Virginia Primary School

We are a one form entry primary school for ages 3 -11, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Virginia is a happy and inclusive school that provides an excellent education for all its children. We strongly believe in inspiring all to be the very best they can be and we have high aspirations for our school community. Our values of inclusion, development, empowerment and achievement drive our vision so that we are continually improving outcomes for all.

We want Virginia Primary School to be a community of happy, confident, motivated lifelong learners. We want our children to be successful citizens who value themselves and each other. Therefore, we are continually striving to ensure that we nurture, challenge and enable each and every one to be the very best they can be in all areas of school life.

Your child may need special support at some point in their school life. This may be for physical, learning or behavioural difficulties. Our inclusion leader, Lizzie Driver works with other staff to address problems and support children about whom we have concerns. There are a wide variety of ways in which the school can support these children and at times we may seek advice from other agencies.

At Virginia Primary School we believe in equality for all. We are committed to ensuring all our school community are equipped with the knowledge, understanding and skills to challenge discrimination, injustice and associated perceptions. This means that members of the school community consistently reflect and promote positive attitudes and behaviours. We aim to empower all to make informed and responsible choices about their own actions. We aim to engender a personal and collective sense of responsibility and accountability to ensure that there is true equality of opportunity for all.

We recognise that some of our children are working at levels well above what would be expected for their age or talented in another area of learning such as the arts or sport. Through our broad curriculum, we provide a wide range of opportunities that helps us identify these children. We then develop appropriate programmes or pathways for these children so that they can develop their learning further.

Teachers identify children through regular formative assessment in their classes and this is fed back to the senior leadership team through termly pupil progress meetings. We ensure that children who are academically most able are challenged appropriately in class through differentiated planning.

We also have a strong partnership with Green Spring Academy Secondary School and they support targeted children through providing additional science, maths and reading lessons in year 5 and 6. Our music teachers from THAMES (Tower Hamlets Music Education Service) identify talented violinists/singers to join Saturday music clubs or to have 1:1 tuition at school. Our sports coaches from the Tower Hamlets Youth Sport Foundation also identify talented players in a range of sports through their ‘Sporting Diamonds’ programme. We ensure that children talented in the arts are signposted to after school clubs as appropriate.

There is evidence that teaching subject knowledge and skills as part of a wider topic based curriculum allows pupils to make useful links between areas of learning, and consolidate skills. Children are also likely to be more engaged in their learning if it has a context and theme that runs through it. We believe that children learn better when they can make connections between what they are learning.