidence that learning objectives have been met, recording each time a child achieves, or partially achieves a measure of attainment. The Mark Books inform teachers’ planning of further learning.

We aim to create a positive attitude toward home learning and help set good habits for secondary school. We are concerned that the activities set are of interest to the children and matched to their ability. We ask that parents support their child with any home learning given.Home learning routines begin in Reception with the expectation that children read each night and are, in turn, read to. In addition, there are simple tasks to complete at home from learning key words to topic related research.

All at Thomas Arnold work consciously and conscientiously to make it a place where children acquire the character virtues that lead to success in school and university, in work and life beyond. Essential to this is our understanding of what constitutes Character Education.Character Education can be defined as the active development of character strengths or virtues in young people. The practice of character education is based on the view that these strengths are not merely given but can be developed through instruction and practice.

We aim to provide regular feedback to children through marking so that they have specific advice about improvements to their work. Children are given time to read and review their work following marking. They are encouraged to respond to marking to show they have understood advice given and to add a comment if possible.

Every child’s progress is closely monitored at Thomas Arnold in order that we can provide the best possible opportunities and highest levels of support. When children start nursery, staff informally monitor their development and keep detailed records. This information is shared with families during the year and is transferred to the reception class at the year-end.

Our School’s Local Offer explains what we offer children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) throughout their time with us, including how we support them on to the next stage of their education. You may also want to read our SEN policy, a document that gives more detail about our statutory duties and day to day procedures – for example how we plan the most effective support for children with SEN and how we review their progress.

This sets out a wide range of information about the specialist services, schools, colleges and organisations that can provide support and information for families of children and young people with SEND. It explains the procedures for requesting an assessment for an Education Healthcare Plan (EHP).